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An educational innovation experience developed as part of the curriculum for the Early Childhood Education degree is presented within the framework of the scientific dissemination project entitled 'INFA-CIENCIA: From the girls of today to the scientists of tomorrow', which pursues two objectives: (1) To bolster future teachers' knowledge of women scientists and (2) To improve their didactic skills so that they can adapt the research carried out by women to children's capacities. The key findings are a high level of satisfaction amongst teachers with the interventions by university students; the need to continue implementing this innovation, due to the scant knowledge of women scientists amongst students; and the advisability of the students voluntarily choosing the woman scientist they want to work on, in order to boost their motivation and interest. [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]

There is extensive CLIL research on stakeholders' practices, integration of content and language, and pedagogies. However, limited studies report on teachers' pre-existing knowledge before CLIL implementation and how it influences their classroom pedagogy. Using a third space frame, this study examined CLIL implementation in Kazakhstan. It included 15 science teachers who teach science through the English medium of instruction (EMI). A hybrid coding strategy was followed to analyze questionnaires, teachers' science lessons, multimodal teaching-based scenarios, and semi-structured interviews. Our findings revealed that teachers' CLIL implementation was guided by their (1) hybrid beliefs about scientific knowledge and learning, (2) humanising pedagogy, (3) shift to constructivist science pedagogy, and (4) hybrid linguistic stance. We conclude that a third-space perspective diverts the gaze from CLIL teachers' challenges to illuminate the entanglement of teachers' epistemic stance, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and linguistic stance as emergent discursive practices when policy borrowings connect global and local epistemologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to reveal the effectiveness of the Nature of Science (NOS) embedded in Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) instructional method on pre-service science teachers' (PSTs) content knowledge and self-efficacy in evolution theory. The study was a mixed-method study in which the qualitative data collection and analysis was conducted after the quantitative. In the first part of the study, a pre-post intervention design was used as a part of quasi-experimental study and in the second part, semi-structured interviews were conducted to deepen understanding of the results of the intervention. The participants of study consist of 36 PSTs who attended a public university in the north of Turkey. The findings showed that the NOS embedded in the ADI instructional method was effective for increasing content knowledge and self-efficacy and decreasing misconceptions in evolution. However, there were no differences in PSTs' beliefs with respect to creationist views after intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowing how science teachers develop their professional knowledge has been a challenge. One potential way to determine the professional knowledge of teachers is through videos. In the study described here, the authors recruited 60 elementary and secondary science teachers, showed them one of two 10‐min videos, and recorded and analyzed their comments when watching the videos. The coding focused on their noticing of student learning, teacher's teaching, types of teaching practices, and the use of interpretative frames. The noticing data were collected and analyzed to determine the differences between groups of teachers. The findings from the analysis indicated that most science teachers noticed the instruction of teachers rather than the learning of students, and these noticing events were often focused on general instructional practices as opposed to the science practices emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards (National Research Council, 2013). The only difference between the teachers was in the area of evaluating the videos. Secondary science teachers and experienced elementary teachers were more likely to evaluate the videos than were novice elementary teachers. This may be a result of the knowledge base of the teachers. These results suggest a need for explicit reform‐based instruction and a revision of this research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher roles and classroom discourses have great influence on classroom discussions within the context of socio-scientific issues. Investigation of teacher roles and classroom discourses is of great importance in the construction of the classroom environment in which students can support their views and the reasons underlying their views through scientific data in cases such as Covid-19 requiring decision-making at community level. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the roles adopted by science teachers in bringing the socio-scientific issue of Covid-19 vaccine into their classrooms and whether the communicative approach they employed and the teacher roles they adopted complied with the discourses they drew on in their classes. The study employed the case study design, one of the qualitative research methods and the study group was comprised of three science teachers and the students in their classes. As the data sources, video-recordings of the teachers' lessons and the vignettes related to the roles adopted by the teachers in addressing socio-scientific issues were used. The similarities and differences between the roles adopted by the teachers and the discourses used by them were examined and the communicative approach used by the teachers in their lessons was analyzed through discourse analysis. It was found that the reasons proposed by the three science teachers to explain why they adopted these roles complied with their discourses used in the classes. It was observed that the more experienced teachers offered more opportunities for their students to talk in their classes (used dialogical discourse) and that the roles adopted by all the teachers and the discourses used by them in their classes were consistent with each other. Students are required to speak scientifically and actively participate in science lessons. However, the teacher's role in the classroom