Entropy is a concept with an extreme controversy which many scientists have been trying to explain. Some of the approaches employed in its definition contradict each other, which made it extremely difficult for high school and college students to understand. Boltzmann was the first person who brought a statistical explanation to entropy and…

Students possess alternative conceptions of many science topics, and these conceptions can act as obstacles for learning scientific concepts. In the field of biology education, students' alternative conceptions of evolution have been widely investigated. However, there is little research on how teachers diagnose and deal with these alternative…

Through the lens of transformative learning theory, this qualitative study examines how pre-service teachers (PSTs) in a teacher education program in rural Appalachia shared their perspectives on their preparation to work with diverse students. It examines how their lived experiences and their teacher education program impacted their approach to…

Recent efforts to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in U.S. public schools have been criticized for fundamentally misunderstanding both CRT and K-12 teaching and teacher education. This paper argues that Anti-CRT fear-mongering in the U.S. is a new face on an old practice, the racist use of public education to sustain White supremacy. Using…

Growing polarization in European societies has changed not only political landscapes but also public debates about the past, which has, in turn, had an impact on the way history is taught and talked about in schools. This article explores how these trends are experienced by history educators across Europe and asks which issues history educators…

While some have argued that abandoning religious belief is the only way to help religious individuals accept evolution, we strongly contend that highlighting faith-evolution compatibility is much more effective. This article describes a professional development event for science teachers and religious educators highlighting ways to teach human…

A common practice amongst scientists is to evaluate the connections between evidence and claims about natural and human-induced phenomena. Teacher education coursework may improve understanding of this important activity and facilitate teachers to implement evidential thinking approaches into their future science teaching. Instructional scaffolds…

America's rank among the lowest of developed countries in evolution acceptance rates is due, at least in part, to religious and political opposition. The negative correlations among religiosity, political ideology, and evolution acceptance in the United States have been documented repeatedly, and comfort with evolution varies by region with…

The events of September 11th occurred twenty years ago this year. The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York and the attack on the Pentagon represented a key moment in history. While the world had experienced multiple terrorist acts previously, this event exposed the vulnerability of civilian populations in major Western countries to attacks…

Challenging the embedded mythologies that surround Anzac, especially as the centenary of First World War played out over the 2014 to 2018 commemoration period, can be confronting for tertiary students as well as a difficult space for tutors to navigate. This is especially the case for teacher education students who form the majority cohort taking…

Increased interest in climate change education and the growing recognition of the challenges inherent to addressing this issue create an opportunity to conduct a systematic review to understand what research can contribute to our ideas about effective climate change education. An academic database, EBSCO"host," was used to identify 959…

Of all the collegiate majors that affect society, none is more critical than teacher education. If teacher education students are uninformed or misinformed about issues central to society, they are likely to be inept in responding to queries and opinions voiced by their future students regarding such issues. The current study investigated one such…

The process of teaching world religions is fraught with dispositional and pedagogical concerns for pre-service teachers. To address these issues, middle grades pre-service teachers were asked to integrate an inquiry-based approach while considering their own histlexia, which we define as an inability to articulate positions. The findings of this…

This study aimed to identify nature of students' decisions patterns towards environmental issues and the possibility to improve these decisions during teaching process using Socio-Scientific Issues Approach. And to achieve this, the researcher prepared and developed tools of the study represented by a test of open questions focused on…

Climate literacy is an essential component of a strategy to comprehend and confront the grand challenge of global climate change. However, scientific complexity, societal implications, and political associations make climate change a difficult but important topic to teach. In this paper we report on the results of a survey of undergraduate faculty…