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Postulating that academic papers can positively impact the actual teaching practices of science teachers, this study analysed the process of understanding and utilising academic papers by science teachers to teach scientific creativity in their schools. The 45--hour graduate course of three science teachers was explored to identify the difficulties teachers encountered in trying to understand academic papers and to discover how to solve these difficulties. Second, which aspects should be considered when developing teaching materials for scientific creativity to be used in schools were analysed. A transformation model of an academic paper was proposed to understand this process, and the results were organised accordingly. According to this model, it was emphasized to translate academic papers from a general and abstract state to a local and concrete state. Therefore, the role of science educators as knowledge translators was discussed for more practical and effective use of academic papers in school. This study is expected to contribute to research-based teaching by linking academic research with teaching practice.

This article focuses on the dilemmas science educators face when having to introduce Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) to science student teachers in a predominantly paper-based distance learning environment. It draws on the premise that science education is bound by the Nature of Science (NOS), and by the Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI). Furthermore, science educators' own PCK, and the limitations of a predominantly paper-based distance education (DE) model of delivery are challenges that they have to face when introducing PCK and authentic inquiry-based learning experiences. It deprives them and their students from optimal engagement in a science-oriented community of practice, and leaves little opportunity to establish flourishing communities of inquiry. This study carried out a contextual analysis of the tutorial material to assess the PCK that the student teachers had been exposed to. This comprised the ideas of a community of inquiry, a community of science, the conceptualization of PCK, scientific inquiry, and the 5E Instructional Model of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. The analysis confirmed that the lecturers had a good understanding of NOS, NOSI and science process skills, but found it difficult to design interventions to optimize the PCK development of students through communities of inquiry. Paper-based tutorials are ideal to share theory, policies and practices, but fail to monitor the engagement of learners in communities of inquiry. The article concludes with a number of suggestions to address the apparent lack of impact power of the paper-based mode of delivery, specifically in relation to inquiry-based teaching and learning (IBTL).

Stereoscopy's potential as a tool for science education has been largely eclipsed by its popularity as an entertainment platform and marketing gimmick. Dozens of empirical papers have been published in the last decade about the impact of stereoscopy on learning. As a result, a corpus of research now points to a coherent message about how, when, and where stereoscopy can be most effective in supporting science education. This position paper synthesizes that research with examples from three studies recently completed and published by the authors of this paper. Results of the synthesis point towards generally limited successful uses of stereoscopic media in science education with a pocket of potentially beneficial applications. Our position is that stereoscopy should be used only where its unique properties can accommodate specific requirements of understanding topics and tasks--namely visualizations where the spatial sense of depth is germane to conveying core ideas and cognitive load is high. Stereoscopy's impact on learning is also related to the spatial ability of the viewer. More research is needed on the effect of novelty, long-term learning and possible learning differences between the various methods of implementing stereoscopy.

The Australian Science Teachers Association offers an innovative international professional development program for science teachers called the Science Teachers Exchange -- Japan. The program offers Australian and Japanese teachers an opportunity to travel to the corresponding country, allowing the teachers to grow in their knowledge of the culture and teaching practices of that country and potentially develop national and international networks. The article herein was written by Takeshi Tsuji, an elementary teacher from Tokyo, who participated in the 2017 Exchange program to Australia. As part of this program, Tsuji visited Mudgeeraba Creek State School on the Gold Coast, where he observed a fifth grade STEM lesson taught by STEM science teacher Megan Hayes, and later taught a lesson to the same class. On entering Hayes' classroom, Tsuji immediately noticed a large poster with the word 'FAIL' on it; an acronym standing for 'First Attempt In Learning'. It translates to "failure = first step in learning," meaning that learning starts from failure. This [unedited] translation of the article -- taken from a Japanese equivalent to "Teaching Science" -- takes on the theme of how students face failure and how teachers can deepen classroom learning with this acronym in mind.

While some research had been done on K-12 and planetarium astronomy teaching from the 1930's to the 1980's, the growth of research on college physics education offered astronomy education researchers a model for examining techniques for teaching introductory college astronomy survey "Astronomy 101" courses as well. This early research was published in widely scattered journals and rarely reached the practitioners of astronomy education. The need to inform and unite the community of astronomy educators led to the birth of the journal "Astronomy Education Review," whose history and sudden death is analyzed. This paper provides a short history of publishing astronomy education research results and provides context for the advent of the new "Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education" (JAESE).

