Reforming instruction is challenging. In this comparative case study of 12 school districts, we investigated the dilemmas that emerged for system leaders as they engaged in system building for elementary science and the approaches leaders took in managing them. We found that system leaders' efforts to manage their environments contributed to the…

Many physics learners take the specific mathematical representations they are using as part of their learning and doing physics for granted. The paper addresses this problem by highlighting two goals. The first is to show how a historical investigation from history of science can be transformed into a concrete lesson plan in physics, in a physics…

This qualitative, questionnaire and interview-based study explores how pre-service physics teachers think about the role that mathematics plays in the teaching and learning of physics at university and school level and whether these views change during their pre-service teacher education. Many of the pre-service teachers were aware of the complex…

Many authors suggest that is necessary to include the most important episodes from physics history in teaching and learning in order to give students some ideas about the nature of science. The pendulum-related aspects are considered as very adequate for that purpose. Unfortunately, when some physics textbook authors present historical…

We investigated six preservice secondary science teachers' implementation of reform-based science, in particular, their teaching of the "Next Generation Science Standards' (NGSS)" science and engineering practice of "using mathematics and computational thinking." A modified version of the Task Analysis Guide in Science served…

This longitudinal research examines the knowledge of, beliefs about, and planned use of the science practices of five novice elementary or primary teachers during their science methods course, student teaching, and first year of teaching. To answer our research questions, we collected lesson plans and conducted interviews after the teachers taught…

The study of students' use of representations is one of the main topics of physics education research and is guided by the overarching field of semiotics. In this paper we compare two semiotic frameworks, one coming from didactics of mathematics and one from physics education research; "the theory of registers of semiotic…

The aim of the research is to examine preservice science and preservice mathematics teachers' mathematics anxiety and beliefs about the nature of mathematics, as well as to reveal whether they differ according to the teacher training program. Moreover, this study investigates whether there is a relationship between beliefs about the nature of…

The purpose of this study was to understand how biology teachers experienced and learned from professional development (PD) in which the 5R Instructional Model was used as a framework for planning inclusive lesson for emerging multilingual learners (EML). The PD integrated biology content with the scientific practices of using mathematical…

The language of physics is mathematics, and physics ideas, laws and models describing phenomena are usually represented in mathematical form. Therefore, an understanding of how to navigate between phenomena and the models representing them in mathematical form is important for a physics teacher so that the teacher can make physics understandable…

This article provides tools and rationale for instructors in math and science to make their assessment and curriculum materials (more) readable for students. The tools discussed (MSWord, LexTutor, Coh-Metrix TEA) are readily available linguistic analysis applications that are grounded in current linguistic theory, but present output that can…

This study examines future secondary physics teachers' knowledge related to the teaching of sound waves, and specifically the topics of sound level and sound intensity. The data is comprised of future teachers' responses to a task in which they had to compose a script for an imaginary dialogue between a teacher and a group of students and to…

The EduLab model is a "new" educational model that integrates technologies in educational contexts comprising full equipped classrooms with attractive and easy-to-use technological resources. This model tries to promote a dynamic and more effective teaching and learning process. For this purpose, the model provides teachers training and…

This paper presents a case study of didactic infrastructures to direct Study and Research Paths (SRP) in teacher education within the context of interdisciplinary inquiry. The disciplines of school mathematics and school biology, and their didactics, are made to interconnect through the investigation of a generating question concerning the illness…

Mathematics plays a crucial role in physics. This role is brought about predominantly through the building, employment, and assessment of mathematical models, and teachers and educators should capture this relationship in the classroom in an effort to improve students' achievement and attitude in both physics and mathematics. But although there…