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The article comments on the dilemma of the objective paper-and-pencil assessment within the Piagetian framework in the U.S. Paper-and-pencil measures also lack the flexibility of the clinical method in which a perceptive interviewer can explore the various ways in which a subject interprets his or her environment. Paper-and-pencil instruments attempt to retain various aspects of the clinical interview method. It must be noted that many measures of formal operational reasoning also assess other cognitive capabilities such as field independence.

Schwarz and colleagues have proposed and refined a learning progression for modeling that provides a valuable template for envisioning increasingly sophisticated levels of modeling practice at an aggregate level (Fortus, Shwartz, & Rosenfeld, 2016; Schwarz et al., 2009; Schwarz, Reiser, Archer, Kenyon, & Fortus, 2012). Thinking about learning progressions for modeling, however, involves challenges in coordinating between aggregate arcs in the curriculum and individual student learning trajectories. First, individual student performance is often dependent on students' epistemic aims and the nature of the conceptual and representational context. Second, approaches for longitudinally supporting students in modeling is a relatively nascent endeavor, although notable exemplars have been developed (e.g., IQWST). Third, research on the highest levels of the proposed progression is often hypothetical, because few students demonstrate high-level modeling practices in typical classrooms. In response to these challenges, we conducted a semester-long design-based study of eighth graders engaging in diagrammatic, physical, and computational modeling. In this paper, we explore conceptual and representational contexts designed to support sophisticated modeling practices and beliefs, analyze the nature of high-level performances achieved through these contexts, and suggest revisions to the articulation of the Schwarz and colleagues learning progression to increase its utility and generalizability when viewed through a resource-related lens.

This paper is an informal discussion of an experiment in combining some of the teaching objectives of ninth grade science and English in the form of a ‘Voluntary Science-English Term Paper Project’. The purpose here is to present a practical illustration of a method of achieving certain short term goals common to both high school science and English. The project, carried out in a rural high school in central Virginia, proved to be an economical way of achieving certain goals within a traditionally-oriented curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preservice elementary teachers face many challenges in learning how to teach science effectively, such as engaging students in science, organizing instruction, and developing a productive learning community. This paper reports on several iterative cycles of design-based research aimed at fostering preservice teachers' principled reasoning around these problems of practice through modeling-centered scientific inquiry. The first design cycle introduced preservice teachers to modeling and simulation software tools in an effort to advance their understanding of science and technology; the second used an instructional framework embodying modeling-centered inquiry to advance their views of effective science teaching and their lesson-planning practices; the third engaged preservice teachers in analyzing and modifying curriculum materials using reform-based criteria to foster effective curriculum materials use. Outcomes from these iterations indicate that the preservice teachers were most likely to advance their knowledge and practices within a coherent approach that focused on a core scientific practice such as modeling-centered inquiry, provided opportunities to unpack and apply robust tools such as reform-based instructional frameworks, and addressed their perceived problems of practice. The findings from this set of approaches are compared to others in an effort to point toward promising future directions for effective science teacher education. (Contains 2 tables and 3 footnotes.)

The article discusses the role of research in improving science education in the U.S. The understanding of the process of teaching, learning, and schooling has improved. Thus, rapid societal changes has an impact on the image of the process of schooling in general, and the process of teaching and learning science in particular. With this regard, teachers must engage in constructing a curriculum to enhance the development of all students. Lastly, research should guide and inform policy formation and decision making regarding science teaching, preschool through college.

This paper describes the conceptualizations, or mental models, of the nature of the bonding and structure of metals of a group of U.K. college students. It is suggested that these mental models may be understood in terms of the students' prior learning about covalent and ionic bonding, and the prevalence of a common alternative conceptual framework for chemical bonding labeled "the octet framework." This study illustrates the prominence of prior learning in channeling the interpretation of subsequent teaching, and highlights the significance of the decisions made by curriculum planners, textbook authors, and teachers on the order of presenting subject content, the degree of simplification of scientific models, and the selection and presentation of metaphors. (Contains 6 figures and 1 table.)

