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In the field of science education, adults often set up practical-based activities with the idea of stimulating children's reasoning and approaching science in a playful way. Although the potential role of objects in stimulating social practices has been considered in the literature, how teachers work on semiotic aspects of argumentation is still less explored. In this paper, the purpose is to identify how practice-based experiences settled up by teachers shape children's argumentation in science education. We analyzed argumentation in science tasks involving a total of 39 children (6–7 years old) and their three teachers, coming from two different classrooms of cycle 1 (Harmos, grades 3–4)1 recruited in the French speaking-part of Switzerland. The tasks were video-recorded and then transcribed. Through the lenses of the pragma-dialectical approach, we selected the argumentative discussions emerging during the experiences and we performed a qualitative analysis of these interactions, by looking at different semiotic resources: speech, gaze direction, deictic gestures, and position of physical objects. The findings show that teachers play a crucial role in sustaining children's argumentation by the integration of different semiotic resources during the activities. As argumentation in classroom evolves through the mobilization of various communicative tools, the present study can contribute to strengthen the interplay between different channels of interaction during science education at primary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether enough highly qualified STEM workers are being educated and trained in the UK is an important question. The answer has implications not only for educators, employers and policymakers but also for individuals who are currently engaged in, or are considering entering, education or training in this area. Set against a policy backdrop that prioritises students studying more science for longer, this paper considers long-term patterns of participation in STEM education – from school science through to graduate entry into the highly skilled STEM labour market. Using a unique dataset that extends across seven decades and comprises many hundreds of thousands of students, the paper finds that patterns of participation in most STEM subjects have varied little over the period considered; suggesting that efforts to increase the numbers of students studying science in school has had limited impact on the throughput of students who study STEM, including the pure sciences, at university level and, subsequently, on the number of graduates who would be available to undertake highly skilled work in areas for which degree-level skills are a pre-requisite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering is receiving unprecedented attention in early childhood and elementary classrooms. Teachers of young children may recognize the ways young children act as natural engineers as they design and create with materials from the classroom or playground. Everyday experiences such as choosing the type of bag: paper, plastic, or a reusable cloth bag at the grocery store can also be used to build explorations with engineering design and challenges. The meaningful integration of children's literature with engineering design challenges provides the further benefit of supporting the kinds of literacy instruction fundamental to primary classrooms. One method to consider is the use of Text Sets, a strategy from literacy that involves the selection and use of a variety of texts chosen intentionally along one or more dimensions where multiple kinds of texts might meet multiple needs or purposes. Lesson suggestions are provided for using text sets of books from different literary genres including biography, narrative, expository, and procedural books and activities to explore the properties of paper, plastic, and fabric with preschool through second grade students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of elementary science teaching is challenging given the wide array of subject matter most teachers are expected to teach and a systematic de-prioritisation of science at these grades. In this literature review (63 papers; 2010–2020), we use a framework of readiness for science teaching. Using this framework allows us to illustrate foundational characteristics and abilities that preservice teachers may start with and develop as they become well-started beginners for elementary teaching in the face of systemic challenges. To this end, we identify what is known from the research literature about the strengths that preservice elementary teachers bring to this difficult work with regard to their characteristics and abilities in addition to the challenges they face, describing a foundation on which preservice teachers can build. We also highlight additional studies that show how teacher education can build on preservice teachers' strengths and support them in areas that are challenging. We identify themes around novices' identities, dispositions, emotions, beliefs, attitudes, self-efficacy, knowledge, engagement in and with science practices, lesson planning, and lesson enactment. Finally, we highlight four implications for science teacher educators, noting focal areas that may compensate for challenges preservice elementary teachers face while building on their strengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatial dimension of Fleming's Left Hand Rule (LHR), commonly-used in Physics instruction for determining the direction of force using the left hand's thumb, forefinger and middle finger. A new instrument was developed to gauge students' ability to coordinate their fingers in 3D space (egocentric frame of reference) based on representations of tasks on paper/screen (allocentric frame of reference). The LHR scores from a sample of 530 Grade 10 and 11 students revealed a significant correlation to standard spatial reasoning measures, with a reliability of 0.77. About 90% of the students scored less than 10 points out of 22, highlighting the relevance of the spatial skills required for articulating the LHR. Science students performed significantly better than non-Science students. The manipulation of the LHR was strongly influenced by the degree of angular disparity between the body frame and task-defined frame and the kinaesthetic constraints required to rotate the triad of fingers as a perpendicular frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review aimed to provide an overview of teacher professional development programmes for teacher training carried out in Latin America, considering the critical characteristics for PD reported in the literature. The 34 studies were analysed based on six critical features that were identified as being important in order to achieve a positive impact on the practice of teachers. The analysis allowed us to identify the presence of the following critical features: (i) duration; (ii) content focus; (iii) active learning; (iv) programme type; (v) collaborative participation; and (vi) coherence in the professional development programmes studied. The characteristic of collaborative participation is expressed in the opposite way to what is reported as effective in the literature. While the five critical features are not explicitly mentioned by the most studies analysed, a tendency to consider these features in the design of PD programmes was identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses how the design of summative assessments of practical science can be enhanced through the use of robust theoretical models that capture the diversity of scientific methods. The developments in assessment policy in England and the role of practical science in teaching and learning of science are reviewed. The paper has two main purposes: (a) to explore how summative assessments of practical science can potentially reflect the breadth of scientific methods; and (b) to investigate how Year 10 students in England engage with and perceive summative assessments designed using Brandon's Matrix, a framework