environment, classroom interactions, and the quality of this interaction are very important for this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the important elements of teachers' technology integration is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). Though there are studies on TPACK, limited information exists about its context element. This gap causes context-isolated studies for TPACK-related research. The aim of this research is to elaborate on science teachers' technology-based lesson practices in terms of contextual factors influencing TPACK. The study participants consisted of 12 science teachers and 7 educational technologists by using snowball sampling. The case study design method was used in this study within the qualitative research paradigm. The data was collected with semi-structured interviews by following the protocol for strategic performance problems. The interviews were examined employing content analysis to reveal the themes. The findings of the study indicated that TPACK is not only a stand-alone knowledge and skills, but also it is context-oriented. The multifaceted factors represent components of a multi-layered structure of the context. These factors can be perceived by the teachers at different levels according to school types. Furthermore, sub-themes of the contextual factors showed complex interrelationships. This study contributes to the literature by revealing the sub-themes of the context and in-depth examination of contextual factors suggested for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored science teachers' participation in a professional development partnership with informal science institutions (ISIs) designed for urban middle school science teachers, known as the Urban Advantage Science Initiative. The teacher training involved a whole school focused approach, providing teaching strategies, collaborative situated experiences, and specific classroom resources for implementing and guiding science explorations both at ISIs and in the formal classroom. The conceptual framework for the study incorporated a situated perspective model with situated, social, and distributed cognition. This long-term situated learning model engaged teachers in over 100 hours of training over five years, with an option to continue in select educational activities in subsequent years. Training was held at eight ISIs in New York City. The purpose of the study was to analyze impacts on teachers' pedagogical philosophies and practices. The ways teachers translated program principles into their practice was investigated through interviews with nine teachers and three administrators (N = 12) to provide broadened perspectives. The teacher sample was drawn from a larger group of 253 teachers with at least four years of experience in the program. The data of this phenomenological qualitative study were examined and integrated with the a priori conceptual framework to create an emergent explanatory framework for changing pedagogical practice and teacher motivation through a schoolwide professional development partnership with ISIs. This framework included two major components: 1) improved teacher motivation, and 2) pedagogical change. Teacher motivation was heightened because of their situated learning experiences at ISIs, the positive changes in their science pedagogy, and their involvement in a professional community of like-minded science educators. As a result of this whole-school focused program that included specific roles for teachers and administrators, the long term, sustained ISI-based professional development model improved teachers' and administrators' perceptions of science teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science teachers have been urged to use emerging technologies, such as robots, in ways that empower K-12 students as active participants responsible for their learning and knowledge development within the scientific domain. And yet, little is known about whether the use of robots effectively supports students' epistemic agency in science learning. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate to what extent elementary preservice teachers use educational robots in ways that promote epistemic agency in science lessons. Seven data sources were gathered for this study: individual reflections about lesson planning and lesson design, team reflection about teaching with robots, robotics-enhanced science lessons, posters, video-recorded presentations about designed lessons, and participant interview. A framework of epistemic practices for science inquiry was adopted to analyze the data followed by qualitative thematic analysis. Results indicate that the use of robots in science lessons promotes content assimilation rather than self-driven inquiry, robot movement rather than evidence drives science explanations, science activities with robots are situated in a social vacuum, and robot assembly and programming are underutilized in the lessons. Implications for preservice science teacher education and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiple benefits of virtual experiments applied to science education depend heavily on science teachers' intentions to use them. The inducing mechanism is a process that combines different conditions of multiple factors. From the perspective of overall configuration, this study used the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method, based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2), to construct a causal explanation model of Chinese K-12 science teachers' intentions to use virtual experiments. Additionally, the snowball method was used to conduct a questionnaire survey of 342 Chinese K-12 science teachers. The results show that different conditions of the seven factors, performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), hedonic motivation (HM), price value (PV), and habit (H), do not have the necessary explanatory power for the results. Three paths for science teachers' high intentions to use virtual experiments were obtained by configuration analysis: Configuration 1 (PE*EE*SI*HM*PV*H), Configuration 2 (EE*SI*FC*PV*H), and Configuration 3 (PE*EE*FC*HM*H). These findings effectively broaden the scope of knowledge and interpretation of the original inductive mechanism of intentions to adopt technology. They provide theoretical and practical support for education departments to design more targeted programs to improve the ability of science teachers to apply virtual experiments in K-12 