Describes some features in the changing landscape of activities intended to improve both quality and access in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET) undergraduate education. Offers a framework for discussion of historical change endeavors as an aid in considering next steps. (Author/MM)

In this paper, we argue that the current science curricula are failing to educate students to be competent outsiders to science. Historically, science education has rested on two premises. The first is that it is possible for students to acquire sufficient scientific knowledge from K‐12 education to become intellectually independent. That is that science education can produce individuals capable of evaluating scientific evidence and arguments critically for themselves. This belief is what underlies many of the conceptions of scientific literacy and is the basis of the rationale that is used to sustain and justify what is offered in nearly all countries across the globe. The second is the belief that the science that students will encounter will have been filtered such that it can be trusted. Nothing today could be further from the truth. Today, misinformation abounds and much of it purports to be scientific. Very few conceptions of scientific literacy have considered how students can be prepared to evaluate the claims that abound on social media. Current conceptions of "scientific literacy," we argue, are failing to articulate the competencies and knowledge required in today's changed context. In what follows, we lay out our arguments for why it is time to rethink the conception of scientific literacy by considering what it requires to be a competent outsider to science. Then drawing on our recent report, we lay out what might be done within science education to address the specific phenomenon of misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how the Canadian province of Saskatchewan responded to demands for science curriculum renewal. Eleven topics for discussion in the science education field study were posed and reactions from teachers and administrators are reported. (YP)

The article looks into the significant use of pseudo-science in science education. A pseudo-science is a systematic body of propositions, practices, and attitudes that gives the appearance of being a science but is not a science. Furthermore, the article has compared the differences between science and pseudo-science. Moreover, various approaches and ways in which the study of pseudo-science could be incorporated into science education has been presented through: (1) critical examination of historical cases of pseudo-science along with cases of genuine science; (2) comparison of contemporary research paper with pseudo-science research paper; (3) use of laboratory works and processes to expose the scientific pretensions of pseudo-science; encouragement of students to bring examples of pseudo-scientific thinking; (5) evaluation of textbooks; and (6) testing of students' ability to recognize cases of pseudo-science.

The article describes a method of teaching some important phases of technical writing as part of a normal laboratory course. Faculty member employing this technique selects a suitable paper from the literature, prepares a sentence outline and introduces a small number of flaw into the paper. Then, the material is retyped and handed to the students to be analyzed. For a simplified version of this method, only step one will be used and the discussion will be modified. The simple technique can be refined by introducing more subtle flaws into the discussion and include the introduction, the summary and conclusion or even the experimental section and the result.