clarifying the diversity of scientific methods. The paper draws on data from Year 10 (14–15 years old) students with a sample of physics assessment tasks developed using Brandon's Matrix. The study focused on the development of a series of assessment questions based on Brandon's Matrix, a framework by a philosopher of science, who classifies scientific methods in a taxonomy. Students' performance on the assessments as well as their perceptions about practical science are investigated. The results suggest that students held a very narrow understanding of what a scientific method is and often linked it to hypothesis testing, variable manipulation and measurement of several variables. Furthermore, they reported not to enjoy drawing conclusions from data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote scientific literacy in school science, students need to learn key concepts in science, along with the nature of scientific knowledge and how it is generated. Ideally, this learning mirrors authentic scientific inquiry through student engagement in three key epistemic practices: flexibility and creativity, knowledge construction, and collaboration. This paper draws on findings from a larger research study investigating the implementation of a guided-inquiry multimodal approach to teaching science. It reports on a case study of three Australian Year 9 science students investigating sustainable design strategies for houses, as a summative task. Through a post-hoc analysis, this paper explores how, and to what extent, the task supported the epistemic practices of authentic scientific inquiry. To address these questions, the author developed and applied an Authentic Inquiry Framework (AIF) to analyse the students' dialogue and interactions during this task. The findings reveal that the students applied a flexible and creative approach to addressing their inquiry questions, through their own experimental design and engagement in provisional and collaborative knowledge construction. To support their investigation, the students were also able to productively integrate disciplinary-specific tools and technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses highlighting the epistemic dimension of students' participation in science have dominated science education literature for the past several years. While most of this literature has focused on how students learn together, the relational nature of these knowledge-building interactions has been under-examined. In response, this paper empirically examines how these epistemic interactions are also relational. Building upon Noddings' ethic of care and Maheux and Roth's argument that "being-in-the-know" in mathematics is always "being-in-the-know-with" others, I develop the construct of relationality as a moral and ethical orientation to teaching that is also visible in moment-to-moment interaction. I present a micro-interactional analysis of what enacting relationality can look like in the context of science teaching through two excerpts in which 8th grade students made unexpected bids to shift their participation. I illustrate how these relationally- and epistemically-entangled bids, and the teachers' attention and responses to them, precipitated role negotiations: explorations and expansions of what it could mean to "be-in-the-know-with" while building science knowledge. This analysis suggests that learning to notice students' bids for new roles and learning to interpret those bids as simultaneously relational and epistemic moves is an essential aspect of responsive teaching that cultivates trusting relationships as participation in sophisticated disciplinary practices. I conclude with a discussion of how micro-level relational dynamics function as a mechanism by which meso-level classroom cultures and macro-level social narratives are constituted and contested, and the implications of these constitutions and contestations for science, teachers, and science teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concludes the Special Issue (SI) 'Probing the Amalgam: the relationship between science teachers' content, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge'. We review the five papers (Sorge et al; Gess-Newsome et al; Kind; Pitjeng-Mosabala and Rollnick; and Liepertz and Bronowski) by discussing evidence these present regarding the relationships between content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK); the development of CK, PK and PCK in novice and experienced secondary science teachers and how CK, PK and/or PCK impact students' learning. In conclusion, we draw these findings together in offering proposals for future research via reconsideration of Shulman's amalgam. This includes post-hoc examination of a PCK model known as 'the Consensus Model' (Gess-Newsome, [2015]. A model of teacher professional knowledge and skill including PCK: Results of the thinking from the PCK Summit. In A. Berry, P. J. Friedrichsen, & J. Loughran (Eds.), Re-examining Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Education (pp. 28–42). New York, NY: Routledge; Neumann, Kind, & Harms [2018]. Probing the amalgam: The relationship between science teachers' content, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge. International Journal of Science Education, 1–15) and presentation of a novel PCK structure based on evidence from the SI studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this systematic review, a series of didactic proposals and experiences that have been developed over recent years in formal education are presented with the common purpose of ensuring that students with special educational needs learn science. Initially, only 54 publications on the topic were identified, which underlines the scarce research over the last 20 years and the small percentage of papers published in research journals and conference proceedings within this area. From among those publications, our review is focused on the 27 that report the implementation of didactic interventions: 11 at specific special education centres and 16 at regular educational centres. Explicit instruction was considered a fundamental strategy in the first group, while varied experiences and methods were among the most relevant approach in the second group. In addition, both educational environments involve learner-centred teaching approaches, with the implementation of inquiry-based and hands-on activities, in line with the general results of research in Science Education that does not specifically deal with SSEN. Ensuring that all learners have the opportunity to learn science requires more specific and complementary studies that consolidate the evidence of these results, taking into account the diversity of learners in classrooms for the benefit of all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although education research in critical thinking is a rapidly emerging field, how teachers can facilitate, monitor, and support critical thinking in primary science remains a challenge. This paper builds on recent semiotics mediated scientific reasoning research to present a fresh perspective of critical thinking in primary science. Analysis of student and teacher interactions in an innovated semiotics grounded learning design and pedagogy demonstrates a recursive process of collaborative construction, reviewing and refinement of representational systems and models. The multimodal epistemic practices of the discipline, involving the generation, evaluation and refinement of the semiotic systems that frame scientific ideas and practices are presented to both stimulate and support generative critical thinking. How semiotic systems in primary science can provide a focus, stimulus, and tool, for not only students' generative critical thinking but also teacher monitoring and support is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) project refers to experiments conducted to address problems, make improvements, or discover new things in those fields that can be tested using the scientific method. This paper describes a long-term STEM project in which pre-service science teachers (PSSTs) have