education. Finally, future research directions are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to describe the design process of an educational board game, the Planet‐Dart. This board game design is based on the science curriculum and aims to enhance middle school students' basic concepts about solar system. The purpose of developing this educational game was to provide an entertaining way for learning science. A pre‐service art teacher designed the game with the support of two pre‐service science teachers. The pilot study was conducted with two middle school students, and with the feedback based on the pilot study the pre‐service art teacher made modifications to the game. Then, the main implementation of the game was conducted in a real‐classroom environment with 60 middle school students by one pre‐service science teacher and two science teachers. The qualitative results revealed that this game was an enjoyable and effective learning tool to play among middle school students. In addition, the pre‐ and in‐service science teachers emphasized that there was an entertaining learning environment during the play. Based on these findings, the developed educational board game could enhance students' learning outcomes and entertainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the underexplored topic of teacher preparation program admissions processes by interviewing faculty and analyzing program documents. We investigated how 31 K-12 mathematics and science teacher preparation programs (MSTPPs) and faculty attend to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social and racial justice (DEIJ). Specific foci included applicant recruitment and selection, components of applications (e.g., forms, essays, and interviews), and how applicants' DEIJ-related information and orientations factor into admissions. We found that all MSTPPs participating in the study collected information related to DEIJ (e.g., applicants' ethnoracial backgrounds, citizenship), and all interviewed faculty expressed an interest in increasing the diversity of applicants and admitted students. Faculty expressed preferences for applicants who evidenced positive DEIJ orientations, such as recognizing social and ethnoracial injustices, but at the same time, differences were evident in how MSTPPs and faculty attended to DEIJ. Considerations, implications, and dilemmas for teacher preparation programs and faculty are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensemaking has been advocated as a core practice of science education to support students in constructing their own understanding through a prolonged trajectory. However, the field lacks a discussion of teaching strategies that can better support students as they develop in the trajectory of sensemaking, which includes four phases: initial engagement with a driving question related to a target phenomenon; identification of incoherence and insufficiency in existing understanding; exploration of multiple resources to help develop plausible explanations; and synthesis of solutions and application of new understanding to interpret the target phenomenon. With the view that students' scientific uncertainty, including conceptual and epistemic uncertainties, can motivate or drive the trajectory of sensemaking coherent with students' understanding, this multiple case study examined how two science teachers, one from South Korea and one from the USA, supported students to navigate their scientific uncertainties to shape a trajectory of sensemaking that is coherent to them. Transcripts of video recordings of classroom discourses and student‐created artifacts were analyzed. We identified the dynamic nature of students' scientific uncertainties in the four phases and the teaching strategies in each phase. Three main findings emerged from this study: (1) student uncertainty as a key not only to initiate the trajectory of sensemaking meaningfully but also to continuously develop the trajectory along a coherent pathway, (2) conceptual and epistemic uncertainties having different roles in building different phases of sensemaking, and (3) teaching strategies that support student navigation of scientific uncertainty that drives the trajectory of sensemaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instructional shifts required by equitable, reform‐based science instruction are challenging, especially in the elementary context. Such shifts require professional development (PD) that supports teacher internalization of new pedagogical strategies as well as changes in beliefs about how students learn. Because of this complexity, many PD programs struggle to foster lasting pedagogical shifts, necessitating further investigation into why some teachers successfully embrace reform practices while others do not. This qualitative study uses a nonlinear, iterative model of teacher learning (Interconnected Model of Professional Growth; Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002) alongside professional noticing to help understand why elementary teachers in science PD differentially make sense of and internalize new pedagogies. Findings indicate that teachers most likely to adopt reform‐based instructional practices from the PD were those who clearly connected student learning to their instructional moves. In addition, teachers who more actively attended to student sensemaking and productive struggle took up pedagogies from the PD more substantively than did colleagues who attended solely to student engagement and affect. Finally, teachers who attended to and valued novel ideas from students' lived experiences were more likely to change their beliefs about students' capacity to learn science, and thus more likely to see the value of instructional practices from the PD. In sum, structuring PD to build on these specific teacher noticing skills can encourage more teachers to move away from traditional, teacher‐directed instructional practice, and more fully support reform‐based instructional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruptions to education systems (e.g., the COVID‐19 pandemic) evoke a range of responses from teachers. Teachers are required to learn new skills, attend to students' social emotional needs, modify their instructional approaches, and discover innovative ways to engage their students in science, technology, and engineering courses, all while managing their own professional and personal needs. Although teachers of all disciplines adjust their instructional and curricular approaches in