ABSTRACT. The positive effects of the management education model of teaching science topics in the field of education have been identified with the recent semi-experimental research based evidences by Behranghi. This research was another example of the serial. In it the main factors of attention and total quality management were identified. Their combination, formed a framework for teaching the contents of the TQM Course. This framework was used in teaching and learning medical staff (clinical nurses and health care workers) of the Hashemi Najad hospital. The type of research was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test. The data collection tools were two questionnaires. Their validity was confirmed in the panel of professors and their reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha. The type of research was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test. The statistical population included 264 staff members of a group of treatment staff. Based on random sampling and using Cochran's formula, 131 of 156 people presented in the class were considered as the research sample. Data analysis was performed by means of t-test, and correlated between mean pre-test and post-test. Incremental results showed statistically significant mean scores of learners in the experiment. This means that the effect of the combination of these identifiers in teaching the contents of the TQM course caused 99.2% of the trained staff in the post-test stage to be higher than the average. However, at the pre-test stage, only 3.1% were at this level. In fact, the impact of education in this framework was significant on all aspects of TQM. This result supports the scientific foundation evidences of recommending the use of a learning management model in learning other topics in science.

ABSTRACT. Students encounter emotional and psychological stress during learning of science concepts. The distress making elements that disturb learning should be released. The purpose of this study was to design a format for management of science education for 8th grade students that not only allowed relinquishing elements that disturb learning but provide students opportunity that use these elements in effective way in their relationships to increase learning science concepts, improve learning and improve individual and interpersonal skills enhancing learning concepts. This framework is being tested experimentally in an eighth science classroom of 25 students with a lower average score. The control group has 25 students who have not been trained according to this framework. Both groups were randomly selected and randomly divided into two equal groups in two experimental and control groups. Students' score of both groups was determined by validated academic achievement test with statistical reliability. The generalization of the application of the results of this research will be carried out to a broader statistical population based on proportional sampling. A repeated test will be performed for the follow-up phase in a month later as a post-test from the two groups. Data analysis will be done using descriptive statistics, and the statistical inclination to center. Inferential statistics and variance after confirmation of its related presumptions will be used to test the research hypothesis. As a result, students in their experimental group will be aware of the excitement of learning the concepts of science in the context of the steps of the process of the management of education framework, use them positively, and self-responding to the learning problems of the concepts at the moment they are formed, with the help of group information, respond quickly and more appropriately than the control group

ABSTRACT. An overview of the energy consumption situation in different parts of Iran indicates that the correct pattern of energy consumption has been neglected. One of the most effective measures that can be effective in optimizing energy consumption is school-based interventions. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the importance of the Management of Education Package (MEP) for preventing energy degradation in elementary 4th grade school students. The research questions were “Can the package effect students to change their awareness, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and skills to reduce power consumption? And is their new behavior sustainable? This research is semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with control and experimental group. The data collection tools were the electricity power bills that are sent by the electricity company each month. Comparisons of the two classified power consumption bills before and after training was done. In analyzing the data central tendency indicators, dispersion indexes, percentile, and histogram were used to express the collected data. Inferential statistic in testing of hypotheses included T-test. SPSS software used for analysis of data. Students in the experimental and control group observed both decreasing electric power consumption after the course. The statistical analyzes showed significant differences of experimental and the control group. Regarding these results, continuous relationships with parents have been established so that the importance and effectiveness of the package gains momentum in effective way. This research brought statistical evidences that the use of MEP had high impact on increasing students’ awareness, knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and skills in reducing energy consumption in the homes of the fourth grade students.