This paper examines how students make progress toward three-dimensional (3D) understanding of the patterns of evolution. Specifically, it proposes a learning progression that explains how scientific practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas come together in naming and grouping, length of change over time, and the role of common ancestry in evolutionary relatedness. To develop this learning progression, we created a 3D plant evolution curriculum for urban middle school students and over two implementation cycles we measured student understanding before, during, and after use of the curriculum. We used an iterative design, grounded in evidence of student learning over time to develop and revise our learning progression framework, assessments, and curriculum. The learning progression developed through this process is a template for conceptual learning through scientific practice, the type of 3D learning advocated by the Next Generation Science Standards. This paper describes the interplay between scientific practice learning and conceptual learning and the implications of this research for curriculum and assessment design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The paper analyzes conceptualizations in the science frameworks in three large-scale assessments, Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The assessments have a shared history, but have developed different conceptualizations. The paper asks how and why the frameworks are different and seeks answers by studying their development. The methodology is document analysis by, first, tracing developments within each assessment, next, comparing developments and conceptualization across the assessments, and, last, relating the frameworks to trends of developments in educational theory. The outcome of the analysis provides a complex picture with the assessments following their own lines of development but with influence from trends in assessment and educational theory. Five main conceptualizations are found to have existed over time, with different definition of scientific behavior and explanations to the relationship between knowledge and behavior. The frameworks have moved toward more elaborated explanations of the science domain, providing assessors with better support for operationalizing learning objectives. Currently, the assessments are faced with a challenge of adapting to the 'practice turn' in science studies and learning science and thereby accounting for scientific behavior as a community practice. The paper concludes with suggestions for how frameworks may be improved to achieve this aim. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 97:671-694, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the framings that the fields of the social studies of science and science education use for each other. It is shown that the social studies of science frames science education as passive and timeless. Science education frames science studies as a set of representations to better capture how science works. The paper then proceeds to sketch an alternative in which schools are understood, drawing on actor-network theory and cultural studies of science, as constituted through contesting scientific practices and discourses and, therefore, are proper objects of study within science studies frameworks. The curricular implications are briefly developed, emphasizing the need for much more reflection upon and activism within science education regarding the technoscientific constitution of students and schools. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed92:389–403, 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of the secondary science education in Pakistan. According to the article, the Commission on National Education has placed significance on the importance of a science and mathematics program to meet technological demands and develop a balance in the curriculum. The types of secondary institutions in Pakistan are academic, vocational, general arts and science colleges. The secondary vocational schools include agricultural, commercial, engineering/survey, fine arts and medical.

The article focuses on a unit method of teaching astronomy meant for students of sixth-grade. For the purpose of teaching, a paper sky was created. In order to avoid monotony, various types of lessons were conducted. Sometimes questions were asked and answered directly and sometimes they were assigned for independent research and report. A notebook was developed by each child for his own use. The children wrote stories of the star myths and drew several diagrams including star groups, a comet's path around the sun, the solar system and others. The cover created by each child was typically astronomical with comets, stars, telescopes and the like. The program also included dramatization of sky myths, singing of star songs, reading of original poems, showing the notebooks and giving an account of the telescope.

