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Die Beiträge stellen innovative Konzepte für einen kognitiv aktivierenden Unterricht in den MINT-Fächern vor. Die Autorinnen und Autoren präsentieren fächerübergreifende Unterrichtskonzepte, die die Lernenden motivieren und Impulse für nachhaltiges Lernen und bewusstes Handeln geben. Themen sind unter anderem ein differenzierter Mathematikunterricht, das mathematische Prüfungsgespräch im mündlichen Abitur, Chemie in heterogenen Lerngruppen, Neuroenhancement, kompetenzorientierter Informatikunterricht oder das Niedrigenergiehaus als Beispiel für projektorientierten Technikunterricht. Alle vorgestellten Konzepte und Materialien wurden von Lehrkräften im Projekt SINUS.NRW entwickelt und wissenschaftlich begleitet. Das SINUS-Projekt zur Steigerung der Effizienz des Unterrichts in den MINT-Fächern wurde von der Bund-Länder-Kommission für Bildungsplanung und Forschungsförderung initiiert und wird seit 2007 vom Land Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW) fortgeführt.

The study analyzes the knowledge and consumption of organic foods and the understanding on the concept of food security of 60 regular elementary school students and 46 students of the youth and adult education (YAE) from a public school in Palmas, Tocantins State. From a qualitative-quantitative and exploratory approach, this study used as a methodological data collection instrument a semi-structured questionnaire with five questions, applied to regular elementary and high school students. The answers given to the questions were categorized in percentages and analyzed by the techniques of statistical and content analyses. Among other results, the research verified the lack of knowledge of these students regarding this subject. Given this, school must develop strategies and effective practical actions, not just theoretical ones, able to encourage the adherence of healthier food choices to students. It is concluded that it is essential to emphasize the theme of healthy eating in science teaching.

The development of computer skills, as well as computer self-efficacy, has increased in importance along with the role of technology in everyday life. Childhood is a critical time for the development of these skills since early inequalities may substantially impact future life outcomes. In a context of a computing intervention designed to improve digital inclusion, we hypothesize that students’ enactive learning experience (conceptualized as their computer usage) and their vicarious learning experience (conceptualized as their perception of their teacher’s computer usage) are associated with the development of perceived technology efficacy and STEM (Science, Technology, Education, and Math) attitudes. Data are from a sample of elementary school students from an urban school district in the Southeastern United States. The results show that both their direct experiences and their perception of their teacher’s computer usage have strong impacts on students’ technology efficacy and STEM attitudes, and the former is the stronger predictor of the outcomes examined. The findings suggest that programs aiming to improve digital inclusion should emphasize students’ direct learning experience, which would later improve their attitude toward STEM fields.

This essay examines the challenges of science education in the 21st century with regard to social, cultural, economic, political and pedagogical issues impacting and influencing instructional methodology and understanding of the role of science education as it affects individual, social organizational and societal progress and functions. Drawing upon some strong practical, philosophical, and pedagogical-methodological and theoretical ideas and propositions from Hodson, as espoused in his book Looking to the Future: Building a Curriculum for Social Activism, the author essentially responds to this extremely rich scholarly volume in scientific literacy, philosophy, and history by supporting Hodson’s advocacy of an action-oriented and issues-based curriculum as the key to renewing and activating scientific literacy to increase students’ performance and national competitiveness in the global economy. The author extricates from literature, not only strong rationale for the renewal and transformational of science education in terms of perspective and approach, but also takes a critical approach in examining some of Hodson’s contentions regarding strategies in confronting socioscientifc issues as major pathways to the teaching and learning of science. The author examines problems, challenges, and the new opportunities that have emerged and are emerging in contemporary environmental, social, cultural and political contexts for science education to experience transformation in several ways: as a field of study, as an applied body of knowledge, as a way of living and as a competitive tool and strategy important to national goals and posterity.

Das Angebot der Weiterbildungseinrichtungen zu den Naturwissenschaften entspricht nicht deren Bedeutung für das menschliche Verständnis der Welt. Es hält nicht Schritt mit dem Wandel in den Wissenschaften selbst. Um dieses Angebot zu verbessern, führten die TU Darmstadt und das hvv-Institut an hessischen Volkshochschulen das Projekt "Naturwissenschaft in der Allgemeinen Weiterbildung" durch. Dabei entwickelten sie das hier vorgestellte Verständnis von Aufgaben und Zielen der Wissenschaftsvermittlung und die didaktischen Modelle für die Erwachsenenbildung.