response to disruptions, the impetus for this study was to explore the unique challenges of science teachers during the COVID‐19 pandemic that affected their sense of agency (sense of control). To understand how science teachers acquired, used, and invested in capital (i.e., available resources with the potential to meet identified challenges) to achieve professional agency, we studied 113 science teachers in 2020−2021 when they experienced disruptions associated with the pandemic. An analysis of open‐ended responses from 60 teachers indicates that teachers who achieved agency shared four attributes. They (i) demonstrated an awareness of needed capital, (ii) acquired capital, (iii) used capital, and (iv) dedicated effort toward capital‐building for future use. Our findings inform science teacher educators and schools that are committed to mitigating science teacher attrition by understanding how teachers respond to personal and professional stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science educators are integrating more and more computational thinking (CT) activities into their curricula. Proponents of CT offer two motivations: familiarizing students with a realistic depiction of the computational nature of modern scientific practices and encouraging more students from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, some studies show that increasing exposure to computing may not necessarily translate to the hypothesized gains in participation by female students and students of color. Therefore, paying close attention to students' engagement in computationally intense science activities is important to finding more impactful ways to promote equitable science education. In this paper, we present an in‐depth analysis of the interactions among a small, racially diverse group of high school students during a chemistry unit with tightly integrated CT activities. We find a salient interaction between the students' engagement with the CT activities and their social identification with publicly recognizable categories such as "enjoys coding" or "finds computing boring." We show that CT activities in science education can lead to numerous rich interactions that could, if leveraged correctly, allow educators to facilitate more inclusive science classrooms. However, we also show that such opportunities would be missed unless teachers are attentive to them. We discuss the implications of our findings on future work to integrate CT across science curricula and teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equitable sensemaking allows for meaningful understanding of the big ideas of science and deeper engagement in science practices. Many nonscience majors, including elementary preservice teachers (PSTs), do not have opportunities to engage in equitable sensemaking within their secondary or college-level courses. An innovative cycle to support engagement in equitable sensemaking, the Local Ecosystem Observation Cycle (LEOCycle), was used in online and in-person sections of an integrated Earth and life science undergraduate course for PSTs. In the LEOCycle, students observe, wonder, investigate, and make sense of phenomena within their local ecosystem through an online platform. The PSTs' surveys and work within the course suggested that the LEOCycle facilitated students' connections between the ideas within the course and their personal experiences and supported the development of a community of practice. The LEOCycle provides an example of how to facilitate students' equitable sensemaking of science ideas in local ecosystems within science content courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation forms part of a doctoral study that examines the relation between socioemotional competencies (SECs) and teachers' beliefs on the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs). It addresses religion teachers' knowledge of SECs during the curricular integration of ICTs, specifically their internal aspects in their pedagogical practice using ICTs (second-order barriers). This study also discusses the characteristics of religion teachers, who have received less attention than teachers of science, language, or mathematics disciplines, partly because religion is not considered a priority area in educational policies. To this end, this study adopted a qualitative approach in the phenomenographic tradition to describe how people experience the phenomena in their environment. The informants were 22 religion teachers from Metropolitan Lima, Peru, who participated in in-depth interviews to clarify their emotional experience with ICTs. The results confirmed the empirical findings of contemporary scientific literature and indicated that teaching with ICTs offers a permanent emotional experience manifested in the planning and development of learning sessions as well as in decision-making for pedagogical purposes. The findings allow for feedback and serve as a catalyst for perseverance and work engagement. However, the informants expressed their desire for better training to carry out quality teaching-learning processes with ICTs in religious education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of metaknowledge about models (MKM) and metaknowledge about the modelling process (MKP) are important in pre-service science teachers (PSTs) education. MKM refers to knowledge about the model's entities and its purposes, while MKP refers to knowledge about the components and structure of the modelling process. Assessing MKM and MKP is crucial to foster this knowledge in PSTs' education. However, assessment instruments focus on MKM rather than MKP, and the connection between MKM and MKP had not been examined deeply. This study validates and applies a diagram task for assessing PSTs' MKP. For validation, ten experts were surveyed and think-aloud interviews were conducted with ten PSTs. The findings support valid interpretations of PSTs' MKP based on the diagram task. In the main study, the diagram task was administrated to 63 PSTs, along with an MKM questionnaire. PSTs' MKP ranged from simple conceptions of modelling as a linear process including few components to sophisticated conceptions of modelling as an iterative process including multiple components. Furthermore, it was found that knowledge about using models to predict a phenomenon is an aspect connecting sophisticated MKM and MKP, indicating that this aspect is crucial to foster both, PSTs MKM and MKP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon the model for science teacher assessment literacy developed by [Abell, S. K., & Siegel, M. A. (2011). Assessment literacy: What science teachers need to know and be able to do. In The professional knowledge base of science teaching (pp. 205–221). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3927-9%5f12], this study explored science teachers' knowledge and practices of inquiry-based science instruction (IBSI) in Taiwan, and investigated the possible interactions among the categories of assessment literacy. Forty high school science teachers with relevant experience in IBSI participated in the study. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and background questionnaires. We analysed the data and developed a coding scheme through both theory-oriented and data-oriented approaches. Four categories of teacher assessment literacy were explored, including assessment purposes, assessed learning outcomes, assessment strategies, and assessment scoring. The results indicated that, through formative assessments, teachers supported students' inquiry-based learning and self-regulated learning in a variety of ways. Furthermore, teachers not only used multiple data sources to assess students' learning performances, but also appreciated both subcategories of assessed learning outcomes - inquiry as means and inquiry as ends. The analysis also revealed some patterns of interactions among the categories of assessment literacy. Based on the findings, discussions and suggestions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note is based on the premise that Paulo Freire is an educator of the present and the future. Contrary to research that has confined him to the past, the author emphasises the construction of Freire's thought-action in five historical periods, noting the timeliness and foresight of his ideas for the 21st century. From his first books (Educação e atualidade brasileira [1959] and Educação como prática da liberdade [1965]) to the last ones published during his lifetime (Pedagogia da esperança: um reencontro com a Pedagogia do oprimido [1992] and Pedagogia da Autonomia [1996]), the author of this research note discerns reconstructions of concepts, arguments and paradigms that bring Freire up to date and continue to impact educators and specialists around the world. The emphasis, here, is on the inseparability between education and politics and his radical humanism as central axes of his pedagogy. The relevance of dialogic-communicative action in the learning process and the valuing of the learners' knowledge as the starting point for elaborated knowledge enhance the choice of freedom, autonomy and democracy. Freire's defence of the pedagogy of the question and research against the pedagogy of belief and the deposit of knowledge, among other crucial proposals, remain current and are forward-looking. These and other theses, articles, speeches, courses and works recorded over 50 years of Freire's career (1947–1997) justify his inclusion today among the most-cited thinkers in the human sciences, and Pedagogy of the Oppressed among the 100 most-read books in the English language. After the centenary of Paulo Freire's birth (2021), references to his political-pedagogical legacy (both practical and theoretical) continue to grow, encourage dialogue with other current thinkers and reaffirm his hope for the work of educators of the present and the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a rollercoaster activity including virtual reality and following the six-steps engineering design process. In the study, a real-life problem involving a rollercoaster accident was given to 12 pre-service science teachers first. The participants were then asked to imagine, plan, create, and test a rollercoaster without an impulsion or braking system that could prevent this kind of accident. The pre-service teachers worked in groups to design their rollercoaster in three 50-minute sessions. After designing their rollercoasters, the pre-service teachers were shown a rollercoaster video with VR glasses so that they could test their designs by noticing the faulty parts. After they improved their designs, each rollercoaster was evaluated by the researchers using the rubric. The activity is critical in providing pre-service science teachers with an example of integrating the STEM approach into their lessons and incorporating virtual reality in STEM education. The activity also can help students become entrepreneurial thinkers and understand how science is connected to other disciplines such as technology, mathematics, or engineering. The activity can also help students develop 21st-century skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, and analytical thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study examines the information collected about applicants to mathematics or science teacher preparation programs (MSTPPs) and how university faculty perceive and value this information in admissions decisions. Based on document review and interviews with MSTPP faculty and admissions directors, we found that broad measures of mathematics and science content background (e.g., achievement test scores, past mathematics and science courses taken) were used more frequently than information on applicants‐specific mathematics and science content knowledge and dispositions. In many cases, application components (such as interviews and personal essay statements) were perceived by faculty to be conducive to surfacing applicants‐content knowledge and dispositions; however, they were not constructed or employed in a way that afforded the obtainment of this information. We highlight salient examples of MSTPPs‐collection and use of information related to mathematics and science and discuss implications for TPP admissions processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change (GCC) is one of the greatest challenges of our age and a highly significant socio-scientific issue (SSI). Developing secondary students' understanding about the Earth's climate and GCC is critical for empowering future citizens and a key focus of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). In this cross-sectional study, we investigated secondary students' evidence-based reasoning about GCC grounded in a curricular intervention involving the use of a data-driven, computer-based global climate model—EzGCM—over 3 years with four teachers who adapted the module in their own courses—two secondary science teachers during the Spring of 2018 (year 1), and all four teachers