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We investigated the characteristics of a medical simulation-based informal learning environment (MSBE) of a science center--an environment not yet studied--to understand its uniqueness and its impact on visiting students. In the MSBE, students interact with, and operate, sophisticated simulators which demonstrate a range of medical situations. Visiting students comprised mainly high school students, who do not commonly visit science centers. They included Jewish and Arab students of diverse socioeconomic statuses. Data collection in this mixed-method study comprised pre-post open-ended views and content questionnaires, a semantic difference survey and interviews. To scrutinize student learning and attitude change, we compared the visiting students with a comparison group who did not visit the MSBE. The MSBE enabled mainly collaborative and active/hands-on learning that helped students visualize and experience abstract ideas and yielded a variety of learning outcomes. We present evidence that the students improved their attitudes toward biology and medicine and improved their understanding of biological principles related to the human body. Addressing both museum learning literature and literature on different types of scientific and health literacies, we highlight the value to student engagement and learning of this unique medical simulation learning environment.

This paper examines the gap between Jewish and Arab students in Israel in the context of learning in informal environments. I attempted to understand whether the difference is a matter of inequity in terms of resource allocation and opportunities provided to the schools. I present the socio-historical-political context and the current situation, based on formal documents. To gain an insiders' views, I interviewed five Arab science educators and an Arab superintendent. These conversations highlighted the cultural aspect of the gap and a cultural change toward integrating more learning opportunities in out-of-school environments. Using Gutiérrez and Rogoff (2003), rather than taking a deficit view, repertoires of practice is suggested to understand differences. Several implications relevant to other places where different cultural groups live and where educational and social practices affect the ways people use out-of-school time and resources are offered.

In this research, we investigate the implementation of a non-mandatory learning-unit on renewable energy in elementary schools in Israel. The research focuses on the effect of teachers' attitudes toward energy conservation and the efficient use of energy, as well as on the effects of contextual factors on teaching the programme. Mixed methods were used for data collection and analysis. Questionnaires were responded to by 77 teachers, and 13 teachers were interviewed. Attitudes regarding energy consumption are positively associated with teaching the programme, whereas teacher-perceived overload is negatively associated with it. Time devoted to teaching the programme in class was limited due to both the non-mandatory status of the curriculum and to accountability stressors. The findings suggest that while teachers' attitudes to the environment have some influence on their decision to teach the programme, most of their decisions are related to contextual factors such as work overload, and lack of training, and support. Education plays a significant role in general, as well as regarding energy conservation and renewable energy. The research findings suggest that developing teaching materials is not a sufficient condition for motivating teachers to use them, and that considering contextual factors is essential for a successful implementation.

Despite growing interest in promoting environmental education (EE), as in other countries, its status within the formal education system in Israel is still ambiguous and its effectiveness questionable. Proceeding from the view of structure-agent interdependency, the present study focuses on teachers' identity as key to understanding the situation in their professional field. Analysis is based on in-depth interviews with ten EE teachers in ten public elementary-schools in Israel, to investigate their occupational self-perception as part of the system in which they operate. Findings reveal an ambivalent professional identity and a weak sense of agency as EE teachers. Teachers' impaired occupational self-image have implications for their potential role in advancing EE in particular and for the educational field in Israel in general.

This mixed-method research focuses on how school children visiting a science museum with their class perceive the overall experience of their visit to the science museum and which aspects of the science museum experience they recall as significant. The study participants were seventy two 4th grade students (age 9-10) who came to the museum with their class for a day visit. Our research revealed that the students perceive two different types of activities in the visit, according to the level of choice given to them, and that their experiences in these activities are described differently. The physical interaction during the visit is dominant, and students report at length what they have learned about how to operate the exhibits in the museum. Additionally, the students see the facilitators as traditional knowledge transmitters, repeating their explanations and referring to their contents as something they have learned. Our findings expand what is known about student visitors' experiences and can therefore help make the museum experience more meaningful for school students.