In dem Beitrag wird die Reaktorkatastrophe von Fukushima (März 2011) samt den ihr folgenden energiepolitischen Veränderungen zum Anlass genommen, nach den Reaktionen der naturwissenschaftlichen und technischen Didaktik zu fragen. Der empirische Befund ist, dass der Didaktikdiskurs davon wenig beeinflusst ist. Gründe dieser Nicht-Beachtung findet der Autor in den theoretischen Problemen der Fachdidaktik, hier: Technikdidaktik, sowie in einem zu engen Aufgabenverständnis für den Fachunterricht.

The present article reports on the results of the three year programme 'Biology in Context' (bik). In this German-wide programme, teachers and science education researchers worked together in 10 learning communities (so-called school sets) with the goal of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in biology classrooms as mandated by the recently passed National Educational Standard for the lower secondary level. In addition to face-to-face meetings, computers were used as tools for communication and collaboration. Computers enabled the mutual sharing of information among the participants, the planning and documenting of tasks and teaching units, and they promoted the reflection over and refining of products. Data were collected from structured interviews of teachers, researchers and coordinators. The analysis identified teacher profiles in regard to their attitudes to implement the bik concept, their computer use and the change of classroom activities. The main findings show that (i) the participant teachers mainly used ICT tools when constructing tasks and units and when collaborating, (ii) but less so for instructional purposes, learning and knowledge creation, (iii) seldom used ICT tools for reflection on professional experiences, and (iv) that teachers use of ICT tools increased from the first to the third year. The study concludes that information literacy skills have a strong impact on the persistence of learning communities. Further research should be conducted to investigate teachers' professional development in communities that turn more and more from face-to-face meetings to blended forms of learning.

This article presents an example of teacher professional development based on a perspective of situated learning and implemented on a large scale. We consider teacher professional development from three perspectives. First, teacher professional development is a key factor in improving classroom instruction. Second, teacher professional development is a vehicle for conveying knowledge from research into classrooms. Third, teacher professional development is an object of research itself. A German project to improve science and mathematics teaching (SINUS) – comprising 180 schools in a pilot-phase and more than 1,700 schools in a second phase of scaling-up – serves as an example of this framework for teacher professional development. Using these three views we describe the foundations of the programme and provide a brief account of the programme’s background and its conception. We show how the central elements of the programme (11 modules) are based on an in-depth analysis of science and mathematics education, as well as how those modules structure the professional development of the teachers. Finally, we provide an overview of the evaluation of the programme. A large-scale comparison between SINUS schools and a representative sample of German schools tested in PISA 2003 showed positive effects of the programme with regard to students' interest and motivation as well as competencies in science and mathematics. In the light of these findings, we argue that teachers’ learning related to daily pedagogical challenges in the classroom should be central to professional development initiatives.

This paper presents a study concerning Greek primary school teachers' (n=162) ideas about the particulate nature of matter and their explanations of physical phenomena. The study took place during an in-service training course where the effectiveness of a specially designed intervention was tested. A key feature was an approach based on the concept of a substance and its states rather than 'solids, liquids and gases'. Pre-intervention, the teachers held misconceptions similar to those of pupils. Also, there seemed to be some relationship between the teachers' particle model ideas and their explanations of phenomena. Post-intervention, the teachers' descriptions and explanations were found to be significantly improved, with almost zero correlation between pre and post intervention scores. Implications for science education are discussed.

