The rise of technology and online approaches has challenged the traditional learning and teaching model for first year chemistry of formal face-to-face lectures and in-person laboratory sessions. The COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 has created a rapidly changing environment in assessment and learning experiences for students and led to rapid adoption…

Teachers participating in curricular reforms, especially reforms based on constructivism, are expected to bring about change in their teaching approach. This is often a difficult, complex and intensive process, and demands a radical reculturing of the classroom. This is also the case for social constructivist reforms in chemistry education, which…

According to constructivist theory, learning is a construction of new knowledge based on prior knowledge. As a consequence, science teachers are encouraged to take students' prior knowledge into account. It is evident in many cases that although students' prior knowledge is often not consistent with scientific knowledge, they may have some…

This dissertation provides insights into the potential for the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) and a complementary instructional model, transdisciplinary STEM, to advance constructivist approaches to high-quality education by providing a framework and pedagogical model that authentically communicate these principles for…

This article describes the redesign of a project-based course on soft and biological materials to include computational modeling. Including the construction of computational models in the course is described as a shift from constructivism--a theory that characterizes the development of formal reasoning, to constructionism--a theory that focuses on…

Climate change and the resulting and related environmental and humanitarian outcomes are some of the fundamental challenges of the 21st century. Green chemistry, a relatively recent addition to the chemistry family, aims to reframe chemistry so that chemistry ethically and responsibly attends to its own environmental and human health impacts and…

This article argues that what is most at risk in schooling during a global pandemic, or other similar broad challenges to normal functioning, are those elements that might be considered the less traditional and so the most progressive. After setting out some general background common to the challenge faced by schools and school teachers, this…

Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training has introduced educational reforms that require Vietnamese teachers to acquire new understanding and skills using information communication technology (ICT) to support teaching. However, there was little literature to guide Vietnamese teachers on how to achieve these goals. The research goals were to…

Current education reform in both the United States and China promotes a reformed inquiry-based approach based on the constructivist learning theory. This study contributes to the research literature by exploring the relationship between reformed science teaching and students' creativity. Chinese education is often criticized for a lack of…

Scientific argumentation is an important learning objective in science education. It is also an effective instructional approach to constructivist science learning. The implementation of argumentation in school settings requires science teachers, who are pivotal agents of transforming classroom practices, to develop sophisticated knowledge of…

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…

The purpose of this article is to provide details about the beneficial processes the constructivist pedagogy has in the area of teaching science. No Child Left Behind could possibly cause detrimental effects to the science classroom and the constructivist teacher, so this essay tells how constructivist-based teaching influences students and their…

In this review, the main characteristics of science teacher education in three countries in South America, namely Argentina, Chile and Colombia, are examined. Although reforms toward constructivist and inquiry-based teaching in science instruction have been made in each of the three reviewed countries, each country demonstrates limitations in the…

Teacher education preparation programs must adapt to changing science education reform movements that identify notebooking as an effective means to increase children's' science process skills and content knowledge. This study addresses the question, "What are the structures and thinking processes that teacher candidates utilize when writing…

With increased study of teachers' beliefs about science and mathematics teaching in recent years, there is a need for instruments that assess beliefs in both content areas. Moreover, early field experiences in schools and professional development efforts may influence the beliefs that preservice and in-service teachers develop, and instruments for…