Curriculum statements and textbooks are considered to be vital support tools for teachers, particularly during times of curriculum innovation. A recent change in South Africa was the controversial inclusion of evolution in the school curriculum, raising serious concerns amongst biology teachers regarding the adequacy of their content and…

This is a collective case study seeking to develop detailed descriptions of how programming an agent-based simulation influences a group of 8th grade students' model-based inquiry (MBI) by examining students' agent-based programmable modeling (ABPM) processes and the learning outcomes. The context of the present study was a biology unit on…

This study examined science textbooks over time to better understand the "science content" expectations that the U.S. educational system deems appropriate for 8th and 9th grade science students. The study attempted to answer the questions: (1) What specific science content has been presented via the textbook from 1952 to 2008? (2) Within…