One of the goals of secondary science education is to help students develop skills related to scientific inquiry. However, the results of previous studies have shown that students have difficulties in identifying problems, formulating hypotheses, drawing conclusions, and designing experiments. The main objective of this contribution is to indicate…

Governance and regulation of the use of live animals in research and teaching is examined in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, Japan and India. A comparison of the systems in different countries will enable the determination of best practice and fit-forpurpose regulation. The most comprehensive government…

In this paper we describe the results of some experiments about using surprising physics demonstrations, presented as magical phenomena followed by scientific explanations, for introducing physics topics in several teaching contexts. All the demonstrations have been designed to be implemented with easy to get and cheap materials, so that students…

Professional vision is a key ability in the professional development of pre- and in-service teachers as it determines how professionals perceive and interpret situations. The aim of this study was to conceptualize an instrument for professional vision focusing on formative assessment in the context of scientific inquiry. This focus is highly…

To improve the teaching and learning materials for a curriculum it is important to incorporate the findings from educational research. In light of this, we present creative exercises and experiments to elicit, confront and resolve misconceptions in geometrical optics. Since ray diagrams can be both the cause and the solution for many…

A case study entitled 'New Age Atlantis or Mysterious Seventh Continent' was developed as an exemplar model to show how the teaching methods and themes of Global Education (GE) can be used in geography lessons. The main intent of this article is to share an example of good practice about the use of this case study in geography lessons in Czechia.…

Secondary school pupils underachieve in tests in which reasoning abilities are required. Brain-based training of working memory (WM) may improve reasoning abilities. In this study, we use a brain-based training programme based on historical content to enhance reasoning abilities in history courses. In the first experiment, a combined intervention…

Research globally has shown that many children lose interest in science towards the end of primary school and throughout the post-primary phase. This article explores children's experience and views in Irish schools that have adopted innovative practices that aim to empower, excite and inspire children in science. One of these focuses on explicit…

When people reflect on their important values, they may become more attuned to the needs of others. Two longitudinal field experiments examined whether a subtle value-affirmation manipulation can initiate relatively enduring increases in young adolescents' prosocial feelings (Study 1; M [subscript age] = 12.9) and prosocial behaviors (Study 2; M…

The article argues that science assessment should change from an item-driven to a construct-driven practice and pay more attention to disciplinary scientific reasoning. It investigates assessment scales developed from a novel theoretical rationale, describing scientific reasoning as three fundamental practices (hypothesizing, experimenting, and…

This article describes a unit of work that was designed for a Year 9 class of mixed ability and which involved the definition and measurement of angles, as well as the practical application of angle properties--such as complimentary angles and the relationships in a transversal. The unit considered the numeracy skills required to interpret a…

By the 1970s a fundamental shift had taken place in German science education. This was a shift away from the learning of more-or-less isolated facts and facets in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics towards a restructuring of science teaching along the general principles of the respective science domains. The changes included also the addition of…

Innovation is essential for the education sector. The ways in which curriculum decision making is organised reflects different implicit approaches on how educational systems pertain to promote innovation in education. Curriculum holds an outstanding place when seeking to promote innovation in education, as it reflects the vision for education by…

Background: In the 1970s and 1980s, there was considerable discussion about the potential of student-designed games to help students develop a more refined and deeper understanding of games. Unfortunately, despite these sophisticated conversations, there has been limited empirical research on the effectiveness of student-designed games,…

Previous research indicates that academic emotions are largely organized along domain-specific lines. In the present study (N = 1,687; Grades 8/11), the authors explored the domain specificity of academic emotions in terms of the moderating influence of having the same versus a different course instructor across domains. The authors evaluated…