Both in physics education and in science education more generally concerns exist that formal K-12 education structures limit and, in some cases, diminish students' interest and agency in these fields. Many stakeholders have turned to informal learning experiences as a means to inspire young people to pursue continual learning in these fields in…

One response to a pedagogical shift towards student-centred and active learning approaches to promote student learning in STEM is the flipped classroom. However, there has been inconsistency in the design and implementation of the flipped classroom and its impact on student learning. This review systematically analysed 30 empirical studies on…

Having in mind that student achievement and interest in subject are some of the most important educational goals, and that quality of teaching is the crucial schooling factor influencing them, we examined the contribution of teacher-level variables from the dynamic model of educational effectiveness to student achievement and interest in…

Most national assessments in education focus on the curriculum to identify the knowledge and skills students should have acquired. Applying this approach to international assessments poses several challenges that need to be addressed in the design and implementation of international studies. This Compass Brief explains the advantages and…

The purpose of this study is to comparatively investigate the science teaching curricula in Turkey, which have undergone changes four times since the millennium. For this purpose, we carried out a technical and taxonomic examination of the learning outcomes listed in the science curricula that were introduced in 2000, 2005, 2013, and 2017…

Many studies investigating inquiry learning in science domains have appeared over the years. Throughout this period, inquiry learning has been regularly criticized by scholars who favor direct instruction over inquiry learning. In this vein, Zhang, Kirschner, Cobern, and Sweller (2022) recently asserted that direct instruction is overall superior…

This open access book presents original research on effective and equitable teacher practice in mathematics and science education across Nordic countries. It focuses on three key aspects of teacher practice: what teachers teach, how teachers teach, and how teachers assess their students. To provide a comprehensive understanding of teacher…

This article discusses the latest developments of the Sucre4Stem tool, as part of the Sucre initiative, which aims to promote interest in computational thinking and programming skills in K-12 students. The tool follows the Internet of Things approach and consists of two prominent components: 1) SucreCore and 2) SucreCode. SucreCore incorporates an…

In this article, we put forward a new approach to the teaching of scientific reasoning in biology with the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"). We argue that a framework based on the idea of six styles of scientific reasoning provides the best guide for biology teachers to the nature of scientific reasoning in biology…

Due to the influence of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the National Research Council's (NRC) "Framework for K-12 Science Education," and a socio-workforce push to increase diverse representation in STEM fields, engineering education has become more prevalent in K-12 classrooms over the past decade. Although this shift is…

The increased demand for bilingual education has resulted in a growing need for professionally and linguistically qualified teachers whose shortage is evident in most Slovak schools. As science subjects form a major part of bilingual school curricula, the aim of our research is to determine the current situation from the combined opinions of…

This study explored the mathematics achievement profiles of the countries participating in TIMSS 2015 based on the TIMSS assessment framework categories. More specifically, observed and expected performances of countries in the framework categories were compared to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses of countries in the respective item…

The Lead Teacher Program (LTP) is organized by Beyond Benign, an institution that promotes green chemistry principles and sustainability in education. LTP trains K-12 teachers to run workshops in their own communities across the US and Canada. This research project aimed to study the culture among K-12 science teachers in LTP and how they share…

This paper is based on the analysis of the relationship between early education, mathematical skills, and student achievement in Bosnia & Herzegovina, using data from the trends in international mathematics and science study (TIMSS) 2019. The study involves 5,628 fourth-grade students whose average age was 10.1 years. The research specifically…

Multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) models have generated increasing interest in the psychometrics literature. Efficient approaches for estimating MIRT models with dichotomous responses have been developed, but constructing an equally efficient and robust algorithm for polytomous models has received limited attention. To address this gap,…