ABSTRACT. The impact of Packaging Tenets of Education (PTE) in different academic subjects and classes had been confirmed in researches done by Iranian team of researchers. This group of researchers decided to study PTE’s effect on creating the atmosphere of elementary teachers’ personal relationship, and their inclination of using peace elements in teaching. It aimed at improving students’ attitude, self-control, anticipation, conflict management, and learning skills in their act in a peaceful way and respect to peaceful world. District 2 in Tehran was the place this research was done. A valid and reliable questionnaire was the tool for collecting data from randomly selected sample of 96 teachers. They were divided into two groups of 48 for comparing their pre-test and post-test means. Descriptive statistics of frequency, mean, median, standard deviation and inferential statistics T- test and, Alfa Cronbach, Kolmogorov-Smirnove, Pearson correlation coefficient and Leven test for normal distribution and standard deviation were the statistical devices. Combination of ten main factors of PET and elements of nurturing peaceful mind of elementary students in district 2 was the research independent variable. Finding indicated PTE authenticity as a mean to improve teaching style that had effect on improving students’ wisdom, kindness, warm and friendly action, hope for the future, peace, love, prosperity, and coherence in their interaction while understanding the real academic formal curriculum concepts. The statistical meaningful effect of the independent variables documented the importance of PET on effecting teachers’ attitude toward peace focusing on students mind to be nurtured for inclination toward peaceful conduct in their cooperative learning in their community.

ABSTRACT. UNESCO promotes Education for all, and equality for all as a human right regardless of their sexual preference. Teachers have a key role in education. What are their own conceptions related to the equality between homosexuals and heterosexuals? At what stage, according to them, is it necessary to introduce the topic of homosexuality at school? Do they accept that socialization processes determine homosexuality, or do they reduce the latter to a genetic predisposition? We used in 34 countries the questionnaire built and validated inside the BIOHEAD-Citizen research project. The sampling was the same in all the countries: 1/6 In service Primary School teachers; 1/6 Pre-service Primary School teachers; 1/6 In-service Biology teachers; 1/6 Pre-service Biology teachers, 1/6 In-service Language teachers; 1/6 Pre-service Language teachers. Total sampling: 12,130 teachers. The results show important differences among the teachers’ conceptions depending on their country, religion, sex or level of education. For instance, in Sweden 89% of teachers strongly agree that “Homosexual couples should have the same rights as heterosexual couples”; they are also 85% in Spain, but only 3% in Senegal, 5% in Togo, 6% in Gabon. The same kind of differences is observed in the answers related to the age to teach homosexuality at school: e.g. not a single teacher ticked “never at school” in Sweden or Denmark, but 71% did so in Benin, 48% in Algeria, 46% in Georgia. The teachers’ answers to a third question also differ in relation to the same controlled parameters, but in some different ways. For instance, while 82% teachers disagree with a genetic predisposition in France, or 74% in Burkina Faso or in Spain, they are only 9% in South Korea, 34% in Estonia, 36% in Cyprus. These results offer educational prospects which will be discussed.

ABSTRACT. This research presents the results observed in activities with K-12 teachers in training and qualification processes concerning the use of what we are calling the newest digital technologies of information and communication (+NDTIC), in other words, any new digital technological launched. Our considerations show that it is necessary to previously insert teachers in a monitored activity if we aim at their empowerment with the use of technological resources as mediating artefacts in their own teaching-learning process.

These mediating artefacts are no longer a bet for the next decades, but it is already an unprecedented reality. The question we must ask ourselves, then, is not IF technology will be in our personal or educational contexts, but WHEN that will happen, and HOW. Therefore, we proposed to seek answers to this question: how will our youth make use of it?

However, for this question to be answered, we must first consider another one, which we will try to answer in this article by sharing some conclusions from our observations in the meetings we have had with several teachers over the past ten years: how can we encourage teachers to be part of this socio-cultural activity, making their teaching-learning process more significant, thus helping young students to enhance the use of these +NDTIC?

What we have observed leads us to conclude that teachers, in general, are not resistant to the use of +NDTIC as mediating artefacts, as it is often claimed, but rather they fear that incorporating them into their teaching practice can mean heavier workload. However, we have noticed that the increasing number of teachers involved in this new praxis encourages others to do the same, showing them that, as soon as these new activities are internalized, the workload decreases. The teachers, then, motivate all the surrounding community.