Schwarz and colleagues have proposed and refined a learning progression for modeling that provides a valuable template for envisioning increasingly sophisticated levels of modeling practice at an aggregate level (Fortus, Shwartz, & Rosenfeld, ; Schwarz et al., ; Schwarz, Reiser, Archer, Kenyon, & Fortus, ). Thinking about learning progressions for modeling, however, involves challenges in coordinating between aggregate arcs in the curriculum and individual student learning trajectories. First, individual student performance is often dependent on students' epistemic aims and the nature of the conceptual and representational context. Second, approaches for longitudinally supporting students in modeling is a relatively nascent endeavor, although notable exemplars have been developed (e.g., IQWST). Third, research on the highest levels of the proposed progression is often hypothetical, because few students demonstrate high-level modeling practices in typical classrooms. In response to these challenges, we conducted a semester-long design-based study of eighth graders engaging in diagrammatic, physical, and computational modeling. In this paper, we explore conceptual and representational contexts designed to support sophisticated modeling practices and beliefs, analyze the nature of high-level performances achieved through these contexts, and suggest revisions to the articulation of the Schwarz and colleagues learning progression to increase its utility and generalizability when viewed through a resource-related lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is birthed from my lifelong experiences as student, teacher, administrator, and researcher in urban science classrooms. This includes my years as a minority student in biology, chemistry, and physics classrooms, 10 years as science teacher and high school science department chair, 5-years conducting research on youth experiences in urban science classrooms, and current work in preparing science teachers for teaching in urban schools. These experiences afford me both emic and etic lenses through which to view urban science classrooms and urban youth communities. This paper, both experiential and research based, forms an ethnography of urban youth communication and introduces the science education community to an aspect of science teaching that has been overlooked in traditional science education research. In documenting urban youth communication across social fields, this paper contributes to the research in science education that addresses science talk with urban youth in science classrooms (C. Ballenger, 1997; P. Gee, 1997). More specifically, I utilize the lenses I bring to urban science education research to interrogate the larger research questions of whether urban students' modes of communication are supported in the urban science classroom and the effects of this support or lack thereof on true participation/engagement of urban youth in science. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 1-20, 2011 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scarce attention to the assessment and evaluation in science education research has been especially harmful for teaching science–technology–society (STS) issues, due to the dialectical, tentative, value-laden, and polemic nature of most STS topics. This paper tackles the methodological difficulties of the instruments that monitor views related to STS topics and rationalizes a quantitative methodology and an analysis technique to improve the utility of an empirically developed multiple-choice item pool, the Questionnaire of Opinions on STS. This methodology embraces an item-scaling psychometrics based on the judgments by a panel of experts, a multiple response model, a scoring system, and the data analysis. The methodology finally produces normalized attitudinal indices that represent the respondent's reasoned beliefs toward STS statements, the respondent's position on an item that comprises several statements, or the respondent's position on an entire STS topic that encompasses a set of items. Some preliminary results show the methodology's ability to evaluate the STS attitudes in a qualitative and quantitative way and for statistical hypothesis testing. Lastly, some applications for teacher training and STS curriculum development in science classrooms are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed90:681–706, 2006 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate the potential and conditions for using curriculum adaptation to support reform of science teaching and learning. With each wave of reform in science education, curriculum has played a central role and the contemporary wave focused on implementation of the principles and vision of the Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012) is no exception. Curriculum adaptation-whereby existing curriculum materials are purposefully modified-may provide an important strategy for teacher leaders in schools and districts to support changes to teacher practice aligned with the vision of the Framework. Our study provides empirical evidence that under supportive district conditions and within a research-practice partnership, purposefully adapted curriculum materials can improve student understanding of science and that these are linked to shifts teachers make in classroom culture facilitated by augmented curriculum materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a bibliography for a seminar on evolution. Colleges and universities in the U.S. teach evolution as a seminar course. Since the field is broad, journals and other papers have appeared with discussions and other necessary data useful to students and instructors alike. Leading evolutionary biologists in America have been welcomed to participate with the recent papers. The contributors include Dean Amadon of he American Musesum of Natural History, George W. Beadle of the California, Alan A. Boyden of Rutgers University, Bayard H. Brattstrom of Adelphi College and others.

The article presents an issue of "Science Education" that contains selected papers prepared for the "History and Philosophy of Science and Science Teaching Conference," on November 6 to 11, 1989, at Florida State University. Its goal was to arrange a forum dedicated to the creation of interdisciplinary insights into problems and solutions related with teaching and learning science. During the conference, some participants had argued for the best strategy in teaching mathematics and science as a response for science curricula reform. According to the author, ample time is needed to obtain the goal for science curriculum change.

The article presents studies which examine current crisis in science education, Some of the factors considered include learning strategies, learning and development not related to Piaget's model, implementation of research, student attitudes and values concerning science, learning and development according to Piaget's model, identification of contents (concepts and processes), content of teacher education programs in science and education, goals of science education, placement and sequence of content, unified or integrated curriculum, student inherent and cultural characteristic, and instructional technology. The idea is to set new goals and direction for science education.

The article discusses the rationale for the new program of science education for early adolescence planned by the Science Education Directorate of the U.S. National Science Foundation. This paper drafts the rationale for the new effort, the ongoing planning effort, and probable future plans. For now, the primary area of need for early adolescence are: better information about science education, formal and informal instructional programs, and research and case studies of learning, development, and instructional practices. The program's first priority will be the expansion of the information base, followed by development of prototype models for in-service and pre-service staff improvement.

The article reports on the inventory that should facilitate conversation, communication, and assessment of programs and goals in secondary science teacher education in the U.S. The features of this contemporary idealized program have been used as a basis for the development of The Science Teacher Education Inventory presented in the paper. Teacher educators are invited to use the inventory that follows; it can be completed in about one hour. The inventory can be used in self-assessment, and it should promote dialog concerning the relative importance of some of the items. It should stimulate a sharing of insights, instructional approaches program emphases and goals. It should facilitate program change.