a chance to discover new application fields of microalgae and use them for bio-efficacy. One of the PSSTs' projects is described in detail. This STEM project-based activity lasted for 8 weeks. In the results, a product developed by PSSTs is a cling film which has an antioxidant effect owing to microalgae and sodium alginate. Besides, this environmentally friendly product is equivalent to plastic foils used nowadays. The production processes of this cling film will be presented in detail. According to these processes, some implications for improving the product and facilitating the process will be presented at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High stakes examinations can have profound implications for how science is taught and learned. Limitations of school science such as the 'cookbook problem' can potentially be addressed if high stakes assessments target learning outcomes that are innovative. For example, less mindless procedural engagement and more thoughtful consideration of practical science can potentially improve science learning. In this paper, we investigate how practical work is represented in the assessment frameworks of several countries that demonstrate above average performance in the latest PISA science assessments. The main motivation is the need to understand if there are aspects of high stakes summative assessments in these countries that can provide insight into how best to structure national examinations. Assessment documents from a set of selected countries have been analysed qualitatively guided by questions such as 'what is the construct of practical science' and 'what is the format of assessment?' The examined jurisdictions used different approaches from traditional external pen-and-paper tests to internal teacher assessments that included different formats (e.g. laboratory report). Innovative approaches to the assessment of practical skills (e.g. PISA computer-based tasks) do not seem to be represented in these high-stakes assessments. Implications for innovative assessments for high-stakes purposes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large body of research has studied the role and potential of inquiry to increase the quality of teaching in science education. While much of this existing research is based on international large-scale assessment studies, we still lack a clear understanding of the factors that influence the quality of inquiry-based science teaching in actual classroom practices. In this paper, we operationalise teaching quality through an observation manual, and we drew on this manual to systematically analyse video data of instructional practices in 20 Norwegian science classrooms at the primary and lower-secondary school level (73 observed lessons and about 450 students). We identified varying quality in the individual inquiry phases and differences between primary and lower-secondary schools. We observed that primary-school students collected and documented data more systematically than lower-secondary students and that consolidations were slightly more emphasised and of higher quality at the lower-secondary than at the primary level. Moreover, our findings indicate that inquiry-based teaching gave students more freedom to make their own choices and increased the quality of student participation in the classroom. Based on our findings, we discuss how teachers can improve the quality of inquiry-based instruction and empower students in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2010, a remarkable number of literature reviews on teacher identity has been published. These literature reviews address a wide range of different foci, e.g., school teachers' identity, higher education teachers' identity, or the identity of teachers teaching a specific subject such as science. So far, these literature reviews have not been systematically compared for similarities and differences to gain a deeper understanding of what key features characterise teachers' identities in general and what key features are specific for the identity of teachers teaching science or science-related subjects. To address this research gap, we conducted a meta-review of 24 literature reviews on teacher identity, which we identified in ERIC and the Web of Science databases. From the 24 reviews we extracted 30 key features of teacher identity. In addition, several of these key features are notably prevalent in literature reviews addressing the identity of teachers teaching science or science-related subjects, while others are less prevalent. Above all, these results strongly indicate that the identity of science teachers significantly differs from the identity of teachers of other subjects or of generalist teachers. Implications of this finding for future research in science education are outlined at the end of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores a third-grade teacher's (Deb) developing knowledge and practice for incorporating representations into her teaching of science over the course of 2 years. Data was gathered from the same science unit (Rock Formation) over 2 years, and consisted of video of seven lessons, one of which was the same lesson taught over both years. Also collected were artifacts from the lessons, pre (planning) and post (reflection) lesson conversations for each of the seven lessons, and interviews conducted with Deb before and after her teaching of the full unit each year. The results showed Deb's learning process of using representations was multi-faceted and incremental. Even with using the same representation forms and/or activities, in the second year, Deb was able to 1) incorporate representations on multiple aspects of teaching such as reviewing previous knowledge, introducing new topics, and assessing students thinking; 2) use multiple representations in one aspect of teaching; 3) engage students in higher levels of learning. These changes were related to Deb's reasoning of selecting representations, which are described further in the paper. This research contributes to an emerging knowledge base on what teachers know and are able to do with incorporating science representations into their practice. It also contributes to the field of science teacher professional development and the need for considering the multi-faceted nature of teacher learning. Implications for teacher professional development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science teachers are increasingly encouraged to critically engage their students with scientific knowledge and expertise, with the expectation that such instructional practices will support the development of scientific literacy (SL). Drawing on Bildung framework, this qualitative study was conducted in Tanzania to explore how science teachers' classroom practices facilitate the development of students' SL. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and non-participant classroom observations with science teachers and students from six secondary schools. The study has identified five instructional practices that were used to support students' development of SL, namely guided reading, code-switching, educational print and visual aids, science experiments, and science projects. While there is evidence that the instructional practices used provided opportunities for students to contribute their thinking, experience and understanding to the science learning, the instructional practices were mostly print-based, paper-based and teacher-led, resulting in little engagement in active scientific thinking and literacy learning. Overall, the knowledge base developed by this study is of practical use to science teachers and educators in making decisions about appropriate instructional practices and what should be the regular focus of pre-service teacher education and professional development programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social justice-oriented teacher education programs infuse critical pedagogies in their coursework to build teachers' capacity to design and enact teaching that seeks to disrupt systemic oppression and injustice. Graduates of these