Teachers' professional knowledge is assumed to be a key variable for effective teaching. As teacher education has the goal to enhance professional knowledge of current and future teachers, this knowledge should be described and assessed. Nevertheless, only a limited number of studies quantitatively measures physics teachers' professional knowledge. The study reported in this paper was part of a bigger project with the broader goal of understanding teacher professional knowledge. We designed a test instrument to assess the professional knowledge of physics teachers (N = 186) in the dimensions of "content knowledge" (CK), "pedagogical content knowledge" (PCK), and "pedagogical knowledge" (PK). A model describing the relationships between these three dimensions of professional knowledge was created to inform the design of the tests used to measure CK, PCK, and PK. In this paper, we describe the model with particular emphasis on the PCK part, and the subsequent PCK test development and its implementation in detail. We report different approaches to evaluate the PCK test, including the description of content validity, the examination of the internal structure of professional knowledge, and the analysis of construct validity by testing teachers across different school subjects, teachers from different school types, pre-service teachers, and physicists. Our findings demonstrate that our PCK test results could distinguish physics teachers from the other groups tested. The PCK test results could not be explained by teachers' CK or PK, cognitive abilities, computational skills, or science knowledge.

The study aimed to investigate cognitive and metacognitive strategies and products of cognitive and metacognitive processes that preservice science teachers engaged in while reading heat-temperature text after being exposed to no reading strategy instruction, explicit reading strategy instruction,and peer tutoring reading strategy instruction. This study differs from other strategy teaching studies in terms of determining the cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies used by individuals after being exposed to different types of reading strategy instruction, which which was specifically designed to improve conceptual understanding. This study employed holistic multiplecase study wherein preservice teachers were assigned to one of the three groups that received no reading strategy instruction (n = 9), explicit reading strategy instruction (n = 10), and peer tutoring (n = 10) based on their scores on Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory and good communication among them. The content of strategy instruction included various domain-specific reading comprehension strategies used for activating cognitive and metacognitive processes that contribute to improving conceptual understanding and conceptual change. It was found that the diversity and frequency of using cognitive strategies and products of cognitive processes were the highest in the explicit strategy instruction group, and the metacognitive strategies and products of metacognitive processes were more diverse and frequent in reading strategy instruction groups compared to no strategy instruction group. [Paper presented at the National Science and Mathematics Education Congress (13th, Denizli, Turkey).]

The present paper attempts to answer the following research questions: (1) What are students' attitudes towards distance education during COVID-19? (2) What are students' feelings and opinions towards online education? (3) What are the impacts of distance learning on students' development of their PCK skills? And (4) What is students' academic achievement in taught online science education courses? To collect data, a total sample of 117 students enrolled in undergraduate program for science teaching at the elementary level, was used. Data was collected over three semesters, during the academic years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. The data collection tools used are: a. a questionnaire administered to students enrolled in their 2nd through the 6th semesters, at the Faculty of Education, Lebanese University, at the end of science education courses, b. students' grades in formative and summative assessments in science education courses, c. students' drawing themselves as remote learners, and d. a post-interview of a purposeful sample. Data analysis was done using interim analysis in the form of post-zoom class conferences and data validation using member check at the end of courses. Findings showed that students at the beginning of the state successive and long lockdowns were happy to learn remotely. But as time passes, they were dissatisfied with online learning, 38% of students missed the campus life and 16% lacked the interaction with their teachers and classmates. In addition, students' academic performance decreased significantly and many were concerned about the little expertise to deal with students in real classes. For 57% of students, distance learning was difficult than classroom, and 70.5% admitted that home environment was not suitable for participating in online lectures due to distractions by their families. Quality teaching and the need for evaluation the online teaching/learning process at the level of the Faculty of Education and the Lebanese University is an urgent need. [This paper was presented at ICSES Conference, Antalya, Turkey, 10-13 November 2022.]

The aim of this study is to provide training for science teachers on batteries, areas of use of batteries, types of batteries, things that should be paid attention to while using batteries, waste batteries, and collection, handling, recovery and/or disposal of waste batteries, and help teachers receiving the training to raise awareness among grade 5 students on these issues. The study was carried out with 58 science teachers and 575 secondary school grade 5 students. Within the scope of the study, a detailed training on the issue was provided to the teachers and attempts at raising awareness among students in four lessons were made by the teachers receiving the training. Data were obtained by making students draw "adventure of the waste battery" themed pictures and write "story of the waste battery" themed compositions as a pre-test before the workshop and a post-test after the workshop. Data were analyzed using content analysis. As a result of the study, it was observed that awareness was raised among students on the elements available in batteries, battery powered objects, points of disposal for waste batteries, places of waste battery bins, recycling of waste batteries, positive effects of collection of waste batteries, negative effects of waste batteries, and things to be done to avoid these negative effects. [This study was presented as an oral presentation at 6th National Chemistry Education Congress, Hacettepe University on 2-4 May 2019.]