Today, science is a major part of western culture. Discussions about the need for members of the public to access and understand scientific information are therefore well established, citing the importance of such information to responsible citizenship, democracy, socially accountable scientific research and public funding (National Research Council [2009] "Learning science in informal environments: People, places, and pursuits." National Academies Press). In recent years there has been an increased interest in investigating not just what visitors to informal environments have learnt after a visit, but also how visitors interact and engage with exhibits during the visit (Davidsson & Jakobsson [2012] Understanding interactions at science centers and museums: Approaching sociocultural perspectives. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers). Within the field of school visits to science museums, however, interactions between students and museum educators (MEs) remain relatively unexplored. In our study of such school visits, we are mainly interested in the interactions that take place between three agents--the students, the museum educator and the physical setting of the exhibit. Using moment-to-moment fine grain analysis of multiple interactions allowed us to identify recurring patterns between students and the museum educators around exhibits, and to examine the MEs' mediational role during the interactions, and the practices they employ to engage students with exhibits. Our study revealed that most interactions between MEs and students consist of technical explanations of how to operate the exhibits. The interactions that do move past this stage often include two main practices, which the MEs use to promote students' engagement with the exhibits: physical instruction and engaging the students emotionally. Understanding what is actually happening in the learning process that occurs during students' interactions with exhibits can help museum educators and exhibit designers improve the experiences of students on school visits.

This research examines the same 12 school-students making repeat visits over a three-year-period to a science museum. We used a qualitative approach, analysing video recordings of museum visit and interviews with students, focusing on the way students use their former engagement in a science museum using a retrospective view that can offer insight into the pedagogy of the visit and exhibit design. The significance of this study lies in its retrospective lens that allowed us to understand how students build on earlier engagement with museum exhibits when they make repeat visits to informal learning environments. Our retrospective analysis of student learning from five exhibits suggests certain pedagogical and facilitation strategies in three specific areas: first, the sensory-motor experience promotes students' understanding of the scientific principle of the exhibit. Second, exhibits should aim at presenting abstract concepts in a tangible way. Third, museum educators should use anchor-points throughout the visit to create a more cohesive 'story' for students, so that they relate to it in a way, which will help them remember the experience over time. Consequently, the main implications of this study concern exhibit design and the overall pedagogy of the visit.

This study combines the fields of science communication and science education. It focuses on the ways the media covered the wild boars' invasion into the city of Haifa in Israel, their hazards and the policy of the city. We identified the problem as a socio-scientific issue (SSI) according to science education literature, and investigated the extent to which the media refers to features of SSI. We analyzed 424 news-items published in local and national media during 2019–2022. Findings show that although most SSI features, such as presenting the conflict, suggesting solutions, consulting with experts etc., appear in the media reports, their use is not systematic and occasionally it is simplistic. Differences between local and national media were inconsistent, with some SSI features appearing more in the national ones and others in the local. Levels of complexity were indistinctive as well. In conclusion, we suggest that journalists should be aware of SSIs characteristics and address them in their reporting to better engage the public with such environmental and societal issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study on long-term educational programs (LTP) in nature, facilitated by an environmental agency we followed two distinct programs enacted in schools and in nature parks as case studies. Data were collected through observations of activities in schools and in the outdoors and through interviews with students, teachers and facilitators. In one program there were more student-centered and hands on activities and substantial environmental action. In the other program it was the students' first experience with outdoor and environmental education, and the teachers were more active in the outdoors as "story tellers" and role models. In this program, the students brought up their own concern of littering rather than following the environmental agency's concern of illegal herb harvesting. In general, in both programs the participant students expressed high satisfaction, and indicated learning about the environment. We found as well limited collaboration between the operating environmental organization and the schools and no connection to the school curriculum. Post priori, teachers as well as the environmental educators acknowledged the need to address the school curriculum and to better involve the teachers.

There is a long history of some students finding that the science instruction they receive in schools fails to address their deeply held concerns about the theory of evolution. Such concerns are principally religious, though there are also students with deeply held religious views who are perfectly comfortable with the theory of evolution. New instructional strategies are emerging, aimed at reducing the tensions that may exist between evolution and religion by making space for students to examine their own views and recognize the spectrum of views that exists between atheistic evolution and special creation, as well as the bounded nature of science and different ways of knowing. In this article, we discuss the teaching of evolution in societies where acceptance of the theory of evolution is far from universal, and argue that an approach based on "pedagogy of difference" has considerable potential to enhance students' development of epistemic insight through recognition of the multiple perspectives that exist concerning the relationship between religion and science. In doing so, we explicate precisely what pedagogy of difference entails and introduce an approach that should enhance evolution education, and even aid students' situating of science as a resource for making decisions about issues with scientific and societal aspects where the acknowledgement of multiple perspectives is valuable.

