Background: This study explored science teachers' participation in a professional development partnership with informal science institutions (ISIs) designed for urban middle school science teachers, known as the "Urban Advantage Science Initiative." The teacher training involved a whole school focused approach, providing teaching…

Science textbooks play an important role in making scientific knowledge and applications available to learners. In most countries, science curriculum expects to cultivate scientifically literate individuals who are able to use science process skills. Critical analysis of textbooks is therefore crucial to determine whether they can facilitate this…

Purpose: Scientific inquiry is a leading methodology that promotes science process skills to acquire scientific knowledge. There is evidence that primary school teachers have difficulties introducing inquiry-based activities in their classrooms. Hence, adequate teacher instruction in inquiry methodology is important to apply inquiry-based…

We investigated pre-service elementary teachers' engagement in science and English language arts (ELA) instruction integrated in the context of a children's book. Teachers developed models and conducted a compare-and-contrast analysis after exposure to different accounts of the butterfly life cycle: a popular children's book, "The Very Hungry…

Background: The Next Generation Science Standards (2013) put a special emphasis on engineering for K-12 science education. However, a significant number of elementary teachers still feel unprepared to integrate engineering into their science programs. It is, therefore, incumbent upon science educators to update their elementary science methods…

This study examined the effects of a teacher-led learning-strategy intervention program on fourth-grade students' reported use and perceived effectiveness of rehearsal and comprehension-oriented learning strategies. During 18 program units, teachers taught about learning and various learning strategies, including visualisation, elaboration and…

Previous research suggests that everyday expressions are commonly used in students' descriptions of nutrient uptake. This study investigate a classroom context in year 5 with a focus on signs of scientific meaning-making about nutrient uptake with an animation as a resource in two different schools. In one of the schools there was also a teacher…

We are interested in how whiteness shaped one teacher's abilities to engage his elementary school students in culturally responsive pedagogy, especially his abilities to engage or avoid conversations about race-based inequities in an integrated technology unit focused on NGSS disciplinary practices. We draw upon culturally responsive pedagogy,…

This study aims for students to comprehend the beneficial functions of bacteria with the traditional home yogurt leavening activity. Also, it aims to identify alternative concepts related to leavening and contribute to students' home yogurt consumption habits. The study is a case study. The study was conducted with 29 fifth-grade students studying…

A previous study mentioned that students' action responses towards water pollution are incongruent with the training they received in schools. Conducting a course of two weeks with elementary students (N = 22) aged 9-10 in Hong Kong, the study aims to connect primary students' perceptions of the causes, consequences and responsive actions on water…

In recent decades a body of research has emerged supporting the effectiveness of a plethora of science teaching practices in improving learners' science achievement and scientific literacy. However, if the benefits of evidence-based science practice are to be realised consistently and at scale we need to improve our understanding of how teachers…

The research aimed to 1) build and assess suitability of the learning management plan of the predictive-observation-explanatory (POE) technology based learning approach to promote scientific explanation making about the change of the substance for primary school students, 2) to distill the lesson learnt of the predictive-observation-explanatory…

This study aimed to develop a specialized rule-based AI chatbot tailored for a sixth-grade optics unit and to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the chatbot on students' cognitive and affective outcomes related to science within the classroom setting. Specifically, this study explored how factors such as gender and achievement levels…

Artificial photosynthesis is a promising approach to generate commodity chemicals using abundant chemical feedstocks and renewable energy sources. Despite its importance, affordable and effective hands-on classroom activities that demonstrate artificial photosynthesis and teach key concepts, especially for primary school students, are lacking.…

Semantic knowledge accumulates through explicit means and productive processes (e.g., analogy). These means work in concert when information explicitly acquired in separate episodes is integrated, and the integrated representation is used to self-derive new knowledge. We tested whether (a) self-derivation through memory integration extends beyond…