programs often seek teaching positions in schools that serve working class communities of color with the goal of working alongside students, families, and the community to act as agents of change. Yet, we know that teacher turnover remains high in these schools, especially for early career teachers (i.e. 1–5 years teaching experience). Understanding the needs and challenges that teachers face in their first few years of teaching can help teacher education programs design intentional support systems to ameliorate the lack of support early career teachers experience and issues with teacher turnover. In this paper, we share excerpts from interviews conducted with 20 early career science teachers that shared the social justice strategies, lessons, and pedagogies they used in their classroom. Our findings identified a multitude of teaching practices that depict teachers' everyday pursuit of social justice in their science classrooms, namely how teachers reflected on their positionality, built restorative relationships with students, developed students' critical dispositions, built positive science identities, increased student access to science, and incorporated students' knowledge, experiences, and histories, some of which also presented some challenges for them. We describe these practices and associated challenges with implications for how teacher education can support early career teachers and their alumni in their continued development as social justice educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the important question of the nature of the subject matter (content knowledge) that should be a base for a science teacher education curriculum. We present our argument in two parts. Firstly, we report an argument conceptualising the nature of content knowledge for science teaching that we called TerSCK. This is followed by a presentation on the shape of a science teacher education curriculum for developing TerSCK, introduced as a TerSCK-based teacher education curriculum. Our conceptualisation argument is built on a systematic analysis of previous qualitative arguments about the nature of content knowledge for teaching school science subjects. It is influenced by Deng's foundational work critiquing the grip of the doctrine of academic disciplines in theorising content knowledge for teaching, as the base from which teachers pedagogically transform their content knowledge. While acknowledging this criticism, we present the appropriate content knowledge for science teachers (TerSCK) to reflect the complex relationship between the academic and the school science kinds of content knowledge through three of Deng's relational dimensions: logical, epistemological and social dimensions that constitute TerSCK. Drawing on Schwab's curriculum faces, these relational dimensions of TerSCK were translated into a TerSCK-based curriculum comprising five elements: (i) the fundamental concepts of the topic within the discipline; (ii) interconnections between the concepts that make up the fundamental concepts; (iii) tensions from the process of extracting the discipline fundamentals into the school curriculum constraints; (iv) scientific and other modes of inquiry from non-science disciplines; and (v) cultivating social agency. We close our argument by illustrating the implementation of the TerSCK-based curriculum using the organic chemistry topic. Our recommendations call for further studies exploring the validation of a TerSCK-based curriculum across different science topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Valerie Valdez and Julie Bianchini's paper titled "'People Need to Speak Up': Preservice Secondary Science Teachers' Movement Toward a Justice-Centered Science Education" uses qualitative design to explore a cohort of secondary science teachers' participation in antiracist and justice-oriented classroom engagements. We strongly believe that without relational strengths among all actors, we cannot have transformative teachers, teacher education, and teaching where equity and social justice in the science curriculum, science teacher preparation programs, science activities, and science classroom discourses are central. Thus, what should be the actions of science educators, teachers, and researchers to transform science teaching and learning and what are ways science teaching and learning could be transformational at all levels? Specifically, these papers examine practices that science teacher educators and science teachers are engaged in that foster transformative science teaching and learning. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper, the authors explore how teachers and community members in Nepal come together to transform students' science teaching and science learning experiences. The community members, primarily parents of the students, took the opportunity to drive the kinds of science topics and the nature of science activities the teachers needed to teach in their children's science classrooms. This paper qualitatively documents the interactions between the teachers and the community members, the teachers' decisions regarding their science lessons, and the nature of critical consciousness discourses in teachers' built-in classroom interactions with students. The data were collected over 8 weeks through classroom observations, interviews, and student artifacts. The analysis showed that community-initiated partnership with science teachers builds science teaching that values critical community well-being and that the teachers have the agency to provide spaces for learning focused on critical consciousness. The paper uses transformative learning theory, liberation social psychology, and deliberative democracy as the guiding theoretical perspectives to understand transformative science teaching through teacher–community partnership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how practicing teachers approach and evaluate students' critical thinking processes in science, using the implementation of an online, inquiry-based investigation in middle school classrooms as the context for teachers' observations. Feedback and ratings from three samples of science teachers were analysed to determine how they valued and evaluated component processes of students' critical thinking and how such processes were related to their instructional approaches and student outcomes. Drawing from an integrated view of teacher practice, results suggested that practicing science teachers readily observed and valued critical thinking processes that aligned to goal intentions focused on domain content and successful student thinking. These processes often manifested as components of effective scientific reasoning--for example, gathering evidence, analysing data, evaluating ideas, and developing strong arguments. However, teachers also expressed avoidance intentions related to student confusion and uncertainty before and after inquiry-based investigations designed for critical thinking. These findings highlight a potential disconnect between the benefits of productive student struggle for critical thinking as endorsed in the research on learning and science education and the meaning that teachers ascribe to such struggle as they seek to align their instructional practices to classroom challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistic diversity in many schools is high such that science teachers face complex issues regarding appropriate ways of mediating social and academic language in multilingual classrooms. The relationship between these aspects and the task of teaching science (i.e., pedagogy) remains a mystery to many teachers. This paper provides a narrative and shared discoveries of the understanding of this differentiated instruction problem in order to forge the path ahead. Qualitative methods of lesson observations and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from four participants in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Analysis of data revealed a domination of English as a medium of discourse. The paper argues that teachers' pedagogy and language of instruction are