This article demonstrates how a student research project could connect classroom and community. Using local citizens' concerns about the adulteration of cosmetics by prohibited substances as a research problem, fifth-year pharmaceutical chemistry students were challenged to use their knowledge to create cost-effective and environmentally friendly…

Science, Technology, Society, Environment (STSE) is an education movement that started and developed from 70s through early 2000s. Although this movement had lost emphasis in recent years, it is one of the most important educational reform attempts in science education history. Today, concepts like Socio Scientific Issues (SSI) or Science,…

This study used video vignettes of historical episodes from documentary films as a context and instructional tool to promote pre-service science teachers' (PSTs) conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). The participants received explicit-reflective NOS instruction, and were introduced to techniques to be able to use scenes from documentary…

For science teachers using the discourse of socioscientific issues (SSI), it is important to make a decision as to whether when and how to disclose their own positions. The existing limited literature shows that science teachers prefer one of four roles during SSI discourse: sticker to facts, imposer, democracy advocator, and committed…

This study explores how web-based scaffolding tools provide instructional support while implementing a socio-scientific inquiry (SSI) unit in a science classroom. This case study focused on how students used web-based scaffolding tools during SSI activities, and how students perceived the SSI unit and the scaffolding tools embedded in the SSI…

Learning electromagnetics often involves dealing with problems with strong mathematical skills or thinking about problems in abstract and multiple spaces. Moreover, many students are often unable to explain some related physical phenomena using the appropriate electromagnetic principles. In this paper, we report on integrating two effective…

Background: There is burgeoning research within educational psychology on both epistemic cognition and multiple-documents literacy, as well as on relationships between the two constructs. Aim: To examine relationships between epistemic cognition concerning the justification of knowledge claims and sourcing and argumentation skills. Sample:…

The primary focus of this article is to illustrate how teachers can use contemporary socio-scientific issues to teach students about nature of scientific knowledge as well as address the science subject matter embedded in the issues. The article provides an initial discussion about the various aspects of nature of scientific knowledge that are…

This research explores the opportunities for incorporating political literacy in science teaching and learning.

In a world of increasing scientific and technological complexity, where science and technology play an expanding role in our lives, there is need for a democratic citizenry that is skilled at discussing and making choices that are informed by science and shaped by individual and collective values. Although an oft argued rationale for teaching…

In Brazil, mathematics education was associated with Jean Piaget's theory. Scholars in the field of education appropriated Piaget's work in different ways, but usually emphasized logical aspects of thought, which probably lead to an expansion of mathematics education influenced by psychology. This study attempts to extend the range of…

Making an adequate response to our deteriorating environmental situation is a matter of ever increasing urgency. It is argued that a central obstacle to achieving this is the way that scientism has become normalized in our thinking about environmental issues. This is taken to reflect on an underlying "metaphysics of mastery" that vitiates proper…

Digital technologies have become thoroughly enmeshed in everyday life, forming a backdrop of experience. We live not only with these technologies but also through them as they mediate our engagement with the world. This mediation calls for closer attention with respect to practical design concerns as well as more theoretical and philosophical…

Recent efforts in the science education community have highlighted the need to integrate research and theory from science communication research into more general science education scholarship. These synthesized research perspectives are relatively novel but serve an important need to better understand the impacts that the advent of rapidly…

This longitudinal study explored the effects of a Cooperation-driven Socioscientific Issue (CDSSI) intervention on junior high school students' perceptions of critical thinking (CT) and self-regulation (SR) in Taiwan. Forty-nine grade 7 students were randomly selected as an experimental group (EG) to attend a 3-semester 72-hour intervention; while…