The article explains revisions on the Science curricula of Japan and the introduction of a new Basic Science curricula. The paper describes science in the revised curricula which includes the newly set-up Basic Science in addition to Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Earth Sciences. The authors state that Basic Science aims at the acquisition of integral ways of thinking and observing nature through studying the course alone and is similar to the integrated science courses in other countries. The paper outlines the nature, objectives, content, and treatment of Basic Science.

A list of educational courses related to science in various states of the U.S. is presented. The list includes Study Outlines for the English Year Science, Courses of Study in Biology, Elementary Science in the Elementary School Curriculum in Pasadena, Science Units Grade 6 in Shorewood, The Progress of Science, Courses of Study in Science for Junior High School in Malden.

The article focuses on the report of two courses in chemistry taught at Cragin Elementary School in the U.S. The study is aimed to encourage and stimulate inclination toward science and to show the children what the researched laboratories looked like. Furthermore, safety has been suggested throughout the chemistry courses. The article the features the design and demonstration of the chemistry experiments. Finally, a sample a test paper and chemistry test has been presented.

The paper presents a general paradigm for the structuring of a science course behaviorally and cites examples of behavioral schema from the life sciences. The first step in structuring a course behaviorally is to decide upon the terminal behaviors. These behaviors indicate what the student should be able to do when he completes the program. The essence of good curriculum development is the sequencing of instructional paradigms to maximize learning and minimize the duplication of previously learned material. Behavioral objectives should form an integral part of the process.

The article presents information on the use of models as a valuable adjunct to learning and participating in the scientific enterprise. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has proposed the concept of models at the elementary level, integrating steps in learning the scientific approach. According to the AAAS the activity of model formulation should help to give the student a real "feel" for the potentialities and satisfactions of the scientific approach. According to the educator R.D. Anderson, a "mental model" is a theoretical form or structure which is hypothesized on the basis of observations of natural phenomena. The Physical Science Study Committee has described models as ideas, pictures, systems of concepts which describe the things one investigate. The construction of a physical or mathematical models is the creative heart of all science. A paper "The Scientific Approach to Knowledge" by the AAAS states that the best way to achieve the generalization and retention of "process" skills is to continue to provide for a kind of "process" emphasis in instruction. Students should be instructed in the scientific approach to the generation of organized knowledge.

The article presents an analysis of the mathematical concepts necessary for the college physical science course in the U.S. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the physical science course at Western Michigan University to determine the mathematical concepts with which the student must be familiar in order to understand the physical concepts involved in the course material. According to the author the outline of the workbook prepared by the physical science staff at the university constitutes the outline of the material to be studied and includes wealth of questions and exercises.

This article presents a study that discusses various issues related to the construction and validation of a test aimed at measuring various aspects of scientific thinking in the curriculum of the first year college physics. The study is based on various assumptions. These assumptions are: scientific thinking represents numerous components and independent abilities, the abilities associated with scientific thinking may have a relation with abilities measured by intelligence and factual information tests, and the abilities involved in scientific thinking can be measured by paper and pencil tests which are constructed in an objective form.

The article discusses various subjects published within the issue, including the students' science learning, science teacher education, science curriculum organization and science assessment instruments, and the investigations concerning a common core of science education questions and problems.

