Recently, theorists have raised concerns that pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has become "a stale metaphor" that disregards diversity and equity, offers little to help teachers address students' misconceptions, and portrays knowledge as "in the head" versus in practice. We refute these notions using grounded theory to…

Misconceptions are the "the old, the bad, and the ugly" prior knowledge, ideas or conceptions that the learners have that hinder their further learning in science. Several types of misconceptions that undergraduate students hold about reaction coordinate diagrams (from here on we use the term "reaction coordinate diagrams" and…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the metaphors created by prospective chemistry and science teachers and their views about how the studies in the field of chemistry are carried out in relation to the grade level and department. Research Methods: Case study as a qualitative research design was used. Participants in the study included…

Purpose: The rationale behind this study was to investigate how three Grade 5 Natural Sciences teachers in three Western Cape primary schools teach science concepts so as to enable the researcher to gain a deeper understanding and more insightful perception of the ways in which the pedagogical practices of South African primary school teachers…

Much research has identified organic chemistry as an area of difficulty for learners. There is also much literature pertaining to the factors that contribute to learners' difficulties. This paper explores the intersections of teachers' and learners' perceptions of teaching and learning organic chemistry respectively. Understanding these nuances…

Children have served as research subjects in several surveys on attitudes to insects and invertebrates. Most of the studies have used quantitative scoring methods to draw conclusions. This paper takes a different approach as it analyzes children's free-text comments to gain an understanding of their viewpoints. A total of 246 children aged 9-13…

This paper describes the results from a qualitative study of 72 preservice teachers' initial ideas about contextualizing science instruction with language minority students. Participants drew primarily on local ecological and multicultural contexts as resources for contextualizing instruction. However, preservice teachers enrolled in the bilingual…

This is an interpretive case study to examine the teaching of an experienced science faculty who had a strong interest in teaching undergraduate and graduate science courses and nature of science specifically. It was interested in how he transformed knowledge from his experience as a scientist and his ideas about nature of science into forms…

Molecular visualizations have been widely endorsed by many chemical educators as an efficient way to convey the dynamic and atomic-level details of chemistry events. Research indicates that students who use molecular visualizations are able to incorporate most of the intended features of the animations into their explanations. However, studies…

Using the symbolic interactionist perspective that meaning is constituted as individuals interact with one another, this study examined how group thinking during cooperative inquiry-based activity on chemical bonding theories shaped and influenced college students' understanding of the properties of ionic compounds in solution. The analysis…

Evolution curricula are replete with information about Darwin's theory of evolution as well as microevolutionary mechanisms underlying this process of change. However, other fundamental facets of evolutionary theory, particularly those related to macroevolution are often missing. One crucial idea typically overlooked is that of most recent common…

Scientists' involvement in education has increased in recent years due to mechanisms such as the National Science Foundation's "broader impacts" expectations for research projects. The best investment of their effort lies in sharing their expertise on the nature and processes of science; film is one medium by which this can be done…

The effectiveness of teaching academic courses such as mathematics and science in a foreign language has been investigated by several international studies in the literature. Even though the studies conducted have brought up contradictory results, most of them reveal that learning academic courses through a foreign language medium may pose…