Studies of both professional science practice and children's science learning show that care is not merely ancillary to disciplinary work but a core and generative constituent of science practice. In science education research, however, students' care is often overlooked. In this paper, we describe the expression of care across two STEM classrooms…

Energy is a central concept across the sciences and an important goal of science education is to support all students so that they develop a full understanding of the energy concept. However, given the abstract and complex nature of the energy concept, only a few students develop an understanding so that they can use energy ideas to make sense of…

Despite holding wide-ranging experiences with constant velocity and non-zero acceleration, students wrestling with physical science concepts struggle to demarcate the two distinct characteristics of motion. In fact, this prior experience and loose familiarity with associated terminology often act as an obstacle toward a deep and robust…

Virtual presence describes a users' perception of a virtual reality (VR) environment (VRE), specifically, of their "involvement" (sense of control within a virtual environment with minimal distractions) and "immersion" (multi-input sensory engagement providing apparent realism of objects and interactions). In education, virtual…

We describe how young students situate themselves with respect to astronomy through an identity framework that features four dimensions: interest, utility value, confidence, and conceptual knowledge. Overall, about 900 Italian students, from 5th to 9th grade (9-14 years old), were involved in the study. We tested our model using confirmatory…

In this design-based study, a flipped learning approach using audio-visual resources as prelearning activities was examined in grades 6, 7, and 9 with four teachers and 65 students over one school year. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of a technology-enhanced pedagogy in science, math, and social studies. The…

There is growing interest in the introduction of Einsteinian concepts of space, time, light and gravity across the entire school curriculum. We have developed an educational programme named 'Einstein-First', which focuses on teaching Einsteinian concepts by using simple models and analogies. To test the effectiveness of these models and analogies…

Student perceptions of science teaching could be expected to differ in grade 6 compared with teaching in grade 9, as could student interest in science learning. To compare Estonian grades 6 and 9, lower secondary school student and science teacher perceptions of teaching/ learning approaches as well as student perceived interests/enjoyment on…

It is important for students to learn concepts and using them for solving problems and further learning. Within this respect, the purpose of this study is to investigate students' abilities to apply science concepts that they have learned from Science-Technology-Society based approach or textbook oriented instruction. Current study is based on…

This article focuses on vocabulary in the context of English-medium instruction at an international high school in Germany. Longitudinal testing was carried out using the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) (Nation, 1983; Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001), with 468 participants tested on entry to their first year of secondary school (Grade 6, aged…

The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of a Science Technology and Society (STS) approach in terms of student understanding of major processes of science. Participants included twelve teachers who agreed to participate in an experimental study where Science, Technology, and Society (STS) strategies were utilized with one class…

In this paper, the authors describe the initial stage of developing a framework designed to support out-of-field, less experiences or isolated mathematics and science teachers to make decisions about the use of resources in their teaching. The process highlighted the complexity and extent of the knowledge on which expert teachers draw in making…

This paper reports on the contribution to biological knowledge of three different laboratory technologies and also endeavours to discover which technology students prefer the most. To examine differences in knowledge gained and learners' preferences for different technologies in biology laboratory work, we prepared three variants (triplets) of…

Threshold concepts are essential ideas about the natural world that present either a barrier or a gateway to a deep understanding of science. Weight, mass, and gravity are threshold concepts that underpin students' abilities to understand important ideas in all fields of science, embodied in the performance expectations in the Next Generation…

The literature in science education highlights the potentially significant role of outside-school factors such as parents, cultural contexts and role models in students' formation of science attitudes and aspirations, and their attainment in science classes. In this paper, building on and linking Bourdieu's key concepts of habitus, cultural and…