during the Fall of 2018 (year 2) and the Fall of 2019 (year 3). Our research questions were: (i) to what extent has the EzGCM-based curriculum supported students' conceptual understanding about Earth's climate and GCC over time? and (ii) in what ways do EzGCM features enhance students' evidence-based reasoning about Earth's climate system and GCC? We evaluated students' evidence-based learning using: (i) pre/post concept inventory and (ii) students' interviews. Results from the quantitative analyses of a pre- and post-module assessment indicated that student learning gains increased mainly in the third year. Results from the qualitative analysis of student interviews showed that EzGCM helped students use the different graphic outcomes to develop a more robust understanding of the temporal and spatial changes in surface air temperature and CO2, the trends in and relationships between different climate variables, and temperature anomalies. Overall, these results highlight affordances of the EzGCM-based curriculum to support students' reasoning about Earth's climate and GCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analysed secondary school teachers' self-reported learning during their participation in a long-term, non-formal scientific activity in the form of a crystal-growing contest. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to explore in-service teachers' experiences and describe the different types of learning that they report they have acquired due to their participation. Data were collected over a period of four years using an open-ended questionnaire. Qualitative methods were used for the data analysis to construct categories and identify emerging themes. The outcomes of the analysis were the identification of several types of learning gains that highlighted some of the potential benefits of introducing non-formal environments as an option for in-service teachers professional learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the extent to which the notion of knowledge about alternative conceptions is featured in the curriculum for pedagogy courses of a pre-service science teacher programme and explored pre-service students' understanding of the notion having completed the pedagogy courses. This was achieved by analysing three curricula, one each for physics, biology and chemistry pedagogy courses and by interviewing 29 pre-service teachers from one university in Tanzania. The study was guided by a framework of five aspects of the notion of knowledge about alternative conceptions, which were adapted from Gomez-Zwiep. These are the definition of alternative conceptions, their nature and origins, examples of alternative conceptions in science, their impacts, and instructional strategies to address alternative conceptions. The results indicated that the notion of knowledge about alternative conceptions is generally not featured in pedagogy courses. Further, although most of the pre-service teachers could identify the impacts of alternative conceptions on students' learning, they had a limited understanding of the notion. Thus, the study recommends that pedagogy courses should emphasise explicit instruction of the notion of knowledge about alternative conceptions. Further, pre-service teachers should be exposed to the debate about how to approach good instruction in relation to alternative conceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of a multifaceted public health approach. Promoting health literacy and safe behaviour to reduce disease spread can be an effective social vaccine. However, the role of science teachers as part of a social vaccine is unclear. Similarly, their responses to health crises and the factors affecting such responses are poorly understood. We investigated the relationship between the COVID-19 vaccination status and the reliance on different sources of information among pre-service science teachers from South African and Indonesian universities as a preliminary effort to understand the role that teachers could play in promoting health literacy and safe behavioural practices. We conducted a survey using a comparative quantitative approach to gather data from 87 South African and 93 Indonesian pre-service science teachers through a closed-ended questionnaire. Different statistical tests were performed using SPSS to analyse the data, including the Mann–Whitney U test, Levene's test for equality of variance, t-test, regression analysis and analysis of variance. The results show that South African pre-service science teachers reported a lower COVID-19 vaccine uptake than Indonesians. Both sets of participants rely on social media, research articles, textbooks and friends and family to learn about COVID-19. However, reliance on these sources is not significantly associated with vaccination status. We conclude that contextual factors may affect vaccination status. We recommend further research into science teachers' role in promoting health literacy and safe behavioural practices to reduce the spread of diseases. We also recommend using social media to share scientific information for health education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National reform documents all around the world issue an urgent need for the development of integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curricula. With the emphasis on the development of STEM curricula, there is also a need for improving teachers' and future teachers' conceptions of the integrated STEM approach. This study responds to this call by providing a context to develop pre-service science teachers' understanding of STEM disciplines.Query In this study, we explored how the engineering design-based intervention developed the pre-service science teachers' understanding of integrated STEM education. For this purpose, four STEM activities that focus on a daily-life problem and an iterative engineering design process to solve the problem were adopted. The results revealed that participants' understanding of science was developed throughout the activities (i.e., from the first to the last activity). Similarly, there was an enrichment in their understanding of the engineering design process. On the other hand, there was no gradual development in participants' understanding of mathematics implying that participants had difficulties in making explicit connections with mathematics throughout the activities. Implications for effective STEM courses for developing pre-service science teachers' understanding of STEM disciplines