ABSTRACT. Globally, despite many good intentions and a plethora of initiatives, gender disparities in science education continue to be a major challenge. This paper reports the findings from a study that investigated gender disparities and experiences in the learning of Natural Sciences at secondary school level in the Makonde district of Zimbabwe. Informed and guided by pragmatism theory, the study used a fusion of quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches to unravel gender disparities using a sample of learners (n= 590) and eight teachers from five schools in Makonde District, Zimbabwe. Quantitative data was collected using a Likert type questionnaire. Focus group discussions (FGDs), interviews and class observations were used as the source of qualitative data. Quantitative data analyses were done using chi-square statistics, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and factor analysis (CAF). Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data obtained from four focus group discussions, eight teacher interviews and three lesson observations. The findings reveal the existence of gender disparities in Natural Sciences learning. It was also found that female and male students learning experiences were different from each other. Gender stereotyping and discrimination by male students were found to be rife in the classrooms. Female students perceived their classrooms to be gender biased. Some recommendations are made for teacher pedagogical practices in Natural Sciences education.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of study was to provide an overall teacher’s implementation trends in two years by comparing traditional classroom in order to see differences in overall more than one unit or semester whether teachers keep using argumentation by concentrating on particularly argumentation with the discourse analyses. This was important to investigate the differences of implementation because many factors could be influential in teaching and the long-term implementation might not give the same expected results.This study was undertaken with 44 teachers from fourth and fifth grade elementary schools. From those 44 teachers, 19 teachers were in the treatment groups and 25 teachers were in the control group.The coding schema designed to evaluate teachers’ implementation of argument based inquiry. A rubric was designed to analyze video tapes . The rubric was designed with a hierarchical structure from 0 points to 3 points.Two-way repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted to determine whether there is differences in the discourse analysis of treatment (argument based inquiry) and control groups’ discourse analysisr to provide a degree of implementation level of argumentation discourse analysis. Results showed that the first semester implementation were better than other three semester. Many factors can be reason of this; teachers’ pedagogical orientations, implementing this approach in difference topics and students’ orientation.

ABSTRACT. Abstract The recommendation is often that the teaching of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) or socio-scientific issues (SSI) in science should be interdisciplinary. One way of achieving this is to form multidisciplinary teacher teams. While the subject content may become more interdisciplinary, what about the outcome at student level? Research is sparse and there is a knowledge gap about differences in teachers’ teaching of ESE from different disciplinary traditions. This study investigates Swedish secondary teachers’ responses to a written enquiry that is designed to discern their teaching traditions, what they emphasise in their teaching. The results show that science, social science and language teachers stress some important educational aspects differently. Hence, without an explicit understanding of this among teachers unnecessary could result in unnecessary confusion for students or an educational content emphasizing limited types of different knowledge such as facts, attitudes or abilities.

ABSTRACT. Science classes should promote discussions about science, pointing out its limits and possibilities. This consideration not meaning a defense of a declarative teaching about science, which aims that the students could affirm what science is. History of Science is considered a path to promote discussions about science in a no declarative way. Despite this, the historical approach in science teaching has a challenge: promote science classes in which way that the science classes were not be reduced to a report of a historical episode, where the teacher explains what science is. In this way, it is important to choose a historiography approach, which improves the required discussions. The Cultural History of Science was the historiography approach used in this study develop in a Brazilian public school which aims to develop subsidies to discuss paths for a science education in a historical-approach to promote discussions about science and not a declarative teaching about science. The theme developed in this experience was the human body. The data of this study, analyzed by a qualitative approach, suggest that the discussions of scientific practices based on Cultural History of Science approach could bring to science classes discussions about science far from a declarative teaching about science.

