The article introduces a design-and-effects-framework comprising five key features of effective professional development: (1) extended Duration, (2) Content Focus of input, (3) Coherence of input with practice, (4) Collegial Participation, and (5) Active Learning. The framework's general feasibility is investigated in a proof-of-concept study.…

Supporting student participation and learning in STEM involves motivating students to engage in the most effective learning activities. In this article, we study how student motivation interacts with learning activities, and we pay special attention to active learning and the Scandinavian context where participation in learning activities is…

This study delves into the realm of student conceptual change, examining shifting understandings as important steppingstones on the path to sensemaking and canonical understanding in science education. It explores the potential of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) curriculum, aiming to provide equitable learning…

In primary science education, inquiry-based science instruction stands out as an optimal learning environment for fostering domain-specific content and procedural knowledge. Recognizing the effectiveness of different forms of teacher guidance, there is an ongoing debate about the planning of high (structured inquiry) and low (guided inquiry)…

We present a year-long case study that documents the interactions between a teacher-research-mentor (TRM) and two 11th grade students working in their school laboratory on an extended inquiry project that is part of reformed mandatory requirements for advanced-level matriculation in physics. Both the students (females) and the TRM (male) are Arab…

Small group interactions and interactions with near-peer instructors such as learning assistants serve as fertile opportunities for student learning in undergraduate active learning classrooms. To understand what students take away from these interactions, we need to understand how and what they learn during the moment of their interaction. This…

Although adults are known to play an important role in young children's development, little work has focused on the enactive features of scaffolding in informal learning settings, and the embodied dynamics of intergenerational interaction. To address this gap, this paper undertakes a microinteractional analysis to examine intergenerational…

We explored how various contextual resources accumulated over multiple years operated together to facilitate a team of high school teachers' sustained and agentive learning after a 4-year research-practice partnership (RPP) grant concluded. Specifically, we examined constellations of resources that promoted the co-evolution of the teachers'…

Equity in education has been conceptualized in various ways, which provides different affordances and constraints for policy, research, and teaching decisions. Regarding the latter, there is a dearth of research on how postsecondary science faculty conceptualize equity and whether and how their understandings of equity may be informing their…

The power of knowledgeable peers (in this case undergraduate learning assistants [LAs]) to scaffold learning in ways that can positively influence both cognitive and affective outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), is explored in this study. In terms of the cognitive perspective, we use a metacognitive awareness (MA)…

A hotly debated topic is the effectiveness of inquiry-based instructional practice in science classrooms on student achievement and motivation. Numerous studies based on multinational large-scale education data show such student-centered instructional practice positively led to students' motivational beliefs but was negatively associated with…

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…

This study investigates possibilities for faculty members and teachers to overcome status and professional culture barriers as they engage in partnership work aimed at promoting inquiry-based instruction. It compares the processes and outcomes of several types of professional learning opportunities within a Math and Science Partnership based on…

Detailed accounts of teaching can shed light on the nature and prevalence of active learning, yet common approaches reduce teaching to unidimensional descriptors or binary categorizations. In this paper, I use the instructional systems-of-practice framework and the Teaching Dimensions Observation Protocol (TDOP) to advance an approach to thinking…

This study investigated how student participation in an authentic scientific investigation may shape underrepresented students' views of science and support students in learning science. The research centered on the instructional approach used in a fifth-grade classroom to engage English language learning students from Latino backgrounds in a…