ABSTRACT Few, if any, studies have examined the impact of nature of science (NOS) instruction on science teachers' practices 2 or more years after completing a science teacher education program. Extant studies on preservice and first-year teachers' NOS teaching practices have had disappointing results, with few teachers valuing NOS as a cognitive objective or teaching it in ways consistent with literature regarding effective NOS instruction. In addition, little is known about teachers' specific NOS practices due to a lack of observation protocols to assess teachers' NOS instruction. This study examined teachers' NOS instructional practices 2-5 years after completing an intensive secondary science education program that included a NOS course and attention to NOS instruction throughout all other science education coursework. Twelve of the 13 study participants explicitly taught NOS, and 9 of the 13 did so at moderate to high levels. This paper also presents a NOS Classroom Observation Protocol (NOS-COP) designed to make evident many facets of teachers' NOS implementation practices that have not always been clear in prior research. This study raises important issues about achieving the goal of NOS instruction. Accurate and effective NOS instruction appears achievable, but may require far more effort than found in typical science teacher education programs. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 97:271-309, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper argues that Bourdieu's notion of cultural capital has significant value for identifying the 'worth' of a science education. His notion of 'embodied,' 'objectified,' and 'institutionalized' cultural capital is used as a theoretical lens to identify both the intrinsic value of scientific knowledge and its extrinsic value for future employment. This analysis suggests that science education misses three opportunities to establish its value to its students and the wider public. First, science education commonly has a poor understanding of the nature of embodied capital that it offers, failing to communicate the cultural achievement that science represents. Second, it fails to see itself as a means of developing the critical dispositions of mind, which are the hallmark of a scientist but also useful to all citizens. Third, given the policy emphasis on educating the next generation of scientists, it fails to exploit the one major element of cultural capital that science education is currently seen to offer by scientists, the public, and its students-that is the value that science qualifications have for future employment. Bourdieu's concept that the primary function of education is to sustain the culture and privilege of the dominant groups in society offers a lens that helps to identify how and why these apparent contradictions exist. Drawing on Bourdieu's ideas, we develop a perspective to critique current practice and identify the possible contributions science education might make to remediating social injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers are increasingly faced with questions of how to teach the students in diverse classrooms in ways that are responsive to their experiences outside of the classroom. This paper presents a case study of how one 6th-grade teacher in a midwestern city enacts the Choice, Control, and Change (C3) curriculum, a curriculum based on the concept of dynamic equilibrium (energy in/energy out) in science-rich and culturally relevant ways. We analyze how she used what we call 'transformative boundary objects' to leverage students' cultural knowledge and experiences of food and activity practices and systems to support the learning community in (a) developing an awareness of and trying on the norms and practices of science and (b) legitimizing the values, discourses, and practices of their everyday lives, the first two tenets of Ladson-Billings (1995a, 1995b) culturally relevant teaching, to transform the traditional discourses and practices of school science. We particularly focus on Ladson-Billings third tenet, (c), the development of critical consciousness, showing how the teacher uses transformative boundary objects to transform science learning into a context where traditional boundaries between students lives and school science are blurred, and a critical consciousness about how the food system works and its connections to their everyday food choices is supported. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 1-31, 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing scientific explanations and participating in argumentative discourse are seen as essential practices of scientific inquiry (e.g., R. Driver, P. Newton, & J. Osborne, 2000). In this paper, we identify three goals of engaging in these related scientific practices: (1) sensemaking, (2) articulating, and (3) persuading. We propose using these goals to understand student engagement with these practices, and to design instructional interventions to support students. Thus, we use this framework as a lens to investigate the question: What successes and challenges do students face as they engage in the scientific practices of explanation and argumentation? We study this in the context of a curriculum that provides students and teachers with an instructional framework for constructing and defending scientific explanations. Through this analysis, we find that students consistently use evidence to make sense of phenomenon and articulate those understandings but they do not consistently attend to the third goal of persuading others of their understandings. Examining the third goal more closely reveals that persuading others of an understanding requires social interactions that are often inhibited by traditional classroom interactions. Thus, we conclude by proposing design strategies for addressing the social challenges inherent in the related scientific practices of explanation and argumentation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed93:26–55, 2009 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In evaluating the success of teacher development programs, valid and scalable measures of teaching practice are needed. We have developed and validated the Science Lesson Plan Analysis Instrument (SLPAI) for quantitative evaluation of teacher-generated multiday lesson plans. This paper presents the SLPAI as a complement to surveys and classroom observation, and demonstrates its use in 2 pilot studies. The SLPAI was used formatively to measure the teaching practices of incoming program cohorts and tailor program instruction. It was also used to track changes in teaching practice and pedagogical knowledge of participants over time, providing summative evidence of program effectiveness. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed92:1096–1126, 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, instructional strategies for sustaining model-based inquiry in an undergraduate chemistry class were analyzed through data collected from classroom observations, a student survey, and in-depth problem-solving sessions with the instructor and students. Analysis of teacher–student interactions revealed a cyclical pattern in which students generated, evaluated, and modified (GEM) hypotheses throughout the course. It is hypothesized that sustained involvement in the GEM cycle contributed to students' engagement with scientific inquiry and model construction and revision. As such, GEM represents a promising approach toward achieving process and content goals in the undergraduate chemistry classroom. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed, 91:877–905, 2007 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on the status of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in science curricula is currently centered on a juxtaposition of two incompatible frameworks: multiculturalism and universalism. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework that overcomes this opposition between multiculturalism and universalism in science education, so that they become but one-sided expressions of an integrated unit. To be able to do so, we abandon the concept of “truth.” Instead, we adopt a contemporary epistemology that (a) entails both the cultural and material aspects of human, intersubjective reality; (b) concerns the usefulness of knowledge; and (c) highlights the dynamic, heterogeneous, and plural nature of products of human being and understanding. Drawing on narratives of scientists and aboriginal people explaining a comparable natural phenomenon (a salmon run), we show that both TEK and scientific knowledge, though simultaneously available, are incommensurable and irreducible to each other, as are the different processes of knowledge construction/evolution inherent to the constituting artifacts. Drawing on social studies of science, we point out that the transcendent nature of scientific knowledge implies absence of local heterogeneity, dynamic, and plurality making it useless in local contexts other than itself. We discuss the educational implications of this recalibration. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed, 91:926–947, 2007 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper focuses on ninth graders' difficulties in learning ecology. Three dimensions, in addition to the macrolevel dimension, were identified as basic obstacles that might hinder students' meaningful learning of ecology: the microlevel dimension, relating to the molecular and micro processes of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems; the spatial dimension of ecosystems, regarding simultaneous occurrences in space and the multiple roles of their biotic elements; and the time dimension, relating to long-term evolutionary forces acting in ecosystems. These four dimensions were examined in students' understanding of the concept of food chains in ecosystems. Four ninth grade classrooms participated in the study. Two of the classes studied ecology in the traditional mode and served as a control. Two classes were exposed to a novel, specifically designed learning, including a special curriculum to guide students' active involvement in a self-regulated process of inquiry. A qualitative analysis of students' written responses and recorded verbal interactions was used, as well as simple quantitative methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research on the reform of physics education in Malaysia. The educational change is designed to accommodate and facilitate the changes taking place within the country such as environmental pollution, congestion in mass transits, communication breakdowns, and an increasing economic disparity within the population. In this connection, Malaysian science and science-based education has been straightened out by changing its syllabus, philosophies of education and teaching styles. Physics education has been revised based on British models to modify the format and method of teaching the subject that will be based on learning through guided discovery strategy.