This paper describes a study in which five physical science teachers were requested to take photographs and describe the science concepts embedded in these. Particularly, the science had to be relevant to the grade 10-grade 12 curriculum they were teaching. This study was an exploratory case study employing qualitative methods. To analyze data from the study, the four-field method for analyzing photographs was used (Käpylä, 2014). The analysis reveals that in all the narratives accompanying the captured photographs, the Indirect Observation-Cognitive Domain dominated. The overall findings of the study demonstrate that the corresponding narrations reflect the cognitive role of photographs. However, this paper argues that phenomenological thinking about human experience connects emotions and personal and social meanings to factual knowledge and knowledge structures, therefore these purposes of pictures in teaching and learning of physical science could be divided into cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.

This study is an attempt to examine science teachers' views on Argumentation-Based Science Learning (ABSL) and the activities they have prepared. The study employed a qualitative case study method. The working group consisted of 5 science teachers who work in secondary schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in Turkey and who have master's degree. This study deployed the "Semi-structured Preliminary Interview Form", "The Evaluation Rubric related to the Activities Based on Argumentation-Based Science Learning " and "Semi-structured Final Interview Form". Content analysis and descriptive analysis were used during data analysis. The results revealed that the teachers' perceptions towards ABSL before the implementation were mostly grounded on giving opinions and argumentation. Four teachers did not use ABSL in lessons before and they did not prepare any activities. On analyzing the activities prepared by the teachers through use of ABSL, all the teachers were identified to consider grade level, unit, subject area, learning outcome and associating them with daily life while preparing the activities. The teachers were also determined to use concept cartoons, competing theories with stories, and experiment design techniques in the activity papers. Besides, the Toulmin argumentation model steps were taken into consideration in the activity papers. Concerning the analysis of last interview data, teachers' perceptions towards ABSL were found to be opinions, claims, opposing ideas and arguments. The teachers also indicated that they avoided creating misconceptions and that they took into account the student and grade levels in the ABSL activities. In addition, the teachers noted that preparing the activity is time-consuming and unsuitable for every subject. This study is paramount in terms of giving information to teachers and pre-service teachers related to the teachers' views on ABSL and how they have prepared ABSL activities.

Reflective practice can guide educators toward enhancing their abilities, comprehension, and expertise, reflecting on their experiences to grow personally, professionally, and academically, thereby elevating the overall standard of their work. This paper aims to narrate the perception, practice, challenges, opportunities, and outcomes of reflective practices among STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) educators in Nepal. Using narrative inquiry, we explored the reflective practice experiences of four STEAM educators, (three female and one male). Interview guidelines were used as a data collection tool to generate the participants' narratives. The guiding theoretical referents for this study were Dewey's theory of experience and Mezirow's transformative learning theory. The findings of this study show that STEAM educators perceived reflective practice as a tool to reflect on their actions, evaluate them, and learn from their experiences. Participants emphasized that teaching is a dynamic job with many challenges; however, reflective practices helped them realize their weaknesses and refine their efforts to create a better learning environment. It also enabled them to shift from traditional pedagogical practices to progressive ones, where learners were empowered through authentic and meaningful engagement in the learning process. Time management was seen as a significant challenge when practicing reflective practices; sometimes, the ego clash demotivated them to reflect on their actions. Despite challenges, participants also accepted that reflective practices allow them to explore and apply new ideas in their profession and transform their practices. Consequently, the perspectives offered in this paper may prove beneficial for other educators in cultivating reflective practitioners.

This paper presents important findings that were observed as interconnected key elements of high-quality co-teaching of a physics course for pre-service science teachers while the collaborating faculty experienced a "pedagogical convergence." This pedagogical convergence is akin to the "conceptual convergence" that Roschelle (1992) has described as being a central mechanism in conceptual change learning. Four elements of that pedagogical convergence are identified and discussed: two found within Roschelle's framework and two recognized by the faculty members through their reflection on the course. This pedagogical convergence had a significant positive influence on the design and, more importantly, the implementation of the co-taught physics course, resulting in a productive and impactful collaboration between the two faculty members. The paper includes perspectives from both faculty members on each element of the pedagogical convergence and students as well as on the teaching context and critical aspects of practice. The ideas in the paper should provide college faculty members meaningful directions as to how co-teaching could be implemented across a range of science disciplines and the framework can serve as a foundation for creating a co-taught college science course.