Extending teaching beyond the classroom walls has been known for its potential to promote inquiry learning in various disciplinary domains. Current technologies can enhance these benefits, especially by enabling supports for seamless learning between contexts. But even without technology, teachers tend to refrain from implementing outdoor inquiry due to the many complexities involved. To address this challenge, a design-based research (DBR) was employed to develop and explore a teacher professional development (TPD) model for supporting teachers in designing TEL environments for outdoor inquiry. The study included two exploratory iterations, both implemented within TPD programs comprised of three stages (teachers-as-learners, teachers-as-designers, teachers-as-enactors). Analysis of the TEL environments' teachers designed in the first iteration revealed insufficient supports for students' seamless learning. Based on these findings, we developed the Supporting Outdoor Inquiry Learning (SOIL) guidelines to support teachers in designing seamless flows of activities for learning within and between four dimensions: scientific practices, outdoor learning, physical settings and social activity structures. Findings from the second iteration, in which the SOIL guidelines were embedded in each of the TPD stages, indicate that they enabled teachers to productively analyze and design TEL environments for outdoor inquiry.

This study employs a single framework for investigating both environmental journalistic texts published on news websites, and science teachers' choices of such texts for their teaching. We analyzed 188 environmental items published during 2 months in seven news websites to determine popularity of topics. Then, 64 science junior high school teachers responded to a closed questionnaire to identify their preferred topics for using in the classroom and patterns of using environmental news items. In a second, open-ended questionnaire, responded by 50 teachers, we investigated the teachers' media literacy in terms of identifying text types and writers of environmental news items. Good alignment was found between the published topics on the websites and teachers' choices, with somewhat different distribution of topics, which could be explained by curriculum requirements. Teachers' identification of text types and writer types was inaccurate, which implied that their media literacy is inadequate. We argue that media literacy is required for effective use of journalistic texts in science teaching.

Our interpretative study that was carried out in a science and engineering oriented university examined the ways students in an introductory biology course perceived their learning in the course that was substantially changed to allow student-centered learning. The instructional change was framed by the view of learning as a sociocultural activity as well as a cognitive process that can take place face-to-face or through online interaction. Most of the lectures were substituted with individual learning and project-based, small-group learning that lasted one month. Data were collected through interviews with students and instructors, and through observations. In the paper, we show evidence for deep learning that was associated by the students and the instructors with short-term, meaningful activities in a setting that included collaborative peer learning; and replacing most lectures by small group learning that ended in a mini-conference. Deep learning was evidenced by the ways students reflected on how they organised and applied knowledge using deep learning strategies.

This study endeavors to identify ways to promote a productive learning culture in higher education. Specifically, we sought to encourage development of internal values in students' culture of learning and examine how this can promote their understanding of scientific content. Set in a high enrollment undergraduate biology course, we designed a technology-enhanced learning environment in which we gradually introduced features designed to promote this culture. These features included digital resources and socio-constructivist activities that reshaped students' and instructors' roles. In this paper we focus on the relation between this design and indications of internal values in students' learning processes. Data from 76 student interviews were analyzed phenomenographically using the Culture of Learning Continuum conceptual framework developed in this study, which synthesizes perspectives from education, psychology and sociology. Findings indicate that the intervention succeeded in promoting an internal value-based culture of learning, which enabled students to develop deeper understanding of scientific content.

This research investigates the ways in which undergraduate courses dealing with the environment address sustainable development (SD), and contribute to the development of sustainability learning outcomes (SLO). The participants in the study were 13 instructors, and 360 students who were enrolled in 13 courses that addressed the environment in a technical university. Mixed methods were used for data collection and analysis. We found that courses that address the environment are varied in the way that they address sustainable development, and in the pedagogy they use. We also found links between teaching methods and the pattern of reported SLOs: skills development was promoted mainly in courses with a high degree of participatory learning; changes in awareness and attitudes were reported mainly in courses that addressed sustainable development, and motivation to promote sustainable development was reported mainly in courses that addressed sustainable development and also provided opportunities for active and participatory learning. The implications of our research are discussed.