and STEM courses in pre-service science teacher education programs were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational contexts are often seen as constraints in school settings. We propose a framework to analyze how teachers draw on their contexts to find resources to support their learning. Following five preservice elementary teachers into their first years of teaching, we draw on interviews, surveys, artifacts, and videorecords. We apply this framework to identify the resources available in elementary science teaching. Our findings show how some resources can cascade from higher levels (e.g., state standards and mistrust of science) and impact classroom opportunities. Our analysis highlights the importance of teacher education and school leadership in illuminating contextual resources available to teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzed the state of metacognition in South African Physical Science classrooms, the extent to which South African Physical Science teachers possess metacognitive awareness, and how effective the teachers are in fostering metacognition. Assessment of the current state of metacognition in a sample of Physical Science classes at two KwaZulu-Natal districts, inferring the observed and analyzed level of metacognition of the participants, was based on the assumption that low levels of metacognitive awareness was the reason for achieved poor results. The major findings of this research found; there is a poor state of metacognitive awareness within the studied Physical Science classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a controversial issue in education that students perform dissection experiments. Different opinions have been noted in studies on this subject, and various applications are recommended according to education levels. This case study aimed to determine pre-service science teachers' views of hands-on dissection and virtual dissection. The study group consisted of 36 students, 29 female, and seven male. An open-ended question form and student diaries were used as data collection tools. The implementation started with observing the chicken embryo development process that the students actively carried out. Then, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the frog dissection experiment was conducted as a virtual dissection. The content analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. According to the findings, the observations made during the chicken embryo development process emerged negatively due to ethical and moral concerns as the development process progressed. The frog dissection experiment applied in the virtual environment was accepted by the majority of the pre-service teachers who stated that they would prefer virtual dissection tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of laboratory activities based on the predict-observe-explain (POE) strategy on the understanding of photosynthesis and respiration concepts of pre-service science teachers, and their attitudes towards biology science and course and biology laboratory. Pre- and post-test designs with an experimental and a control group were used in the research. The research was implemented with participation of 64 the pre-service science teachers. For this purpose, the experimental and the control groups were randomly determined. The same laboratory activities were carried out using POE in the experimental group and utilising a traditional approach in the control group. For the data collection, a two-tier concept test, The Biology as a Science and Course Attitude Scale and the Biology Laboratory Attitude Scale were applied before and after the applications. The results indicated that the pre-service science teachers who were taught using laboratory activities based on the POE strategy had significantly higher scores in terms of achievement and attitude towards biology laboratory than those taught by the traditional approach. In this context, we recommend using and expanding laboratory activities based on active learning methods, such as POE in biology courses. [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]

A new perspective on chemistry learning could be the optimal learning moment of view based on flow theory. Optimal learning moments (OLMs) that occur when students experience high levels of interest, challenge, and skill at the same time were investigated in this study. Participants of the study were 47 pre-service science teachers. Data were collected via the experience sampling method in a university-level chemistry course which was given online due to the COVID19 pandemic, and an online form was used to collect data at specified points of the course. It was found that participants reported OLMs 23.5% of the time. Also, the occurrence of OLMs in different units (content) or different parts (activities) of the course was investigated. There was no significant difference in OLMs at different units of the course. However, there was a significant difference between the course's lecturing, mini-testing, and problem-solving parts. Optimal learning moments occurred in mini-testing and problem-solving parts more than in the lecturing part of the course. Thus, it can be concluded that students had more OLMs in the parts where they were more active and had more responsibility. Also, the order of the constituents of OLMs might be important as their size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argumentation plays a central role in the development and justification of scientific knowledge. Learners could attain a more scientifically acceptable conceptual understanding by attending argumentation-based discussions. During argumentation-based discussions, students need to activate some metacognitive processes related to concept learning, such as being aware of their and others' existing concepts, monitoring the consistency between their own claims and counterclaims, and evaluating the validity of the evidence they applied to justify their claims. In this article, some prompts were inserted that aim to activate preservice science teachers' (PSTs') metaconceptual processes explicitly and systematically into the stages of Predict-Observe-Explain activities, one of the ways to engage students in argumentation. This activity aimed to facilitate PSTs in constructing more scientifically acceptable concepts about simple electrical circuits by ensuring the activation of various metaconceptual processes as they justify or reason the validity of different claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research has highlighted the challenges of teaching in urban settings, particularly for science teachers, it has paid less attention to the development of science teaching identities in urban settings. This paper situates science teaching identity within societal discourses of science, education, and teaching to explore the ways in which macro‐level discourses influence the positions available to science teachers in urban schools. Using questionnaire data from 64 teachers, discourse analysis is used to demonstrate how participants reinscribe or disrupt prominent macro‐level discourses, including the elitism of science, accountability, and deficit views of urban areas, and the resulting positions that are created by this negotiation process. The findings include possible positions relative to science, education, and teaching as well as a consideration of differences between elementary and secondary teachers and between beginning and experienced teachers. Although many participants successfully disrupted damaging discourses of science as elite and disconnected, as well as discourses of accountability and the role of standardized testing, they were not able to disrupt deficit discourses that resulted in positioning themselves as outside of their students' worlds, often as saviors. The findings demonstrated the strong influence of deficit discourses on teachers' descriptions of their experiences as science teachers and the need to support teachers in understanding the historical and cultural contexts of urban education to identify and disrupt deficit discourses and create teacher positions based on asset and justice‐based views of students, schools, and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instructional explanations are sometimes viewed as part of a nonconstructivist, solely teacher‐centered learning environment, leading to the perception that they are ineffective or inappropriate for teaching science. Consequently, teacher education programmes seldom focus on preparing teachers to explain scientific concepts effectively. Interestingly, the perception of a specific kind of instructional explanation in teaching has evolved in recent years: explanatory videos, in particular, are being viewed as promising digital tools for learning. This article asserts that instructional explanations constitute integral components within nearly all learning environments where communication about science takes place. It has two goals. Firstly, the article aims to develop a coherent, constructivist theory of explaining, including both teacher explanations and explanatory videos. This theory offers an inductive‐statistical explanation of the underlying mechanisms of communicative situations that involve experts and novices. Secondly, based on this constructivist perspective, the article distinguishes instructional explanations from scientific explanations and argumentation. It contends that (a) reducing instructional explanations solely to teacher‐centered, didactic teaching represents a misconception with potentially adverse effects and (b) it also is a misconception that instructional explanations, scientific explanations, and argumentation are (nearly) interchangeable. The paper argues that instructional explanations, including both teacher explanations and explanatory videos, are not only a potentially effective part of all kinds of science teaching but also a core practice of science teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action research has gained widespread recognition as a tool to improve teaching practices in many countries, and action research based on Kemmis and McTaggart's model was recently introduced in Bhutan to raise teaching quality. This study explored how Bhutanese secondary science teachers carried out the process of action research and the factors which supported or constrained them. Focusing on one case study school in Bhutan, data were collected progressively, using interviews, teachers' diaries, and classroom observations, as three science teachers carried out their first action research project over a period of seven weeks. Data were analysed using the coding procedures of grounded theory. The findings showed that the teachers used a messy process of action research which was not consistent with the linear process depicted in Kemmis and McTaggart's model. The constraints they faced included concerns about science curriculum coverage, lack of time, inadequate knowledge, the hierarchical education system, and the Buddhist value of Driglam Namzha. However, teachers' collaboration, motivation, and Buddhist values of Tha Dam Tshig and Zhenphen facilitated their progress. In response to the influence of cultural factors on action research in Bhutan, the study proposes a new context-sensitive model called the Sherig Action Research (SAR) model for Bhutanese teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background or Context: Teachers are often positioned as the main providers of educational equity and access for culturally and linguistically diverse learners (CLDLs). Teachers' beliefs regarding this population can play a major role in their instructional and curricular decisions. Purpose, Objective, Research Question, or Focus of Study: In this study, we use a lens of professionalization to examine how teacher beliefs might be influenced during the in-service years of a teacher's career through the role of teacher professional organizations. Research Design: We utilized document analysis to examine how CLDLs are discussed in the position statements from four long-standing teacher professional organizations (i.e., National Council for Teachers of English, National Science Teacher Association, National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, and National Council for Social Studies). One hundred and four position statements produced between 2000 and 2022 were analyzed. Conclusions or Recommendations: Findings revealed that most position statements employ generic language, rarely referring explicitly to CLDLs, their access to education, the need to consider their languages/cultures in instructional methods and materials, or ways to effectively prepare teachers to meet their needs. Findings suggest that teacher professional organizations should rethink their approach to crafting position statements to be both inclusive and specific in language. Implications for teacher professional development and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]