On the first day of class I ask my students, "What makes a true statement true?" Then I tell them that they might be surprised to learn that there are only two types of true statements in physics, and I encourage them to try to discover the two categories.

Due to the lack of success of German students in recent program for international student assessment (PISA) studies since 2001, the question arises whether German teacher training has an impact on this performance. This publication is based on a systematic review which deals with German-language publications of various PISA-relevant areas within…

This investigation explored a learning community approach to professional development (PD) specifically catered to science teacher educators. It was designed to bolster faculty collaboration, help participants learn about new research relevant to teacher development, and share effective teaching strategies. Forty-four science teacher educators…

Purpose: Awareness of the interaction between science, technology, society, and environment (STSE) is seen as important in life in the modern world. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the science teacher candidates' views on relations between science, technology, society, and environment. Research Methods: In this research, which used…

Analysing graphs, formulating covariational relationships, and hypothesizing systems' behaviour have emerged as frequent objectives of contemporary research in physics education. As such, these studies aim to help students achieve these objectives. While a consensus has been reached on the cognitive benefits of emphasizing the structural domain of…

Newton's third law is one of the most important concepts learned early in introductory mechanics courses; however, ample studies have documented a wide range of students' misconceptions and fragmented understandings of this concept that are difficult to change through traditional instruction. This research develops a conceptual framework model to…

The present study examines the pedagogical use of reading aloud of science trade books as an effective tool for teaching nature of science (NOS) to elementary students. To this end, we explore elementary teachers' and students' dialogic negotiation of NOS during interactive science read-alouds, as well as potential interactions between their…

High school students need more comprehensive scientific inquiry learning instruction through research ethics education. Yet, this topic is often overlooked in the science curriculum. To collect basic data to guide research ethics education for high school students, this study documents the kinds of research misconduct students commit, the contexts…

In considering the current COVID-19 pandemic as a moment of reflection on a wide variety of issues, this paper discusses the need to rethink the curriculum, in regard to its priorities and in the context of education for sustainability. It does so by revisiting some ideas that have received, or have begun to receive, attention in the field of…

This article seeks to provide researchers and practitioners in laboratory education, particularly those involved in the curriculum design and implementation of teaching laboratories at university level, with a conceptual framework and a working model for an integrated assessment of learning domains, by attending to a more holistic approach to…

This study aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate argumentation-based inquiry teaching practices to train qualified science teachers. In this context, first, practices in argument-based inquiry were developed to have highly qualified individuals with cognitive flexibility; the ability to look at happening from divergent perspectives and…

This study aimed to teach 9th grade students the meanings of scientific theory and scientific law, and the differences between them. The related literature informs that students at different grade levels have misconceptions about the definition of both scientific theory and scientific law and the relationship between them. In this study, the…

Describing the motion in a vertical roller coaster loop requires a good understanding of Newton's laws, vectors and energy transformation. This paper describes how first-year students try to make sense of force and acceleration in this example of non-uniform circular motion, which was part of a written exam. In addition to an analysis of the exam…

The present study explores how in-service secondary education Greek biology teachers understand aspects of the concept of ecosystem under the assumption that the ecosystem is an ill-defined concept. If it is to be considered a holistic entity, the ecosystem acquires its definitional features within the ecological field of systems ecology, which…

University professors' views of nature of science play an important role when guiding undergraduate students into the culture of practicing physicists. While these topics have a long-standing tradition in U.S. curricula they are not part of German educational standards or curricula. Additionally professors' views--in contrast to those of their…