Given little research using meta-analysis for SSI-based interventions and their limitations (e.g. data selection and analysis processes), further study is needed to validate previous findings and provide a broader sense of the effectiveness of SSI-based interventions in promoting scientific literacy. Therefore, this study aimed to…

This pilot implementation study examines the experiences of ten teachers who have employed a place-based learning resource called "A Walking Curriculum" for one to three years. "A Walking Curriculum" is an example of Imaginative Ecological Education--a pedagogical approach that centralizes imaginative engagement, emotional…

This study aims to investigate the change in the science teaching orientations of pre-service science teachers using argumentation-based teaching via multiple measurement tools. In this mixed-method research, to evaluate the change experimentally, firstly, argumentation-based teaching practices in socio-scientific issues (SSIs) were carried out.…

Recent 'decolonising the curriculum' movements have called for Higher Education to rethink how it engages with diversity and colonialism in its lectures and syllabi. But what can these ideas mean for science subjects in secondary schools? Grounded on a decolonial perspective around the Science and Technology Studies (STS) field, this paper…

In the socioscientific issues (SSI) classroom, students need to cross the border between the subcultures of science (i.e., school science vs. everyday science). Traditional school contexts tend to present science as positivistic knowledge and unshakable truth unaffected by sociocultural factors. In contrast, everyday science, including SSI, is…

The paper considers the relation between society, science and institutionally-embodied higher education reform in nineteenth-century Ireland. Institutional reform is measured in terms of governance, curriculum, access and teaching practice. Superiorisation, subversion and fusion are identified as characteristics of reformed institutions. Mobile…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine sustainability-related challenges in the two Western Balkan countries--Albania and Kosovo. It discusses the opportunities of local higher education institutions (HEIs) taking responsibility to tackle these challenges by providing professional development through science-society collaboration in…

As far back as the late 1800s, U.S. physics teachers expressed many of the same ideas about physics education reform that are advocated today. However, several popular reform efforts eventually failed to have wide impact, despite strong and enthusiastic support within the physics education community. Broad-scale implementation of improved…

The nature of the sustainability challenges currently at hand is such that dominant pedagogies and forms of learning that characterize higher education need to be reconsidered to enable students and staff to deal with accelerating change, increasing complexity, contested knowledge claims and inevitable uncertainty. In this contribution we…

Pedagogical transformations in universities are typically explored as "top down" attempts or in the context of training programs targeted towards educating more pedagogically aware individuals. In this study, promoting pedagogical development is explored on a community level as change agency: acting as a broker between the…

This paper scrutinizes the contribution of Romulo de Carvalho to the development of the Portuguese science curriculum, arguing that it was critically informed by his lifetime inclination to the humanities. It focuses on a particular historical event: the 1948 chemistry programme for the secondary school "Liceus". The paper briefly…

Through an analysis of a recent Danish administrative educational reform in the area of early childhood education, this article raises a discussion about the way pedagogical objects and subjects are generated in the knowledge acquisition of administrative educational reforms promoting accountability, visibility and documentation. It is argued that…

The study reports on an investigation of the impact of a Science-Technology-Society (STS) approach in promoting more positive student attitudes toward science that are recommended by current reform documents. A total of 609 students from grades six through nine were selected for a survey of attitudes in two class sections assigned as either…

Changes in the past two decades of goals for science education in schools have induced new orientations in science education worldwide. One of the emerging complementary approaches was the science-technology-society (STS) movement. STS has been called the current megatrend in science education. Others have called it a paradigm shift for the field…

As future citizens, students must make decisions requiring an understanding of the interaction of science and technology and its interface with society. STS education has been strongly identified with meeting this goal, but putting theory into practice has so far been difficult. This article asks, "What are the challenges influencing science…