Various studies in science education have concluded that successful science learning sometimes consists in students having two or more incompatible representations regarding a phenomenon. Specifically, a pluralist perspective acknowledges that such representational plurality is normal and even beneficial for the individual. Our working hypothesis…

This study investigates the predictive relationship between academic resilience and cognitive flexibility among students in biology lessons enhanced by design thinking. Using an embedded quasi-experimental design, we compared the effects of design thinking-enhanced lessons with conventional engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate (5E)-based…

This study examined elementary science teacher candidates' (TCs') ability to notice and interpret students' sensemaking and science ideas by analyzing written responses to classroom-based assessments implemented at the end of mini-units during their field placements. TCs were enrolled in a 16-week science methods course at a Midwestern university…

This paper provides a critical and detailed study of what researchers in the fields of contemporary cognition and neuroscience have revealed about the blurred boundary between perception and cognition. We set out the arguments with a view to what researchers and teachers should now consider regarding the subtleties of their interrelationship in…

Mindset is a construct of interest for challenging learning environments, as science courses often are, in that, it has implications for behavioral responses to academic challenges. Previous work examining mindset in science learning contexts has been primarily quantitative in nature, limiting the theoretical basis for mindset perspectives…

How and why science education scholars and practitioners might use artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom has been a controversial agenda for decades. ChatGPT, a state-of-the-art (SOTA) AI released in November 2022, has attracted global interest for its exceptionally high performance in generating human-like natural language answers to…

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) represents a dynamic pedagogical approach in science education, driven by a foundation of deep theoretical constructs. This paper meticulously examines the cornerstone theoretical underpinnings of IBL, centering on constructivism, situated cognition, and cognitive load theories. Constructivism, epitomized by Piaget's…

According to several studies, the three levels of representation in chemistry are the fundamental aspects of effective learning and understanding of chemistry. In this study, we aim to illustrate how students identify changes in the matter using eye-tracking and verbalizations. Five students observed chemical and physical phenomena depicted by…

The study outlines the early-stage development of a free-response General Relativity Concept Inventory (GRCI), an educational instrument designed to test for conceptual understanding of General Relativity. Data were collected for the study by having 26 participants from General Relativity courses work through the questions on the GRCI. Interviews…

New resources have recently been emerging for educators to implement systems thinking (ST) in chemistry education, including a proposed set of ST skills. While these efforts aim to make ST implementation easier, little is known about how to assess these skills in a chemistry context. In this study, we investigated ST skills employed by students…

Chemistry education researchers have, for many years, explored different ways of learning chemistry through modeling and open-ended problem-solving. With the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, students now have access to dynamic scaffolds that can potentially support them in modeling. However, we still…

Modelling roles of mathematics in physics has proved to be a difficult task, with previous models of the interplay between the two disciplines mainly focusing on mathematical modelling and problem solving. However, to convey a realistic view of physics as a field of science to our students, we need to do more than train them to become fluent in…

Students entering high school often bring misconceptions about the nature of science and experimentation with them from middle school. Many also bring a belief that they are not a "science kid" and, therefore, cannot be a strong student in Biology. This belief can lead to a lack of self-efficacy and of student agency in the classroom.…

With the release of Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012) and Next Generation Science Standards (2013) documents, engineering was integrated into science teaching. With that emphasis, teachers require to incorporate engineering practices and nature of engineering into their practice. Most of the attention has been…

Notwithstanding the growing advantages of incorporating Augmented Reality (AR) in science education, the pedagogical use of AR combined with Pedagogical Agents (PAs) remains underexplored. Additionally, few studies have examined the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) into science education to create GAI-enhanced PAs (GPAs)…