Netzwerke, in denen Personen kooperieren, um im Schulsystem nachhaltige Schul- und Professionalitätsentwicklung zu initiieren und zu etablieren, werden seit Ende der 1990er Jahre zunehmend aufgebaut. Netzwerke sind meist interessiert, sich auszuweiten, um möglichst viele Lehrende in Innovationen einzubeziehen. Steuergruppen stellen das operative Zentrum von Netzwerken dar. Sie übernehmen die Koordination und Organisation der Schulentwicklungsinitiativen eines Netzwerks und dienen als solche u.a. als Schnittstelle zwischen den bereits kooperierenden und potenziell neuen Mitgliedern. Bislang gibt es jedoch kaum Erkenntnisse darüber, wie die Steuergruppenmitglieder diesen Vermittlungsprozess gestalten und woran sie sich dabei orientieren. In diesem Beitrag soll an diesem Forschungsdesiderat angesetzt werden, indem die von Steuergruppenmitgliedern formulierten Zugangsmöglichkeiten zum Netzwerk untersucht werden, die im Rahmen einer qualitativ angelegten Studie mithilfe problemzentrierter Interviews erhoben wurden. Die Befragungen wurden im Winter 2007/8 im Rahmen der österreichischen Regionalen Netzwerke, einer von vier Maßnahmen eines landesweiten Projekts zur Stärkung des mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts, durchgeführt. Drei unterschiedlich ausgestaltete Vermittlungsprozesse, die sich im Spannungsfeld von Sach- und Schulstrukturorientierung einerseits und den Vorstellungen zu inhaltlichen Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschieden innerhalb des Netzwerks andererseits bewegen, konnten aus den Interviews generiert werden. Die drei rekonstruierten Typen von Zugangsmöglichkeiten – sachlich-homogen, sachlich-heterogen und bürokratisch-homogen – die durch sogenannte Distinktionen, d.h. habituell vorgenommene Bewertungsformen, realisiert werden, werden anhand von Fallbeispielen illustriert und miteinander kontrastiert. Auf der Grundlage der Ergebnisse werden (Forschungs-) Perspektiven für den Einsatz des Entwicklungsansatzes der Schulnetzwerke formuliert., School networks—defined as people cooperating in order to initiate and emphasize school and professional development—have been established in German speaking areas since the beginning of the 1990s. One of their common goals is to raise the number of their active members. This purpose is connected to the idea of incorporating as many teachers as possible into possible innovations of the network. Steering committees are the operation centers of these kinds of school networks. They coordinate and organize the school and professional development initiatives of a network. Therefore, steering committees link existing members and potentially new ones. Thus far, little is known about how steering committee members organize entrance into their networks. Taking this issue as a starting point, this article focuses on the ideas and concepts of admission processes between existing steering committee members and new ones from the perspective of steering committee members. The data is taken from a qualitative study that was done by interviewing steering committee members of the Austrian "Regionale Netzwerke" [regional networks] in the winter 2007–2008. These regional networks are one out of four groups in a nationwide project that have the goal of strengthening natural sciences and mathematics in Austrian schools. Three different types of admission modes to networks have been identified among fourteen interviewed steering committee members. These modes are situated within the field of common school structure and content of the network and the understanding of homogenous or diverse perspectives in the network. The three reconstructed types of entering modes—content-homogenous, content-diverse and bureaucratically-homogenous—are defined by distinctions that are conceptualized here as habitual practices. All identified types are illustrated with excerpts from the interviews and are compared with each other. On the basis of these findings, concluding perspectives are discussed—both fo, Las redes escolares, definidas como las personas que cooperan a fin de iniciar y enfatizar el desarrollo escolar y profesional, se han establecido en áreas de habla germana desde inicios de los años 90s. Uno de sus objetivos comunes es aumentar el número de sus miembros activos. Este propósito se conecta a la idea de incorporar tantos maestros como sea posible a las innovaciones de la red. Los comités directivos son los centros de operación de esta clase de redes escolares. Ellos coordinan y organizan las iniciativas de desarrollo escolar y profesional de una red. Además, los comités directivos vinculan miembros existentes y potenciales. Sin embargo, poco se sabe acerca de cómo los miembros de los comités directivos organizan el ingreso a sus redes. Tomando este tema como punto de partida, el artículo se enfoca sobre las ideas y conceptos de los procesos de admisión entre miembros de comités directivos existentes y nuevos desde la perspectiva de los miembros de los comités directivos. Se toman los datos de un estudio cualitativo realizado al entrevistar a miembros del comité directivo de la Red Regional Austriaca en el verano 2007-2008. Estas redes regionales son uno de los cuatro grupos en un proyecto nacional que ha tenido la meta de fortalecer las ciencias naturales y las matemáticas en las escuelas austriacas. Se han identificado tres diferentes tipos de modos de admisión a la red entre catorce miembros del comité directivo. Estos modos sitúan entre el campo de la estructura común escolar y el contenido de la red y la comprensión de las perspectivas diversas u homogéneas en la red. Los tres tipos reconstruidos de modos de ingreso – contenido homogéneo, contenido diverso y homogéneo burocráticamente – son definidos mediante distinciones que se conceptualizan aquí como prácticas habituales. Todos los tipos identificados se ilustran con extractos de las entrevistas y se comparan entre ellos. Sobre la base de estos hallazgos, se discuten perspectivas concluyentes, t