This study identifies the journalistic features of four Israeli science-news websites and suggests a conceptual framework for describing and analyzing different channels of science communication. Findings show how these websites, while employing scientists as reporters, adopt journalistic practices in producing, presenting, and disseminating science news on various topics. Based on these findings, it is suggested to add to the traditional dichotomic classification of direct and mediated channels of science communication, a third entity we name "Peripheral science-journalism." Another insight that comes out of the findings is that amateur journalists' contribution to journalism and society should be evaluated by addressing the practices they employ and the product they provide rather than their personal, professional, or institutional affiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science teachers are expected to teach in innovative ways that are different from their long experience as students. Professional development programs are planned to help teachers' development, yet, there is little knowledge of the long-term effects of professional development programs (PDPs), and especially on actual practice. The purpose of this study is to gain a long-term perspective of the ways in which the process and outcomes of a reform-oriented, extended PDP are expressed in science teachers' practice. Data sources included interviews and documents. The study presents four case studies of the practices of junior high school science teachers (grades 7-9) in Israel, with respect to a past PDP in which they took part a decade ago. The cases are presented in pairs of a leader and a follower. Each case details the teacher's work context, sustained implementation, coherence of tools and approaches, and adaptations. All four teachers shared the view that scientific skills are important to their students as learners in a changing world. All four teachers adopted one or two major approaches, which were the PDP's main focus. In addition, the two leaders adopted two more approaches. The teachers were still using many strategies associated with the major foci of the PDP. The level of enactment and modifications of the strategies varied. Usability of innovations is discussed in relation to the teachers' context. We suggest that science teachers' professional development include the ability to adapt the innovation to their teaching context in order to sustain the changes for a long period of time.

This study focused on field trips to natural environments where the teacher plays a secondary role alongside a professional guide. We investigated teachers' and field trip guides' views of the teacher's role, the teacher's actual function on the field trip, and the relationship between them. We observed field trips, interviewed teachers and guides, and administered questionnaires. We found different levels of teacher involvement, ranging from mainly supervising and giving technical help, to high involvement especially in the cognitive domain and sometimes in the social domain. Analysis of students' self-reported outcomes showed that the more students believe their teachers are involved, the higher the self-reported learning outcomes.

This research explores learning in science museums through the most common activity in a science museum--interaction with exhibits. The goal of this study was to characterize the learning behaviors exhibited by students as they engage with interactive exhibits in order to draw insight regarding the design of the exhibits. In order to do so, we used a qualitative method of observation as well as the Visitor Engagement Framework (VEF) model, a visitor-based framework for assessing visitors' learning experiences with exhibits in a science center setting. The combined method produced a framework of nine learning behaviors exhibited during the visitors' interaction with the exhibits, grouped into three categories that reflect increasing levels of engagement and depth of the learning experience. Our research participants consisted of a total 1800 students aged 10-12 (4th, 5th, and 6th graders) who came to the museum with their class for a day visit. We observed nine exhibits, each visited by 200 students. Our observations revealed several design elements that contribute to engagement with exhibits in science museums. For example, exhibits that have familiar activation encourage visitors' interaction, exhibits that facilitate social interaction are more likely to increase engagement, and the highest levels of engagement can be found in exhibits that support large groups.

The main assumption of this study is that the natural environment is an important part of learning in out-of-school settings. We therefore aimed at understanding how outdoor educators (OEs) refer to, and use, the natural environment while guiding field trips, and how their use of the natural environment affects student learning outcomes. Using a mixed-method design, we studied 20 field trips to natural environments with respect to the content the OEs communicated to their students, the skills they taught, and the methods they used. The data we collected included observations of the 20 field trips, interviews with the OEs and their students, and 569 students' questionnaires. We found that the OEs often refer to scientific phenomena and concepts that can be seen outdoors, but they rarely attempt to develop values and attitudes. Eight types of learning outcomes were identified, of which structured active learning stood out as a practice that contributed to a variety of outcomes. Environmental action contributed to shaping students' attitudes and environmental behavior intentions. The thorough analysis we offer of the use of the natural environment could guide OEs pedagogy and, particularly, their use of the natural environment and could lead to further research in this field.

