Research purposes and design: This study aimed to compare the effects of different explicit approaches used in modeling-based instruction on students' understanding of scientific models and modeling (USMM). In Study 1, a self-study approach was compared to a preliminary explicit approach. In Study 2, preliminary explicit approach and embedded…

Achieving the targets of science education mostly depends on the true understanding of the fundamentals where science and the scientific efforts are embedded through the realist ontology and epistemology that science is based on. Models have a special place in science education revealing to understand the nature and status of scientific knowledge.…

This qualitative case study investigated how computational models can help students engage in scientific practice and influence their emotional, epistemic, and conceptual aspects. Twenty-four sixth-graders were guided to conduct scientific practices as they predicted and modified the computational models on food web using StarLogo Nova. Three…

Research about modeling emphasizes the importance of heterogeneity in science learning. At the same time, a growing body of scholarship seeks curricular pathways for epistemic and representational convergence. In response to this tension, we propose two constructs: heterogeneity-seeking curricula and commitments. Heterogeneity-seeking curricula…

The aim of the study was to investigate students' views of model evaluation through the lens of personal epistemology. We developed an integrated analytical framework by combining a developmental framework, including absolutist, multiplist, and evaluatist, with a multi-dimensional framework, including limits of knowing, certainty of knowing, and…

We present an empirically based model for teaching about planning in pre-service science teacher education as part of on-campus courses. Planning is usually taught through the introduction of theoretically based planning models, but these models commonly assume a linear idea of planning that does not match how teachers go about planning. We…

Our research addresses the issue of teaching and learning concepts in science education as an empirical question. We study the process of conceptualization by closely examining the unfolding of classroom lesson sequences. We situate our work within the practice turn line of research on epistemic practices in science education. We also adopt a…

This study examined changes in middle school teachers' beliefs about inquiry, implementation of inquiry practices, and self-efficacy to teach science through inquiry after participating in a year-long professional development program. The professional development model design was based on Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory of learning and…

According to our approach to mathematics education, the optimal aim of the teaching of mathematics is to assist students in achieving efficient mathematical work. But, what does efficient exactly mean in that case? And how can teachers reach this objective? The model of Mathematical Working Spaces with its three dimensions--semiotic, instrumental,…

This article exemplifies how assessment design might be grounded in theory, thereby helping to strengthen validity claims. Spanning work across multiple related projects, the article first briefly summarizes an assessment system model for the elementary and secondary levels. Next the article describes how cognitive-domain theory and principles are…

In the past decade, there has been a growing interest in scientific practices as a reform focus in K-12 science education of the United States. In this context, scientific practices refer to practices that have family resemblance to scientists' professional practices and simultaneously are pedagogically accessible and useful to students. In…

In the past decade, reform efforts in science education have increasingly attended to engaging students in scientific practices such as scientific modeling. Engaging students in scientific modeling can help them develop their epistemologies by allowing them to attend to the roles of mechanism and empirical evidence when constructing and revising…

The purpose of this report is to describe a science competency model and 3 related learning progressions, which were developed by applying the "CBAL"™ approach (Bennett & Gitomer, 2009) to the domain of middle school science. The Cognitively Based Assessment "of", "for", and "as" Learning (CBAL) science…

This was a qualitative case study that compared data across six district-level literacy coaches' epistemological and ontological beliefs about how to teach reading. All six coaches were working as a cohort of literacy coaches on the development and implementation of a secondary reading intervention program for seventh-grade struggling readers.…

A cognitive diagnostic model uses information from educational experts to describe the relationships between item performances and posited proficiencies. When the cognitive relationships can be described using a fully Bayesian model, Bayesian model checking procedures become available. Checking models tied to cognitive theory of the domains…