A general consensus exists among the leaders of both developed and developing nations that their citizens should be scientifically literate. Therefore, it is important for educational systems to provide students with access to pertinent scientific knowledge, an appreciation for the scientific processes, and the ability to evaluate scientific…

This study examines the causal reasoning that university students use to explain how dc circuits work. We analyze how students use the concepts of electric field and potential difference in their explanatory models of dc circuits, and what kinds of reasoning they use at the macroscopic and microscopic levels in their explanations. This knowledge…

This study aims to investigate the relationship between preservice science teachers' epistemological beliefs about the nature of science (NOS) and their science learning self-efficacy perceptions by adapting a science learning self-efficacy scale for use in Turkey. This study is model as "Relational Survey". A total of 125 preservice…

Traditional school science has been described as focused on indisputable facts where scientific processes and factors affecting these processes become obscured or left undiscussed. In this article, we report on teachers' perspectives on the teaching of sociocultural and subjective aspects of the nature of science (NOS) as a way to accomplish a…

Doing science involves the development and evaluation of models. These models are not objective truths but can be understood as explanations, which scientists use to explore and reason about an aspect of the world. Learning science involves students expressing and engaging with models in the classroom. However, this learning should not be seen as…

Teachers' beliefs shape their daily instruction and the materials presented to students. The personal views of educators are especially relevant when socioscientific issues are involved. Preservice and novice teachers' mastery of the nature of science (NOS) and personal beliefs in and out of the classroom influence their worldviews and classroom…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of the explicit nature of science instruction embedded in the Argument-Driven Inquiry method compared with an implicit inquiry method on eleventh grade students' conceptions of NOS. The study used a pre-/post-test control group design to investigate the influence of the explicit nature…

Imines are important in biological chemistry and as intermediates in organic synthesis. An experiment for introductory undergraduate organic chemistry is presented in which benzaldehyde was condensed with "p"-methoxyaniline in toluene to give 4-methoxy-"N"-(phenylmethylene)benzenamine. Water was removed by azeotropic…

Internationally in secondary schools, lessons are typically taught by subject specialists, raising the question of how to accommodate teaching which bridges the sciences and humanities. This is the first study to look at how students make sense of the teaching they receive in two subjects (science and religious education [RE]) when one subject's…

Deans for Impact, a nonprofit organization composed of leaders of educator-preparation programs throughout the U.S., believes cognitive science is an important part of an evidence-based core of knowledge that preservice teachers should possess. Member deans believe that cognitive science holds promise for improving learning and promoting the…

In this work, we developed an ontological tool, based on the scientific realism of Mario Bunge, for the analysis of the presentation of natural processes in science textbooks. This tool was applied to analyze the presentation of the concept of osmosis in 16 chemistry and biology books at different educational levels. The results showed that more…

We present an empirical investigation of a classroom training fostering vocational students' consideration of source information when deciding about science-based controversies. The training was specifically aimed at raising students' awareness of the division of cognitive labor and the resulting need to take a source's competence into account…

The promise of personalized learning excites many educators, and schools are wondering how best to introduce it and how they know when they have achieved it. Rather than thinking of personalized learning as an "it" (i.e., a program that is either present or not), we might think of it as an approach to teaching and learning that has many…

Physical Chemistry's birth was fraught with controversy, a controversy about electrolyte solution chemistry which has much to say about how scientific knowledge originates, matures, and responds to challenges. This has direct implications for the way our students are educated in physical chemistry in particular and science in general. The…

We discuss the popular question concerning the difference in weight between 1 kg of iron and 1 kg of feathers, by taking into account the non-trivial aspect of the semantic interpretation of "weight" and the weighting procedure. The inclusion of air buoyancy makes the correct answer an interesting one. We describe and comment on the…