The definition of biodiversity stated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 was conceived as occurring on three different organizational levels: genetic, species, and ecosystems. However, current understanding of biodiversity includes other components, such as the number, abundance, composition, and spatial distribution of…

We outline an instructional strategy for supporting students' science literacy skills using a structured decision-making tool in an interdisciplinary undergraduate course. Instructional tools support basing complex socioscientific issues decisions on a reasoned analysis of tradeoffs among multiple conflicting values rather than heuristics, such as…

Controversies in science are an essential feature of scientific practice: defined here as current problems that are unresolved because there are no accepted procedures by which they can be resolved or there are differing assumptions that affect the interpretation of evidence. Although there has been much attention in science education literature…

A new methodology is proposed for qualitative discourse analysis (QDA) aimed at gaining enhanced insights into learning possibilities and indicators that arise during classroom group discussions. The constitution of this new methodology has two principle components: a discourse analysis approach that aims to identify the relationships between…

While much work has been done to promote and advance convergence education over the past decade, a distinct and common framework is beneficial to the concept of convergence education being adopted and universally recognized. Therefore, based on extensive literature review and stakeholder engagement, the IWGC developed a definition and overarching…

With the approach of constant changes and quality assurance in education, we have reached an optimum that no longer justifies all further investments in such changes, as the results of these investments are (and will be) minimal and insufficient. We have reached a stage where we must shift from evolution to revolution, from constant changes in…

Hydraulic fracturing ('fracking'), like other complex social and environmental issues, is a controversy about science which raises educational questions about how best to prepare young people to understand, respond to and, where necessary, act (or not) in response. It raises political questions. We present a state-of-the-art review of research…

Currently, a growing number of learning institutions at all educational levels are including problem-based learning (PBL) in their curricula. PBL scenarios often utilise technology and socio-scientific Issues (SSI), which enables the simultaneous learning of content and creative thinking and working skills needed in generating new knowledge for…

Throughout history, the visual arts have allowed for a dynamic of aesthetic feedback, cultural plurality, and a standardization of the artistic phenomenon. The objective of this study is to analyze the current lines of research at the international level, during the period 1952-2020, on the visual arts in the university educational ecosystem.…

This article describes an early childhood lesson that integrated science, technology, art, social studies, math, and language. The authors' students compared robots, programmed and created stories with robots, and became robot-inventors. They also imagined how their robot-creations might impact the world--a core idea related to Science, Technology…

Storytelling and drama are well-known teaching tools that can be used throughout the curriculum for the active participation of students in their own learning process. The introduction of robots in storytelling and drama activities provides students with a meaningful, multisensory, hands-on learning experience. This paper explores the potential…

Previous studies have pointed to the benefits of involving students' everyday life experiences in lessons and in contextualizing the science content to enhance learning and positive attitudes toward school science. However, most of these investigations have been conducted as intervention studies. By contrast, the present study explored how…

Out-of-school science education institutions, such as museums, science centres, zoos and aquaria, have strong potentials to promote sustainability, yet seem to lack an operational definition of sustainability that aligns with their specific characteristics and institutional remit. Here, we use the anthropological theory of didactics to…

The aim of this study was to determine how a learning and teaching experience, which related to socioscientific argumentation and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), changed elementary teachers' views of teaching with socioscientific argumentation, as well as the change in their PCK and instructional practices. Five teachers studying for the…

This article examines two teachers' efforts to re-organize their science teaching around issues of environmental and food justice in the urban community where they teach through the pedagogical approach of community-oriented framing. We introduce this approach to teachers' framing of phenomena in community as supporting students' framing of…