In this study, our aim was to understand how environmental education has been implemented in Israeli elementary schools. We selected ten schools that had implemented Education for Sustainability programs and analyzed their mission statements and curriculum documents. We observed each school's activities and interviewed teachers. Our analysis shows ambiguity with respect to the rationales and the theoretical foundations of the programs. It also shows much didactic teaching of content, a strong focus on behavioral outcomes, especially with respect to reducing resource consumption and to increasing the levels of recycling, as well as some degree of working with the community. The unclear status of environmental education in Israel, in terms of its structure within the education system, prevents it from having sufficient resources for teacher education and curriculum development. It is suggested that this lack of clarity is the main cause of the ambiguity and for the use of the traditional pedagogies we found in our analysis.

This interpretive study identifies challenges of working with Bedouin and Jewish Israeli youth in two multicultural projects: education for sustainability and place-conscious education. It also describes the ways the adult project leaders addressed these challenges and their views on the effectiveness of their decisions. Participants comprised 16 Bedouin and Jewish educators. Data collection included interviews and observations of project meetings and staff meetings. Project leaders reported challenges related to (1) intergroup differences in environmental viewpoints, knowledge, and learning styles, (2) embedding issues of environmental justice in the multicultural discourse, and (3) Bedouin-Jewish interactions. To address these challenges, the leaders separated groups for some learning activities, directed discourses, adopted bilingual teaching strategies, and emphasized unique socio-cultural characteristics. Their level of satisfaction with most of their decisions is high. They avoided discussing the broader socio-political Arab-Jewish conflict. The findings highlight dilemmas that multicultural environmental projects pose and suggest the need to adopt critical pedagogy of place to address such dilemmas and challenges. The findings also emphasize the need to better prepare educators for environmental education in multicultural settings.

In this study, we used the classification and regression trees (CART) method to draw relationships between student self-reported learning outcomes in 26 field trips to natural environments and various characteristics of the field trip that include variables associated with preparation and pedagogy. We wished to examine the extent to which the preparation for the field trip, its connection to the school curriculum, and the pedagogies used, affect students' self-reported outcomes in three domains: cognitive, affective, and behavioral; and the extent the students' socioeconomic group and the guide's affiliation affect students' reported learning outcomes. Given that most of the field trips were guide-centered, the most important variable that affected the three domains of outcomes was the guide's storytelling. Other variables that showed relationships with self-reported outcomes were physical activity and making connections to everyday life--all of which we defined as pedagogical variables. We found no significant differences in student self-reported outcomes with respect to their socioeconomic group and the guide's organizational affiliation.

Implementing inquiry in the outdoors introduces many challenges for teachers, some of which can be dealt with using mobile technologies. For productive use of these technologies, teachers should be provided with the opportunity to develop relevant knowledge and practices. In a professional development (PD) program in this design-based research, 24 teachers were involved in adaptation of a learning environment supporting inquiry in the outdoors that included the use of mobile technologies. They first experienced the learning environment as learners, then adapted it for their own use, and finally, enacted the adapted environment with peers. We examined the scope and character of teacher involvement in adaptation, and the consequent professional growth, by analyzing observations, questionnaires, interviews and the adapted learning-environments. Findings indicate that all teachers demonstrated change processes, including changes in knowledge and practice, but the coherence of the learning environments decreased when substantial adaptations were made. Some teachers demonstrated professional growth, as reflected by their implementation of ideas learned in the PD program in their daily practice, long after the PD program had ended. This study demonstrates how the Teachers as Designers approach can support teacher learning and illustrates productive use of scaffolds for teacher growth and professional development.

