My dissertation is a pre-mid-post-test, quantitative research design, including surveys and written assessments, to answer these research questions: 1. How do students' science mindset vary over time when engaged in science inquiry activities? Is there a difference between male and female students? 2. Is there a relationship between 7th grade…

The relationship between teaching and learning is a most central issue in education research, but it is yet to be fully understood. Variation Theory provides an explanatory account for teaching and learning and offers a specific view on what it means to learn: to discriminate and to discern critical aspects of the object of learning. This paper…

In 1820 the Danish scientist Hans Christian Ørsted discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism by his famous wire-compass experiment. Ørsted was one of the foremost scientists of the nineteenth century, and he was also one of the leading figures in Denmark in the 19th century with a vital influence in the fields of aesthetics,…

The aim of this study is to evaluate the attitudes of secondary school students towards STEM education. For this purpose, screening method, one of the quantitative research methods, has been used. Of the 384 students who participated in the research, 50.5% are female and 49.5% are male. Data has been obtained through STEM training attitude scale.…

The overall objective of this study was to investigate self-efficacy, locus of control, and academic procrastination as predictors of academic achievement in students identified as gifted or non-gifted. Another purpose of the study was to analyze whether there was a difference between the self-efficacy, locus of control, and academic…

Science education researchers have turned their attention to the use of images in textbooks, both because pages are heavily illustrated and because visual literacy is an important aptitude for science students. Text-image integration in the textbook is described here as composition schemes in increasing degrees of integration: prose primary (PP),…

This experimental study explored the impact of representation + glossary label visuals on science outcomes in a sample of 174 Grade 7 English learners (ELs). Analysis of covariance results indicated that, regardless of English proficiency, ELs in both treatment and control conditions performed similarly on reading comprehension (p = 0.26) and…

The main objective of this study is to determine the predictive power of mathematics self-efficacy resources and perception of science self-efficacy on academic achievement. The study, adopting a relational screening model, was conducted with a total of 698 students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade level of a state secondary school. Mathematics…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between constructivist learning environment and students'motivation to learn science by testing whether students' self-efficacy in learning science, intrinsically and extrinsically motivated science learning increase and students' anxiety about science assessment decreases when more…

Hands-on making (e.g., "Maker") has become prevalent in current educational settings. To understand the role that students' epistemic curiosity plays in hands-on making contests, this study explored its correlation to students' positive affect and continuance intention to participate in a hands-on making contest called…

The purpose of this study is to analyze scientific literacy levels relevant to science and technology classes among gifted students that participate in scientific activities at science and art centers. This study investigated whether there was a significant difference in scientific literacy levels among gifted students according to the areas of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of scientific studies on students' scientific literacy and attitude towards science course. For the study, a middle school science study group was established by randomly selecting 30 students from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Participating students were given information about the…

Although researchers call for inquiry learning in science, science assessments rarely capture the impact of inquiry instruction. This paper reports on the development and validation of assessments designed to measure middle-school students' progress in gaining integrated understanding of energy while studying an inquiry-oriented curriculum. The…

Achievement goal theory distinguishes between mastery goals (the goals of developing competence) and performance goals (the goals of demonstrating competence) [Ames [1992] "Journal of Educational Psychology" 84: 261-271]. In this study, we employed this theory aiming to better understand why adolescents' motivation to learn science…

During the early grades, female students generally display enthusiasm for learning science. As these same students go though school, however, their level of motivation changes. Once female students reach high school, many lack the confidence to take chemistry and physics. Then, in college they lack the background necessary to major in chemistry,…