essentially related to the quality of science being taught in multilingual classrooms. The findings highlight the fundamental importance of the language of instruction within a multilingual science classroom and lay a foundation for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our collaborative action research addresses a challenge in initial teacher education pertaining to the lack of theoretical coherence between teacher candidates' understandings of teaching and learning. The group comprised of three science teacher candidates (Authors 2 and 3) and a university faculty member (Author 1). Through a loosely adapted learning study approach, we embarked on the process of learning to apply a theoretical lens, i.e. variation theory, to frame lessons taught during the school-based practicum; we focused on the use of variation, which is a pedagogical strategy that is undertheorized in biology education. In this paper, we provided a description and reflection of the theory-framed lessons teacher candidates in our group taught. Data sources included lesson plans and materials, video recordings of lessons, reflections and teacher interviews that promoted further articulation of our experiences of the action research process. By comparing our employment of variation theory to frame lesson planning, classroom teaching and student learning, patterns of variation were reflected upon and theorized through the group process. This expanded our collective understandings about the application of variation theory to biology teaching. The paper thus demonstrates the theoretical work we engaged in as an ongoing and dialectical exploration of practice and theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper arises from research undertaken by educational semioticians and science educators investigating the use of student generated digital artefacts as assessment tasks in pre-service science teacher education. Part of a broader shift toward student-generated media in tertiary science, the use of such tasks is driven by the need to deepen pre-service primary teachers' understandings of content and to foster enthusiasm for teaching science. However, the tasks are challenging as students must demonstrate both content and meta-semiotic knowledge in these brief digital standalone presentations. In the paper, we draw on artefacts, interviews and assessment practices to demonstrate these challenges. We identify what have emerged as key semiotic understandings necessary to complete a successful response to the task, arguing that these include multimodal understandings as well as knowledge of disciplinary specific representational practices. We describe an intervention informed by functional social semiotics and scaffolded literacy approaches with key features including use of an exemplar text for deconstruction and an explicit instructional sequence with a tailored assessment rubric. The paper reports both theoretical and practical insights and seeks to contribute to emerging analytical frameworks as well as multimodal literacy assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring teachers' skills to carry out the complex tasks required in teaching is an important means of evaluating the effectiveness of teacher education but remains a challenging activity to conduct in practice. It is necessary to optimise approaches for usability and effectiveness along a continuum from low-effort and low-authenticity measures such as paper-and-pencil tests to high-effort, high-authenticity measures such as extended classroom observations. The first part of the paper reviews a range of efforts toward measuring the competencies of teachers and other professionals in carrying out the tasks that make up their work. These include performance tests such as computer-based simulations or simulations using actors, as well as the use of tasks requiring participation in or responses to video vignettes. Video vignette approaches typically have been less interactive than performance tests and interactivity is seen as a desirable feature. A novel framework for developing performance-oriented testing is then outlined. The second part of the paper exemplifies this framework in relation to providing explanations in physics classrooms. The development of a novel test instrument following the framework is described, and findings on construct validity are presented to support the applicability of the presented approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science teacher educators (STEs) have key roles in the educational system through their preparation of pre- and in-service science teachers and in implementing future-oriented policy reforms. Given the complexity and importance of their role, what types of knowledge do STEs need? STEs come from a range of backgrounds and there are few systematic routes for their ongoing learning. Hence, there is a need for tools that can help define and assess STEs' competence. The purpose of this theoretical paper is to highlight central knowledge domains for STEs. We draw on previous work and add perspectives from current trends in science education and teacher education to describe four knowledge domains for STEs: natural science, science education in school, science teacher education and science education research. The main contribution of the paper is an updated conceptualisation of the nature of STEs' knowledge and qualifications, taking into account current requirements for future-oriented science education and teacher education including deeper learning and critical thinking skills, cross-curricular work, education for sustainable development, and research-based teacher education. The four knowledge domains can serve as a tool for identifying needs, recruiting staff with desired expertise, and tailoring interventions to support professional development for STEs from various backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-service teachers of science work with unique content and pedagogical experiences within a changing educational landscape. Understanding teacher agency in these circumstances will help researchers understand the actions that these teachers take. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to review how the agency of K-12 in-service teachers of science has been examined empirically in the science education research literature during the period of 2007–2020. Informed by grounded theory, we qualitatively analyzed 48 peer-reviewed articles, which we located using specific search criteria. We identified that science teacher agency is currently conceptualized largely paper-to-paper and without fully attending to the professional and lived experiences, and thus humanity, of science teachers; thereby, creating exciting opportunities for science education researchers to expand on both the breadth and depth around the theorization and operationalization of in-service science teacher agency. Recommendations are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific thinking is an essential learning goal of science education and it can be fostered by inquiry learning. One important prerequisite for scientific thinking is procedural understanding. Procedural understanding is the knowledge about specific steps in scientific inquiry (e.g. formulating hypotheses, measuring dependent and varying independent variables, repeating measurements), and why they are essential (regarding objectivity, reliability, and validity). We present two studies exploring students' ideas about procedural understanding in scientific inquiry using Concept Cartoons. Concept Cartoons are cartoon-like drawings of different characters who have different views about a concept. They are to activate students' ideas about the specific concept and/or make them discuss them. The purpose of this paper is to survey students' ideas of procedural understanding and identify core ideas of procedural understanding that are central for understanding scientific inquiry. In the first study, we asked 47 students about reasons for different steps in inquiry work via an open–ended questionnaire using eight Concept Cartoons as triggers (e.g. about the question why one would need hypotheses). The qualitative analysis of answers revealed 42 ideas of procedural understanding (3-8 per Cartoon). We used these ideas to formulate a closed-ended questionnaire that contained the same Concept Cartoons, followed by statements with Likert-scales to measure agreement. In a second study, 64 students answered the second questionnaire as well as a multiple-choice test on procedural understanding. Using methods from educational data mining, we identified five central statements, all emphasizing the concept of confounding variables: (1) One needs alternative hypotheses, because there may be other variables worth considering as cause. (2) The planning helps to take into account confounding variables or external circumstances. (3) Confounding variables should be controlled since they influence the experiment/the dependent variable. (4) Confounding variables should be controlled since the omission may lead to inconclusive results. (5) Confounding variables should be controlled to ensure accurate measurement. We discuss these ideas in terms of functioning as core ideas of procedural understanding. We hypothesize that these core-ideas could facilitate the teaching and learning of procedural understanding about experiments, which should be investigated in further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is necessary to foster teachers' ability to design and implement instructions that encourage students to construct evidence and engage in argumentative discourse. The argument of this paper is that the continuous reflection and discussion as well as regular practice on instructional designs will promote pre-service science teachers' (PSSTs') competence to guide students in providing evidence. An in-depth analysis on PSSTs' instructional designs provided evidence for this argument. For this purpose, this study implemented an action research (AR) in which PSSTs' instructional designs were analyzed before and after the three-week reflection and discussion on instructions that they conducted in groups of three or four in a science education course. The author of this paper, who is also the instructor of the course, analyzed these instructional designs to identify PSSTs' level of guidance by using the rubric that she created with expert judgment. Two other researchers and the author coded each category in the rubric independently. She scored the PSSTs' level in each category from 1 to 3 and then calculated their total score for the design. She also made paired samples t-test on the scores of each category and in total scores to identify how the PSSTs' instructional design guides students to use evidence before and after the continuous reflection and discussion of their instructional designs. The results suggested that integrating continuous reflection and discussion into her teaching improved PSSTs' guidance in providing evidence. Concluding remarks will be made for the further implications of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines three in-service science teachers' use of argument-driven inquiry (ADI) instructional model in an urban school district. We explore the basis for teachers' adaptation of the ADI model. The data were collected through teacher interviews and classroom observations from three science teachers. Data analysis indicated that three teachers utilised the ADI model in different ways; their implementation is aligned with the intentions of the ADI model or science teachers adapted or omitted the phases of the ADI. The teachers' practices were influenced by their personal beliefs including beliefs about teaching and learning science and students' ability and contextual factors such as district and standards, curriculum, and testing. The study provides suggestions about science teacher education and the development of new curriculum materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a scientific activity named 'Pythagorean Cup of Justice' for teacher candidates to discuss values by integrating moral and ethical dimensions into science education, offering crucial insights into the cup's historical significance, enhancing fluid dynamics understanding, and engaging STEM-based activity. The study group for this research consists of twenty pre-service science teachers (PSSTs) and nine middle school students who were 11 and 12-years-old. The research was conducted in four stages: (1) Experiment on developing the Justice Cup and understanding its working mechanism (PSSTs), (2) STEM activity (PSSTs), (3) in-class discussion on concepts of justice and equality (PSSTs), (4) repetition of the activity with middle school students. During the implementation process with PSSTs, Pythagoras, a scientist and philosopher, was initially introduced and then, the working principle of Justice Cup was examined through scientific research, and a question-and-answer session was conducted regarding the concepts of justice and equality. Finally, they were interviewed about how scientists can demonstrate justice and equality in their work. Two PSSTs repeated the activity with middle school students and wrote reports regarding their teaching experiences. In results, PSSTs expressed that this activity increased their motivation toward their profession and responsibility and gained experience in integrating science with different fields such as philosophy and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how geographies of place and familial relationships influence the formation of 'science capital' and a 'science identity', which are widely considered influential to sustained engagement in the sciences. Drawing on interviews with 45 Year 8 students from two diverse locales in Australia, we analyse science-related forms of cultural and social capital with a focus on place-based knowledges which may help explain differential patterns of engagement among young people. First, the paper recounts recent theoretical and empirical work on science capital and science identity, extending this scholarship by considering the role of family and place in science knowledge acquisition. Second, we present the study concentrating on student lifeworlds and familial relationships as identity resources, exploring the differences in terms of place. To conclude, we critique the data with attention to implications for teachers' pedagogy, considering the role of 'science capital pedagogies' and a 'Funds of Knowledge' approach to science education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines attitudes to pedagogical change, among teachers within a second level science department in Ireland. It explores the beliefs and contextual constraints that mediate diversification from a primarily didactic pedagogical approach towards more student-led pedagogies. Using a multi-method approach incorporating observations of teaching, focus group interviews, one to one interviews and open-ended questionnaires, findings were analysed inductively to generate a number of themes. The findings suggest that a teacher’s sense of identity and beliefs are significant influences on their predisposition towards pedagogical change. Interestingly, the middle class, academic context of the school and the terminal Leaving Certificate state examination, were both identified as latent contextual barriers to pedagogical change. The implementation of curricular reform at Junior Cycle level in Ireland is ongoing, with a new science specification in place since September 2016. This specification has a significant student-led and skill-based emphasis and varied pedagogical approaches are necessary to effectively deliver this new curriculum. Professional development is available to assist teachers with the curricular reform. However, findings in this paper suggest that intrinsic beliefs and contextual constraints may limit access to, or meaningful engagement with such training, negating pedagogical change for some teachers and their students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Engaging preservice teachers in the analysis of videos of teaching has become a widely-used and highly-regarded