Academic misconduct is a serious issue among college students, and integrating academic ethics into major courses is expected to help prevent, dissuade, and respond to this issue. With the widespread adoption of flipped classrooms in higher education, it is necessary to explore effective ways to integrate academic ethics into flipped major…

This study explored a middle school science teacher's curricular sensemaking in interaction with their use of an educative storyline curriculum, aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards, that was intentionally designed for more opportunities for students' scientific sensemaking. Using a phenomenological case study methodology, we examined…

The intended curriculum is arguably one of the most important components within any national educational system although those in primary science have not been subject to extensive research scrutiny. Based on reformed primary science curricula from Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan, we compared them on two key features: (1) levels of knowledge…

We examined the sophistication of middle school students' mechanistic explanations of genetics phenomena and how they interact with a technology-based explanation tool as they articulate and organize their ideas about the phenomena. We coordinated curriculum and assessment design frameworks to develop a middle school curriculum unit that engages…

Contemporary curricula are increasingly focused on broader framings of student outcomes such as 'competencies', 'capabilities' and '21st century skills', as we realise that declarative disciplinary knowledge no longer, on its own, confers the capacity to deal with the complex and fast-changing world that students are now entering. In mathematics,…

Course outlines for science teachers, designed and developed at 6 universities, were critically analysed and compared with the guidelines for science education set out in the national policy framework known as the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ) to identify the characteristics of a competent science teacher.…

Responsive instruction--or instruction that foregrounds and takes up the disciplinary substance of student thinking--is both a hallmark of recent STEM education reforms and challenging to enact. This kind of instruction may be especially challenging in instructional contexts that mandate or rely on curriculum with set, structured learning…

The authors of this article, all of whom have been a part of this effort to assess argumentation in literacy-rich science curriculum, have struggled with our attempts to build 3 argument-related assessments--understanding, critiquing, and constructing arguments about scientific phenomena in both oral and written modes. Loosely affiliated with the…

For the past two years, the Foundations in Physics and Mathematics (FPM) summer program has been held at Indiana University in order to fulfill two goals: provide additional physics and mathematics instruction at the high school level, and provide physics graduate students with experience and autonomy in designing curricula and teaching courses.…

This qualitative theoretical study was conducted in response to the current need for an inclusive and comprehensive model to guide the preparation and assessment of teacher candidates for culturally responsive teaching. The process of developing a model of culturally responsive teaching involved three steps: a comprehensive review of the…

Chapters in this book include: (1) New e-Learning Environments: e-Merging Networks in the Relational Society (Blanca C. Garcia); (2) Knowledge Building in E-Learning (Xinyu Zhang and Lu Yuhao); (3) E-Learning and Desired Learning Outcomes (Ralph Palliam); (4) Innovative E-Learning Solutions and Environments for Small and Medium Sized Companies…

The best science teachers are not only experts in teaching and knowledgeable about science content, but they are also great at teaching science. They have specialized teaching knowledge, including knowledge of effective pedagogical practices in science, student difficulties with understanding content, and curricular purposes. As a result,…

"What happens to domain knowledge on its way into the school curriculum?" The article explores this question from a systems view of the knowledge transformation process. This process is not only bound to "contextual knowledge" about "social forces" but also to the school's own "educational knowledge"…

Current reform documents place a strong emphasis on students' understandings of the nature of science (NOS). Interestingly, the importance of this educational outcome is not new and has been agreed upon as important by most scientists and science educators for the past 100 years. Despite numerous attempts, including the major curricular reform…

One of the goals of science education is to foster critical and scientific thinking skills. However, if the meaning of the terms "thinking critically" or "thinking scientifically" is not clear, these phrases will become vacuous slogans beyond translation in teaching methods and curriculum materials. Therefore, the fundamental aspect of these terms…