The past century has yielded a plethora of advancements in the science of learning, from expansions in the theoretical frames that undergird education research to cultural and contextual considerations in educational practice. The overarching purpose of this chapter is to explore and document the growth and development of the science of learning…

This paper calls for greater use of educational research in the development of science exhibitions. During the past few decades, museums and science centres throughout the world have placed increasing emphasis on their educational function. Although exhibitions are the primary means of promoting visitors' learning, educational research is not…

The move from learning science from representations to learning science with representations has many potential and undocumented complexities. This thematic analysis partially explores the trends of representational uses in science instruction, examining 80 research studies on diagram use in science. These studies, published during 2000-2014, were…

This article consists of two parts. The first one is to a large extent a commentary on John R. Staver's "Skepticism, truth as coherence, and constructivist epistemology: grounds for resolving the discord between science and religion?" The second part is a related overview of Islam's philosophy of knowledge and, to a certain degree, science. In…

The National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) have been one of the leading reformed documents in the U.S. since its release. It has served as a foundation for all state standards and has supported the development of the newest standards documents recently released in the U.S. (i.e., Achieve Inc., 2013; NRC 2012). One of the most important…

In the past decade, we have seen the well-established discourse of environmental education (EE) supplanted by that of education for sustainability (EfS). In some ways this change in terminology has been no more than a slogan change, with the actual educational practices associated with EfS little changed from those qualified by EE (Campbell and…

If our chosen aim in science education is to be inclusive and to improve students' learning achievements, then we must identify teaching methodologies that are appropriate for teaching and learning specific knowledge. Karagiorgi and Symeo (2005) remind us that instructional designers are thus challenged to translate the philosophy of…

This study used scientometric methods to conduct an automatic content analysis on the development trends of science education research from the published articles in the four journals of "International Journal of Science Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Research in Science Education, and Science Education" from 1990 to 2007. The…

This paper reports Grade 12 students' biology learning during interactive teaching classes in 2001 in Taiwan. The researcher as teacher, working within an interpretive framework, set out to improve her senior high school student biology teaching and learning. An intervention based on a social constructivist view of learning was designed,…

Constructivism is a widely influential perspective in science education research. However, there have been strong criticisms of attempts to adopt constructivism as a principle underpinning official science curriculum policy (for example in New Zealand). Over the past decade recommendations for classroom pedagogy in extensive official guidance…

The very first edition of "Primary Science Review" included an article entitled "Teaching primary science--how research can help" (Harlen, 1986), which announced that a section of the journal would be for reports of research and particularly for teachers reporting their classroom research. The intervening 24 years have seen…

This paper reviews astronomy education research carried out among school students, teachers, and museum visitors over a 35-year period from 1974 until 2008. One hundred and three peer-reviewed journal articles were examined, the majority of whose research dealt with conceptions of astronomical phenomena with 40% investigating intervention…

Research in science education has evolved rapidly over the past ten to twelve years due to the growth of two components of most published research. Though it might be argued that they are not really new, these two components are today necessarily explicit whereas they were more implicit in the past. As research has become increasingly qualitative…

In responding to the commentaries from Hobson (2007), Moore (2007) and Rakoczy (2007), we first discuss the commonalities our approach has with other theories and then elaborate on the nature of shared practices and their relationship with language and understanding. We then address views of representation, arguing against an empiricist approach…

Discusses von Glasersfeld's view of constructivism in science and mathematics educational research and practice. Provides a social constructivist alternative to von Glaserfeld's subjectivist constructivism. Discusses the practical art of experimental construction and objectivity in science education. (Author/JRH)