approach within teacher preparation. This approach has become even more pronounced in the wake of COVID-19. Despite the myriad ways that video can support teacher preparation, uncertainties remain regarding how to design and facilitate productive video tasks. This paper reviews existing frameworks to guide the use of video tasks. It then introduces and describes the Framework for Analyzing Video in Science Teacher Education (FAVSTE) to highlight important decision points regarding the implementation of video tasks for teacher educators. Further this paper discusses how the FAVSTE connects to and expands on existing frameworks. Finally, the paper provides two examples to illustrate its use so that it might support teacher educators in maximizing the effectiveness of video analysis/reflection tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on inservice science teachers' collaborative feedback to each other on videos of their classroom teaching during debrief sessions. We aimed to understand how the teachers' feedback reflected their vision for science education and how they collaboratively identified and discussed the misalignments between their vision and actual classroom practices. Ten videos of debrief sessions involving 17 K-12 science teachers participating in a teacher leadership professional development program were analysed. The feedback captured the teachers' reflections as they collaboratively identified issues that were important to them and attempted to resolve them together. Our initial analysis of the data led us to frame our study within the literature on critical reflection, democratic practices, and student agency in science education. The teachers had a deep awareness of the need for democratic practices and shared power in their classrooms. Their feedback, however, revealed the tensions that arose as they discussed enactments of each of these tenets in the classroom. This study contributes to the literature on feedback given among inservice science teachers and proposes a professional development model that supports teachers' professional learning in a social and democratic setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to document how K-8 critically conscious, dual language, science teachers (CCDLSTs) working with bilingual learners (BLs) practice their critical consciousness via the four tenets of dual language education: ideological clarity, pedagogical perspective and clarity, access for all, and equitable spaces (IPAE). This paper is informed by the fourth tenet and research question: How do CCDLSTs create equitable spaces in science learning environments? Previous research offers limited information on how dual language, science teachers practice their critical consciousness. Given the era of Common Core State Standards and the number of BLs left with underprepared teachers, this study advances an understanding of what CCDLSTs are doing in classrooms to draw upon the assets of BLs while implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). A phenomenological qualitative design was used to gather interview and observational data of how six CCDLSTs working in Southern California public schools employed a critically conscious pedagogy in a Spanish/English dual language setting while creating access to science content with equity at the core. Findings include research-based examples of the instructional processes CCDLSTs used in their classrooms to create equity while teaching science in dual language classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important, albeit ignored, issues in the process of curriculum implementation is teachers' beliefs; indeed, this is a vital issue since their beliefs about teaching and learning will in part govern their actions in the classroom. There is a substantial body of the literature that highlights how teachers' beliefs are important when ensuring that science education reforms are successfully carried out. Therefore, it is important to explore the beliefs of teachers and teacher candidates to support them in adapting these beliefs to be in accord with the goals of the reform. This paper presents the results of an investigation into the nature of preservice science teachers' (PSTs) beliefs about teaching, the congruency of their beliefs about teaching, their actual classroom practices, and the potential role of their early experiences as learners in shaping their beliefs and classroom practices. At the outset of the study, there were 13 PSTs. Among them, four were recruited for the study by purposive sampling. They were all in the final year of their 4-year teacher education programme and will be able to teach middle school science classes after graduation. This study employed a basic qualitative research method. The primary methods of data collection in this study were: 1) initial interviews to select participants in a purposeful manner; 2) classroom observation of each PST to identify how they taught science; and 3) final interviews with each PST to explore their beliefs about science teaching and their past experiences. We found that the PSTs who chose to participate in this study hold student-centred teaching beliefs while performing teacher-centred science teaching practices. The result was interesting in that the PSTs' teaching practices closely resemble those of their early science teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommendations for reform in science education around the world set high goals for beginning elementary teachers. Concurrently, existing literature indicates a number of challenges that beginning elementary teachers face. In this paper an argument is put forward about the integration of informal science environments in elementary teacher preparation, as a means for supporting beginning elementary teachers develop reform-minded science teaching identities. Essentially, the purpose of this paper is to explore the links between teacher identity, reform recommendations, and informal science environments. In doing so, a discussion of the theoretical construct of teacher identity in conjunction with reform recommendations is offered, followed by a summary of existing literature about the challenges that beginning elementary teachers face. Subsequently, the advantages and unique opportunities that informal science environments offer for teacher learning and development are discussed through a review of related literature. Following this review, a set of theoretical and methodological limitations of existing literature are identified. Based on these limitations, a research agenda is framed to address the theoretical, methodological and research implications that the idea of integrating informal science environments and approaches to elementary teacher preparation holds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children in low-income neighbourhoods experience an intersection of socio-structural factors that delimit their engagement with out-of-school (informal) science education. Using Bourdieu's framework of habitus, this paper explores how informal science educators and children in a given low-income community in western Canada described the attitudes, dispositions, and experiences that influence the informal science education practices of children in the community. Participants in the study included 32 children (aged 9–14) attending 4 different subsidised community clubs (each of which incorporated some science programming), 5 science centre staffers, and 11 community club program leaders. This multi-method study uses habitus as a thinking tool that bridges theoretical and methodological domains. The study employed various data sources in order to develop rich descriptions of participant perspectives; these sources included individual dialogues, focus groups, a statement sorting exercise, and participant responses to pilot data. The paper outlines the synergies and contrasts in the perspectives of children and informal science educators regarding the place of informal science education in the lives of local children. Despite certain consistencies between educator and child accounts, educators