With the increasing interest in application of Piagetian theory for curriculum design and evaluation, the use of Piagetian formal operational tasks to quantify gains in intellectual development has and will continue to become more widespread (e.g., McKinnon and Renner, 1971; Bass and Montague, 1972). In two previous papers, formal operational tasks involving flexible metal rods (Bredderman, 1973) and density conservation (Brainerd and Allen, 1971) were used as pre-post measures of the relative effects of training procedures on experimental subjects. Although in both studies, experimental groups showed significant gains on the posttests, the control groups surprisingly showed similar gains. These results indicate that, at least in some instances, gains attributed to training procedures or curricular programs may possibly be due to a learning effect of taking and retaking the same Piagetian formal operational tasks and not to the experimental treatment. What this indicates in terms of the theory and the particular experimental situation is not entirely clear. However, one thing is clear. This apparent learning effect due to taking and retaking the same Piagetian formal operational tasks, as well as task and interexaminer reliabilities, are crucial concerns if meaningful analyses of intellectual levels and intellectual gains are to be conducted using these admittedly subjective Piagetian measures. The general purposes of this study were to analyze responses on five Piagetian formal operational tasks in a test-retest situation to determine the extent to which taking a pretest effected scores on posttests and to determine task and examiner reliabilities. More specifically this study addressed itself to the following questions. (1) Do subjects show significant improvement on five Piagetian formal operational tasks in a test-retest situation with no intervening treatment? (2)What are the test-retest reliability coefficients of the five tasks? (3) Can two examiners obtain consistent measures of subject performance using interviews and scoring procedures patterned after the relatively subjective Piagetian format? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A physics course like any other course, is rooted in a disposition of largely subjective points of view. Implicit in every chapter of a textbook, every set of instructions in a lab guide, every admonition in a teacher's manual, are assumptions about the nature of knowledge and of science, theories of learning and of education, and beliefs about the teacher's role and the school's potential. An attempt is made in this paper to infer from official statements and from course materials some of the assumptions and theoretical positions which underlie the following high school physics courses: Nuffield physics, ECCP's ‘The Man Made World,’ Harvard Project Physics, and PSSC Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of modeling, feedback, and practice variables to influence science teacher behavior. The author suggests that the skills of a science teacher can be identified, both verbal and non-verbal, and that the skills can be achieved through training. It is argued that there is a need to differentiate between a teacher training model emphasizing teaching teachers science and science curricula, to one which emphasizes modifying their behavior in specific ways which may permit more effective science teaching styles.

