This review extends on previously reported findings in which students were asked to construct Reaction Coordinate Diagrams (RCDs) de novo. Instead of asking students to construct RCDs, this study explores students' understanding of kinetics and thermodynamics when provided with mechanisms for the Aldol and Claisen condensations. Data was collected…

Solving organic chemistry reactions requires reasoning with multiple concepts and data (i.e., multivariate reasoning). However, studies have reported that organic chemistry students typically demonstrate univariate reasoning. Case comparisons, where students compare two or more tasks, have been reported to support students' multivariate reasoning.…

The purpose of this proposed quantitative, ex post facto, comparative study with a pretest-posttest design was to assess gains in overall Critical Thinking (CT) skills, and particularly in the Hypothetical-deductive Reasoning (HDR) skills, for pre-health college students tested before and after a Critical Analyses in Science course they attended…

There is growing interest in the construct of "transduction", first introduced by (Kress, Cope and Kalantzis (eds), Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures pp.153-161, Routledge, 2000), p. 159) to name how meanings in one mode are remade in another. Science educators now broadly agree that students need to…

Procedural and conceptual e-scaffolding has been shown to be effective for assisting novice learners in understanding new concepts. Its integration with modelling instructions (E-MI) raises expectations for improving scientific reasoning (SR) in students whose level is still a concern in Indonesia. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to find…

Students frequently turn to the internet for information about a range of scientific issues. However, they can find it challenging to evaluate the credibility of the information they find, which may increase their susceptibility to mis- and disinformation. This exploratory study reports findings from an instructional intervention designed to teach…

In this small, mixed methods pilot study twenty-three 5th graders and two 6th graders from a large, urban middle school in the Northeast United States were given Accountable Talk (AT) sentence stems to use during a series of academically productive talk (APT) in their science classrooms over a 2-week period in the Spring of 2024. The goal of the…

The literature on scientific modelling practices in science education has provided a fruitful discussion on how learners tend to view models vs. how and what they should think about them. One approach is to teach students that models are abstractions so that they do not view them as a copy of phenomena they represent. Although teaching students…

This study aims to investigate the effects of an integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) unit designed around the issue of sulfide mining on middle school students' socioscientific reasoning competencies (i.e., complexity, perspective taking, inquiry, skepticism, affordances of science). More specifically, students'…

This study tracked pre-service science teachers (PSTs) over 3 years as they completed required science courses (e.g., chemistry, biology and science and technology laboratory courses). The PSTs' use of argument, representations, and reasoning were examined (1) to determine the coherence within and between these and (2) examine the relationship…

Developing scientific literacy, which involves applying scientific knowledge to solve real-world problems, is a primary goal in science education. Socioscientific Issue (SSI) provides students opportunities to reason through authentic and complex scientific dilemmas that reflect real-world issues, thus fostering a deeper understanding of…

In the recent decade, the proliferation of ICTs that require Wi-Fi routers in schools has been accompanied by public concerns about risks fueled in many cases by media reporting. The current study examines ways in which parents of school-age children perceive the issue of Wi-Fi radiation in schools by using a science literacy framework that…

Many studies have characterized students' difficulties in understanding and reasoning about scientific mechanisms. Some of those studies have drawn implications on teaching mechanisms and how to guide students while reasoning mechanistically. In this theoretical article, I claim that one component that has not garnered much attention in the…

Productive problem solving, concept construction, and sense making occur through the core process of abstraction. Although the capacity for domain-general abstraction is developed at a young age, the role of abstraction in increasingly complex and disciplinary environments, such as those encountered in undergraduate STEM education, is not well…

Experiential learning is a foundational element to agriscience education. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of reflection type and abstraction order on students' scientific reasoning skills when teaching experientially. Three major conclusions can be drawn from this study: (1) reflection type and abstraction order are…