underestimated the level of interest children had in out-of-school science education and the range of self-/home-directed science activities in which children were participating. The paper ends by examining the implications of adults' attempts to hide the word science from children during informal science activities and makes suggestions regarding the provision of informal science education in other low-income contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning to teach out-of-field is a challenge that many teachers worldwide face at some time in their career. Whether they are motivated to seek formal professional development as additional qualifications in this area, however, depends on many factors. Alignment between the specific professional development needs of out-of-field teachers and the planned learning experiences is essential to maximise sustained learning and applicability to teachers' classrooms. This paper reports on a government-funded program designed to support teachers teaching 'out-of-field' in science and mathematics. The initial design of the program drew on existing literature on effective teacher professional learning. Using the theoretical lens of 'boundary crossing' this paper reports on the perceived discontinuities that teachers 'brought with them' in order to understand where the potential for learning lay, and compared this to teachers' perceptions of their changed practice. Growth in teachers' confidence and relational understandings of content, pedagogy and curriculum was evident. Implications for future programs to support out-of-field teachers are provided. Teaching out of field (TOOF); Professional Learning (PL); Professional Development (PD) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has explored how science teachers can create equitable learning environments. In addition, research demonstrates that representations can be powerful tools for supporting disciplinary learning and inviting and leveraging students' diverse ideas and practices. Yet, professional development (PD) about representations has primarily focused on teachers' knowledge of disciplinary practices rather than on how teachers can value and build upon students' representations as resources for equitable sensemaking. In this paper, we present cases from a year-long professional development program with in-service elementary teachers designed to support science teaching with representations. Through our work with these teachers, we have illustrated an approach to using representations that supports equitable sensemaking by: (1) making space for students to create personally meaningful representations, (2) amplifying students' representations, and (3) helping students iteratively refine their representations and ideas. These findings extend literature about inclusive science teaching by illustrating how focusing on students' representations can support equitable sensemaking and by addressing tensions that emerge between equitable teaching, science standards that prioritize canonical knowledge and practices, and monoglossic language ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a cooperative learning activity on a nuclear power plant to develop students' reasoning skills on socioscientific issues. To this end, the steps in the implementation of the activity have been given in detail. The activity was implemented in an undergraduate course with senior preservice science teachers, whose reflections were obtained immediately after the implementation. The preservice science teachers' reflections showed that the activity was useful in terms of understanding the controversy associated with nuclear power plants and contributing to students' discussion skills and decision-making abilities on socioscientific issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research reported in this paper explored secondary Science teachers' experiences in a large-scale and top-down CLIL initiative where schools and teachers had little agency in implementing educational change. Through a grounded theory approach, analysis of data suggests that teachers' insufficient English language proficiency and the lack of agency were major challenges for participating teachers. Findings indicate that teachers were not aware of CLIL pedagogy, and did not believe that under the existing conditions, a subject can be taught through English. Struggling to save face in the obscure situation, teachers sought support from students. Although they were not ready to lose authority and control over the teaching process, they had to relinquish some of their power to students due to their superior English language skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing demand for non-formal science learning activities, few studies report on practitioners' perspectives and experiences with designing and implementing such activities worldwide. This paper focuses on their challenges by drawing upon twenty-two interviews with practitioners involved in diverse science learning activities in various non-formal settings in seven European countries. By including diverse activities and settings, this study contributes to the existing knowledge base, addresses the aforementioned gap in the literature, and informs future practices. Our findings suggest that despite the existing and celebrated diversity, practitioners face similar challenges related to (a) the activities' organisation and management, (b) the competencies required to run such activities, and (c) the attitudes held by the parties involved in them. Direct interview quotes exemplify each theme, further pinpointing the interconnection of multiple factors that inform the organisation and implementation of non-formal science learning activities. The findings allowed for a deeper understanding of challenges reported in the literature and shed light on the challenges voiced by the practitioners including the multiple competencies required and the workload. We conclude with a discussion foregrounding the need to build a knowledge base of shared practices in the field of non-formal science learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on post-induction mentoring as a vehicle for science teachers' training in implementing a nanotechnology teaching-learning sequence. Five mentors and 15 mentee-teachers participated in a 9-months long mentoring programme. Qualitative methods of analysis were used to examine the content of the mentoring conversations and the employed mentoring practices. Our findings indicate that the focus of the mentoring conversations was mainly set on the necessary strategies for teaching nanotechnology and secondarily on the resolution of organisational issues that arose. As regards the mentoring activities, mentors tended to address the arisen issues by giving advice, sharing their knowledge and teaching materials and by modelling the conduct of the lessons. The paper highlights the contribution of mentoring to the professional growth of post-induction teachers mainly in terms of broadening their teaching repertoire on nanotechnology issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Malta, most science teachers are likely to have a teaching degree level qualification in one science subject. When teaching science in the first two years of secondary school they will be teaching outside their area of science specialism, that is teaching a subject/s that was not studied at degree or Advanced level. A study was conducted to investigate how a group of science teachers, who are non-chemistry specialists, could be supported to teach chemistry topics by participating in a year-long professional development programme. Data were gathered through individual and focus group interviews. This paper focuses on the teachers' views of this programme and how it affected their views of teaching chemistry. After conducting experiments, discussing and planning lessons within a community of learners teachers felt better prepared to teach chemistry. This enabled them to change their views and expand their identity as a science teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]