In light of the literature that deals with challenges of outdoor education, this paper presents exemplary practices in field trips to natural environments. We offer an analysis of 62 field trips of students in grades 4-8 (age 10-14), guided by professional guides or by teachers. In aiming at elucidating the qualities of exemplary fieldtrips, we analyze five examples of high quality field trips. Each of the five was exemplary in several aspects, but not necessarily in all. Data were collected though observations and interviews with teachers, guides and students. Interpretative analysis was used in addition to an analytic framework that we developed previously. In general, we stress that good collaboration between the guide and the teacher, who enact active learning and psychomotor activity, and make much use of the environment for student exploration and interaction, are the key to high quality outdoor learning experiences. We provide several examples to support this claim. Other aspects we highlight are a sense of freedom, time and opportunity to enjoy nature and the opportunities to have meaningful social interactions. In light of the prevalent critique toward current outdoor education practice, we suggest the research community learn from good practices.

This study is part of a first study of collaborative socio-environmental projects that engage Jewish and Arab students in Israel in learning about their local environment and about each other through outdoor learning and environmental action. We used ideas of social learning and environmental citizenship to frame our research. We investigated students' knowledge regarding their local environment and their knowledge of each other's community. We also studied the participants' views regarding their project-partners'environmental knowledge, awareness and behaviour in comparison to their own. Initially, differences were found regarding various aspects of the students' socio-environmental knowledge and in students' views of their counterparts' environmentalism. At the end of the projects, students showed better understanding of local socio-environmental issues and demonstrated changes in their original views towards the environmental awareness and behaviour of their counterparts. These findings suggest that projects which involve students from segregated communities not only promote environmental awareness but contribute to a reduction in mutual prejudices. We suggest that the differences we found are not related to ethnicity, but rather to students' socioeconomic status and experience in environmental education programmes.

Background: Although teaching nature of science (NOS) has been continually emphasized in many major reform efforts in science education, researchers claim that students do not possess adequate views of NOS. Insufficient understanding of NOS can be associated with the ineffectiveness of curricular or instructional approaches. Consequently, researchers have begun to examine ways to improve students' understanding of NOS. In this study, we purposely focused on honored students who major in the sciences to see whether extended science programs develop better understanding of NOS. We aimed to understand the relationship between science instruction and students' NOS understanding in Israeli science advanced placement courses. Semi-structured interviews with science teachers provided data about the instruction of science in general, and NOS instruction in particular. An open-ended questionnaire that dealt with global climate change assessed students' understanding of NOS. Results: Teachers reported about limited and implicit instruction about NOS. Although teachers believed that teaching NOS is important, the need for their students to succeed in the high-stake matriculation exams and the fact that these exams do not include questions dealing with NOS were indicated as the main reasons for the teachers' reluctance to teach NOS. Nevertheless, we found a small overall improvement in students' understanding of NOS. Two possible factors probably contributed to students' improved understanding of NOS: conducting inquiry projects and teaching cases in history of science. Yet, in both contexts, the understanding improved only in one aspect of NOS. Conclusions: The small improvement in understanding NOS reflects the limited and non-systematic teaching of NOS. Implicit instruction is not effective enough to promote understanding of NOS, even in advanced 2-year science program, where both students and teachers are highly capable. Other factors that could explain the little improvement are insufficient subjects in the curriculum that emphasize NOS and teaching methods that do not encourage discussion about NOS.

In this case-study, we present a longitudinal study of one elementary (grades 1-6) school's environmental education (EE) in order to understand the ways in which the school culture supports outdoor EE as a critical component of their science education program. The school, which was known for its school-based EE curriculum that encompasses an intensive outdoor-education component, has gone through changes in the staff, and the student population. Our study is aimed at understanding the current challenges of the school outdoor education, in light of its two decade tradition of environmental and outdoor education school-based curriculum. We observed three field trips and interviewed the principal and teachers. Our critical analysis indicated key tensions regarding outdoor EE: (1) the place of the school's tradition in light of current staff's challenges and agenda; (2) power struggle between the EE teacher and the newer teachers in school; and (3) the separation between the EE program that was an integrative holistic program in the past, and the other fields taught in school. In conclusion, we argue that the main issue is the change in the school culture that reflects the changes the community went through. We suggest that the school should examine old assumptions and revise its EE curriculum in light of changes in the school social and physical environment and in accordance to development in the field of EE.