An understanding of how sensemaking unfolds when elementary students engage in engineering design tasks is crucial to advancing engineering teaching and learning at K-12 levels. Sensemaking has been widely studied in the context of science as a discipline. In this paper, we seek to contribute to the more nascent efforts to build theory about the…

Science education researchers have highlighted how uncertainty can foster meaningful scientific sense-making, supporting students to re-evaluate their understandings of scientific phenomena and pursue deeper causal accounts. However, facilitating whole-class conversations motivated by uncertainty is complex and challenging, calling for further…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is widely endorsed as a desirable learning method, particularly in science. Especially in light of the method's heavy demand on resources, evidence-based practice is called for. Rigorous studies of the method's effectiveness, however, are scarce. In Study 1, college students enrolled in an elementary physics course…

In this study, we test an information-processing model (IPM) of problem solving in science education, namely the working memory overload model, by applying catastrophe theory. Changes in students' achievement were modeled as discontinuities within a cusp catastrophe model, where working memory capacity was implemented as asymmetry and the degree…

Making assumptions is an important step in solving many real-world problems. This study investigated whether participants who could solve well-defined physics problems could also solve a real-world physics problem that involved the need to make assumptions. The participants, who all had at least a BA in physics, were videotaped "thinking aloud"…

Describes the model-revising problem-solving strategies of two groups of students (one successful, one unsuccessful) as they worked in a genetics course to revise Mendel's simple dominance model to explain the inheritance of a trait expressed in any of four variations. Finds differences in the groups' abilities to recognize anomalous data, use…

Describes a study with the main objective of constructing models based on strategies students use to solve chemistry problems and to show that these models form sequences of progressive transitions termed "problemshifts" that increase the explanatory/heuristic power of the model. Results implies that the relationship between algorithmic…

Analyzes difficulties of students experiencing their first contact with heuristic hypotheses. Attempts to interpret these difficulties and suggest remediations. Uses an example from the chemistry of aqueous solutions. (MKR)

Describes set of specific steps (procedural knowledge) used when solving monohybrid/dihybrid cross problems and extent to which students could justify execution of each step in terms of their conceptual knowledge of genetics and meiosis. Implications for genetics instruction are discussed. (JN)

Reviews the literature concerning problem solving in science education. Authors contend that the adoption of a forward-looking viewpoint of science has increased the attention given to the topics of discovery and problem-solving behavior. Authors conclude that research by philosophers of science on models and problem solving include insights to…

Focuses on student capacity to develop and assess arguments during a high school genetics instructional sequence, and on the location distinction in argumentation discourse between "doing science" vs. "doing school" or "doing the lesson". (Contains 37 references.) (Author/YDS)

This case study describes a teacher's development of and creativity in manipulating physical models in an astronomy course for in-service science teachers of K-8. Specifically, she organized a data table from several charts of numbers, constructed a moon-ball model in addition to a 2-D model, and created a hula hoop model as a concrete realization…

A historical analysis reveals that the journal has become increasingly the organ of college and university science educators, fewer women now contribute articles, and that Dewey's focus on reflective thinking and problem solving has continued to appeal to science educators. (CP)

Discusses a generalized approach to societal problems, consisting of a series of questions that can be asked as problems are investigated. Questions focus on nature of problem situation, what problems are, situational/historical contexts of problems, possible solutions, consequences of solutions, ways of testing proposed solutions, and what…

Compares critical thinking ability of pupils in scientific situations and in real-life situations by administering multiple choice tests to Israeli ninth graders (N=344). Results confirm that students do not react similarly when confronted with equivalent situations presented in different contexts. (CS)