Despite longstanding calls for social justice-oriented teaching, there remains limited understanding of how to achieve it. This paper reports findings from a research-development project that explored the experiences of UK-based primary science teacher educators participating in a nine-month equity-oriented professional development programme and offers insights for supporting teacher learning for social justice. Analysis of written reflections and open-ended interviews with 15 teacher educators identified three types of reflection that supported justice-oriented practice: personal privilege in relation to race, class, gender and science; the norms and values of educational professional development; and practical implementation of justice-orientated professional development with teachers and schools. We discuss the importance of creating safe and brave spaces for critical reflection for primary science teacher educators and highlight the productive potential of experiences of discomfort that generated humility, empathy and insights that resulted in more equitable practice. The paper underlines the value of supporting educators to embrace discomfort as part of social justice-orientated professional development and calls for a greater valuing of and support for expanded models of professional development that foreground critical reflection and go beyond 'top tips', 'quick fixes', and dominant norms around professional 'politeness'.

This paper answers the call for the importance of integrating the Islamic worldview into science classes. This research provides insights into science teachers' experiences of integrating science and Islam, as well as additional surveys to reveal gains in student understanding. This research consists of two stages. Study 1 used phenomenology and focused on the voice of science teachers through focus groups. This research involved five focus groups in five Islamic high schools providing information describing their experiences. Through thematic analysis techniques, several findings were obtained as follows: (1) the concept of integration emphasises more on the balance of compliance between vertical and horizontal; (2) the integration pattern places more emphasis on learning materials; and (3) in terms of benefits, this effort is focused on increasing understanding and followed by study 2 which aims to add to the evidence base by investigating the effect of integration patterns on student understanding. The results showed that there is evidence that the support of an overarching integration pattern contributes to students' understanding of the material. As a recommendation, it is necessary to strengthen integration at all stages of science learning, allowing students to take advantage of discussions in class to develop more relevant abilities.

An alternative to insert history of science (HS) in teacher formation programs is the use of concept maps (CM), which may be very useful to represent the historical elaboration dimension of science concepts, laws, and principles. This paper presents the results of a study that identifies the conceptions of pre-service physics teachers about the relationships between CM hierarchical organization and knowledge elaboration in HS. In the first stage of the research, the content analysis methodology was used to analyze and categorize the students' answers to questions concerning the relationships between CM hierarchical organization and HS. In the second stage, the answers of a different group of pre-service teachers were analyzed concerning the level of agreement with the categories previously elaborated. The students associated CM hierarchical organization with knowledge improvement, elucidation of the importance level of the concepts, and the relationships between more general and more specific contents. We point out that the use of CM in HS subjects may contribute to the pre-service teachers associating HS concepts not in a chronological way, but in hierarchical order, from the most general to the most specific ones.

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is considered an important ingredient in shaping classroom practice. PCK requires valid measurement at domain-specific level on different components excluding the teaching context. While the research focuses on measuring the PCK of unqualified teachers and pre-service teachers, the description of qualified teachers' domain-specific PCK is often overlooked. The purpose of this study was to measure quantitatively the domain-specific PCK of qualified physics teachers focusing on the five PCK components: content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, assessment knowledge, knowledge of students and curricular knowledge. Data were collected through the paper-and pencil PCK test that was responded to by 87 Physics teachers teaching the last two years of secondary school. Data were analyzed using the Extended Rasch Model and descriptive statistics. The results revealed that Physics teachers have a low PCK in general and low levels of PCK components, the lowest being content knowledge. The study recommends regular refresher workshops for qualified teachers focused on developing different PCK components, with more emphasis on content knowledge.

Science teachers play a crucial role in the science education system, significantly influencing the development of students. However, existing research highlights issues such as a wide age span and uneven quality among science teachers, which undermines the effectiveness of science education. In addition, the role of science teachers can be ambiguously defined, leading to confusion about their responsibilities. To better understand the current situation and future development trend of research on the role of science teachers in China and overseas, this study compares and analyses a total of 30 documents on the role of science teachers in Chinese or English. The documents were from Web of science or CNKI databases. Content analysis was applied on time of publication, volume of papers, research topic, and similarities and differences of the role development of science teachers in China or overseas. Results show that: (1) At present, the development trend of research on the role of science teachers published in English and Chinese is relatively slow and has not received due attention. Most mainstream research paradigms are still in the stage of theoretical exploration; (2) the research theme of the role of science teachers mainly includes five aspects: Role expectation, role orientation, role identification, role transformation, and role; (3) the "should be" research published in Chinese and the "real" research published in English should be combined and form a positive interaction. This study is helpful to systematically analyze the current situation of research on the role of science teachers, with a view to providing a basis for subsequent research on the role of science teachers.

