The prevailing portrayal of science and scientists within the public domain is a multifaceted mix of conventional stereotypes. Our study investigates these perceptions among Mexican children, analyzing 816 drawings and descriptions collected from fourth to seventh graders in rural and urban schools in Northwestern Mexico. Drawings were analyzed…

To obtain a general understanding of science, model use as part of National Education Standards is important for instruction. Model use can be characterized by three aspects: (1) the characteristics of the model, (2) the integration of the model into instruction, and (3) the use of models to foster scientific reasoning. However, there were no…

A study is presented of the skills that primary pre-service teachers (PPTs) have in completing the planning of a scientific inquiry on the basis of a guiding script. The sample comprised 66 PPTs who constituted a group-class of the subject "Science Teaching," taught in the second year of an undergraduate degree in primary education at a…

This study conducts a textbook analysis in the frame of the following working hypothesis: The transformation of scientific knowledge into school knowledge is expected to reproduce the problems encountered with the scientific knowledge itself or generate additional problems, which may both induce misconceptions in textbook users. Specifically, we…

This longitudinal study (N = 540, grades 7 and 8) was conducted over 2 years (four measurement points) with a perceptual construct questionnaire and access to students' report cards. The changes in interest, self-concept, and the intention to pursue studies and a career in science and technology were explored as well as the reciprocal causal links…

Poor comprehension of specialised terminology presents a significant obstacle that impedes students' ability to learn science. The present study examined the influences of scientific terminology comprehension on students' cognitive processes during science-text reading. We used eye-tracking tests to examine science-text reading behaviours among…

Rainfall is a key process in the water cycle, the most structured scientific knowledge about water movement on Earth. Nevertheless, despite being a common topic covered in school science, it entails several cognitive difficulties for young children. This study uses a pictorial task and semi-opened questions to examine primary (11/12 years old) and…

Research and design activities are important focus points in international policies for secondary Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. It is up to school teachers to implement and supervise these activities in the STEM classroom. However, not much is known about the attitudes teachers hold towards supervising research…

This article provides rich insights into the process of data generation for discourse analysis from three separate studies of the video recordings of a single science classroom in action. The central claim is that multimodal transcription can contribute to developments in discourse theory. A three-stage reflective heuristic is developed and used…

Science teaching and learning are discursive practices, yet analysis of these practices has frequently been grounded in theorizations that place language at the forefront of interaction and meaning-making. Such language-centric analytic approaches risk overlooking key embodied, enacted aspects of students' engagement in science practices. This…

This study is an attempt to examine the use of linguistic resources by primary science students so as to understand the conceptual and language demands encountered by them when constructing written explanations. The students' written explanations and the instructional language (whole-class discussion and textbook) employed over the topic, the life…

Modeling is a core scientific practice. This study probed the meta-modeling knowledge (MMK) of high school students who study science but had not had any explicit prior exposure to modeling as part of their formal schooling. Our goals were to (A) evaluate the degree to which MMK is dependent on content knowledge and (B) assess whether the upper…

Studies have investigated various aspects of the use of questions in science lessons, but there is still a lack of research that demonstrates how, during peer reflection, teachers learn through identifying and overcoming obstacles to their own questioning in their professional development process. The present study is aimed at analyzing the types…

Science curricula and teaching methods vary greatly, depending in part on which facets of science are emphasized, e.g., core disciplinary ideas or science practices and process skills, and perspectives differ considerably on desirable pedagogies. Given the multi-faceted nature of science and the variety of teaching methods found in practice, it is…

This study examined the extent to which the instructional practices of science teachers in Barbados are congruent with best practices for teaching for scientific literacy. Additionally, through observation of practice, it sought to determine the teachers' demonstrated role in the classroom, their demonstration of learning through discourse,…