The article discusses modified programming for elementary science. Programmed learning in the area of science instruction is not a new idea. Like most other areas, however, science programmed learning in general covers only the acquisition of facts and leaves the applicaiton of facts to the classroom teacher. The use of facts then comes after the programmed experience is completed. Also, programmed learning generally neglects a major goal of good science instruction. However, if some modification in the structure of a programmed experience were made, facts could be acquired in the spirit of investigation, which, in turn could foster the appropriate attitudes, interests and appreciations.

The article discusses the research paper "Improving science instruction in an American school in Brazil," presented at the Biology Seminar at State University College at Brockport, New York on March 22, 1966. The author points out that 10 schools have been established in Brazil catering to American students and offering a complete curriculum in the English language, from 1921-1961. He outlines his functions as elementary and high school science coordinator at the Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro. A chart is presented that shows the number of graduates of class of 1965 at the Escola Amaricana who will be attending institutions of higher leaning, as of May 1965.

The article describes a comparison of theories and their relationships with the science curriculum. The paper is intended as a preliminary comparative discussion of the status of theory making in physics and the social sciences, with the thought of adding some impetus to an ecumenical movement long overdue in the sciences, involving both social and physical theory. A correlative problem is presented by differences between (a) the nature and function of history and the other social disciplines, and (b) theory making in the physical and biological sciences. The author claims that these differences represent good theoretical problems. As curricular issues of school education, they are crucial.

The article discusses an experiment in designing an effective one-semester high school Physical Science course. An approach that uses cooperative planning with the students was employed in the study. In proceeding with the study, the possibilities that the class could undertake within the scope of physical science was listed on a paper in the pre-planning stage. The teacher emphasized that democratic control of the class would prevail. The use of activity learning showed its value in the willingness and confidence displayed by students in demonstration work and term projects. The teacher gave anonymous evaluations half way through the course and during the term project presentations to determine the degree of satisfaction on the part of the students.