Many studies have recently focused on the importance of the effective integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in science education and the need for science teachers to receive adequate training and support to use them effectively. This paper aims to explore the Albanian science teachers' perceptions and use of ICTs in teaching processes. The study provides an interpretative analysis of the opinions of science teachers teaching in the middle and high schools of several Albanian regions expressed in an online survey. Overall, the results suggest that the use of ICT by science teachers in Albania is limited by a lack of proper infrastructure, limited access to technology, and training of teachers on integrating technology. However, there are indications that the adoption of ICT in science education may increase in the future, particularly after the boost from the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

This paper describes an approach to working with secondary preservice mathematics and science (M&S) teachers to develop their ability to design for active learning. It presents the design of a studio-style intervention that augments existing teacher education. It describes the way that these studios can be organised, with specific suggestions that a specialised learning designer, a subject matter expert, and administrative support be included to aid in the design for learning--on the justification that this can both improve the learning design as well as advance teacher learning. It describes a study in which 10 secondary M&S preservice teachers experienced this style of studio, through iterations of learning design sessions and teaching practice. The studio differs from existing models (such as the 'clinical model') through its focus on learning design, the structure of the learning network, and the way that it augments (rather than replaces) existing teacher education. The paper presents results from the study in terms of teacher self-efficacy and self-reported perceptions. It discusses a set of design principles that emerged through the process of developing and testing this model and proposes considerations for researchers or teacher educators looking to use a similar approach in future by focusing on the roles, tasks, and activities for members within the network.

Assessment policy internationally places significant importance on the use of assessment criteria across all subject areas. However, in order to ensure effective use of criteria, it is critical for teachers to develop an in-depth understanding of them. This paper reports on a study of a range of Australian Science teachers' views and uses of criteria in practical work. Six Science teachers working in secondary schools across Sydney were interviewed, their classroom activities were observed, and the data obtained were analysed using a qualitative constant comparative method. The findings indicate that despite the emphasis on Assessment for Learning (AfL) in assessment policy in Australia, teachers generally consider criteria as a marking tool, for Assessment of Learning (AoL), rather than a learning instrument. Consequently, they use criteria exclusively as a framework for assigning grades. This paper argues that teachers need to consider the use of criteria from a learning perspective in addition to its other multipurpose functions.

The paper reports about the outcome of a systematic review of research on family resemblance approach (FRA) to nature of science in (NOS) science education. FRA is a relatively recent perspective on NOS being a system of cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional aspects of science. FRA thus consists of a set of categories such as aims and values, practices, knowledge and social organizations in relation to NOS. Since the introduction of the FRA, there has been increasing interest in investigations about how FRA can be of use in science education both empirically and practically. A journal content analysis was conducted in order to investigate which FRA categories are covered in journal articles and to identify the characteristics of the studies that have used FRA. These characteristics included the target level of education and focus on pre- or in-service teachers. Furthermore, epistemic network analysis of theoretical and empirical papers was conducted to determine the extent to which the studies incorporated various key themes about FRA, such as its transferability to other domains and differentiation of the social-institutional system categories. The findings illustrate an increasing number of empirical studies using FRA in recent years and broad coverage in science education. Although the social-institutional system categories included intraconnections, these were not as strong as those intraconnections among categories within the cognitive-epistemic system. Future research directions for the use of FRA in K-12 science education are discussed.

Nine years after reconceptualizing the nature of science for science education using the family resemblance approach (FRA) (Erduran & Dagher, 2014a), the time is ripe for taking stock of what this approach has accomplished, and what future research it can facilitate. This reflective paper aims to accomplish three goals. The first addresses several questions related to the FRA for the purpose of ensuring that the applications of FRA in science education are based on robust understanding of the framework. The second discusses the significance of the FRA by highlighting its capacity to support science educators with the exploration of a wide range of contemporary issues that are relevant to how teachers and learners perceive and experience science. The third goal of the paper offers recommendations for future directions in FRA research in the areas of science identity development and multicultural education as well as curriculum, instruction, and assessment in science education.