The purpose of this teacher-practitioner research study was to examine how elementary teacher candidates engaged in sensemaking about the learning process within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and to further examine how they engaged in sensemaking about NGSS teaching and curriculum development. Interviews and course artifacts from 14…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the potentialities of a learning module, created within an Erasmus+ project, which involved pre-service elementary teachers in a socio-scientific scenario related to green cities. The participants were involved in a panel discussion activity, with the main objective of discussing and reflecting on how to…

While citizen science and other participatory approaches to science are increasingly used in schools to promote student science learning, rarely are these students supported to collect, analyze, and share their data with meaningful outside audiences. In this study, we used a Design-Based Research approach to iteratively develop and examine an…

Science teachers struggle to implement and sustain new curricular ideas from professional development (PD) experiences. These PD opportunities are crucial for enacting real-world changes to teaching practice and address pressing global challenges, such as the teaching and learning of socioscientific topics nested in school communities.…

Science education literature calls for students' participation in science practices through ongoing collective sensemaking built on coherence from the student perspective. However, few studies systematically consider students' point of view and there is little guidance for how teachers can lead the class to co-construct specified learning goals…

Improving achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is essential for elevating individual success and solving societal challenges. Yet national and international assessments paint a poor picture of students' STEM competencies (NAEP, 2019; OECD, 2018). An untapped avenue to improve STEM education lies in developing…

Background: The Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) and Next Generation Science Standards ([NGSS] NGSS Lead States, 2013) emphasize that all students from the earliest grades onward must have the opportunity to learn and actively participate in authentic science. In K-12 science instruction, this means that students should have the…

In this article, we describe our work with a teacher collaborative focused on enhancing elementary teachers' conceptualization of culture, culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally relevant science pedagogy and the process of developing culturally relevant science curricula. Using culturally relevant pedagogy as inspiration for equitable science…

Introduction: The aim of the study was to examine the effects on Primary School Teacher Candidates of developing and implementing jigsaw technique activities enriched with educational games in Science and Technology Teaching lessons. Methods: In the study, the mixed design was used. The single group pre-test post-test weak experimental pattern…

We describe the development, design, implementation, and preliminary classroom results of an innovative curriculum, "Focus on Energy," that supports learning about energy in Grades 4-5. The curriculum is grounded in the concepts of science as practice, model-based reasoning, and learning progressions, and builds on students' pre-existing…

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) topics into K-12 school curricula is a relatively new but crucial challenge faced by education systems worldwide. Attempts to address this challenge are hindered by a serious lack of curriculum materials and tools to aid teachers in teaching AI. This article introduces the theoretical foundations and…