ABSTRACT. The 21st century is close to two-decades-old and there is a growing concern that South African media needs to improve their science news coverage to conscientise citizens with scientific literacy i.e. their knowledge about science, and the environment. This will assist in developing active citizens in a world that is dominated by complicated scientific and technological advances. The concern about how the media in particular newspapers portray science news is growing since there is a belief that newspapers can play a pivotal role in educating the citizens. Newspapers can play a role when teaching science are regarded as a medium that can heighten students’ knowledge, enhance vocabulary skills and encourage a positive attitude towards learning. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of how online newspapers portray astronomy news in terms of framing and tone. The study is underpinned by framing theory, which suggests that presentation can influence the choices people make. A mixed method approach was employed since it combines both qualitative and quantitative methods to deal with different questions of the study. An instrument to collect data was not required, the data was available on the internet. I retrieved the newspapers from the internet and samples were drawn from two online newspapers, the Mail & Guardian and News24 from 1 January 2012 to 31 July 2015. The Nisbet framework and a modified story analysis form were used to analyse data. The quantitative results indicate that the coverage of astronomy news is still very limited in South Africa media based on the newspapers analysed. The finding shows that 82% of the analysed Mail & Guardian newspapers were general news, whereas only 76% of News24 stories were general news.

ABSTRACT. Trampolines are found in gardens, large playgrounds, sports grounds, as well as in the summer olympics. In earlier work we presented the mathematical analysis, as well as a comparison between theoretical results and electronic data. In later work, the 2012 olympic gold medal series of jumps by Rosannagh McLennan was used for student assignments, that were found to be challenging, exhibiting many well-known difficulties in relating displacement, velocity and acceleration. To get a better understanding of how students can overcome these difficulties, group discussions of this problem among groups of first-year university physics students were video-recorded are analysed, with respect to the use of various semiotic resources. In addition, we analyse how groups of first-year university physics students explain force and motion, when asked to create a short movie of themselves bouncing.

ABSTRACT. In this contribution we seek to explore the potentials of informal practices acknowledging contextual contingencies and diverse relationships in order to find new spaces where we can rethink what science in primary school might be. We pay specific attention to in-between spaces where desires and interests flow in accordance with a Deleuzian understanding on micro politics, desire and knowledge production. The aim is to contribute to developing an understanding of how teachers can use and build upon children’s explorations in science in educational practice and how they make science relevant. The research builds on two case-studies in primary science education grades 2 and 3 and data consists of audio- and video-recordings as well as collected children’s sketches and drawings. In the presentation, two episodes from these case-studies will be analyzed in detail. The analysis shows that when children enter an experimental mode a science problem under construction becomes the object of activity. In the first episode the children cooperatively explore characteristics of bacteria and viruses by blending various experiences of science domains, daily life and the virtual world. The mechanisms of virus’ replication and mutation emerge. In the second episode, the children explore physical pivot-points and equilibrium by combining material resources of various kinds.The children establish relations and explore conceptual relations between the playground frame, the branch and the red balls in terms of pivot point, equilibrium and lever/distance. The episodes illustrate how children seize opportunities and spaces to engage in science activity beyond ritual investigations. Teachers and researchers need to attune children’s voices and practicing a listening approach both when conducting participatory research as well as developing science education in primary school.

ABSTRACT. This study relates to the conference theme with knowledge about technology education in preschool, a research field that is still undeveloped. The aim is to study pre-school children’s way of discerning a physical phenomenon (equilibrium) during collaborative construction play. Two different activities were studied: play on a homemade teeter and building towers with blocks. In the first activity 3 children aged 4-5 years from one preschool participated. In the second activity 4 children aged 3-5 years from another preschool participated. Data consists of video-recordings of the two activities and field notes. The video-recordings have been verbatim transcribed and analyzed based on variation theory. In both activities children discerned and explored the phenomena equilibrium, center of gravity and balance. Three children tried different ways to spread their mass over the teeter. They distributed the weight by crawling to the middle and standing on the ends of the plank. In the building activity a group of four children tried to build high towers and discerned the importance of the weight distribution for stability and for the construction not to collapse. The results showed that the children who had discerned more aspects of the phenomenon equilibrium were able to use and develop their knowledge during the activities. They also made it possible for the other children to explore the phenomenon and participate in the activity. The results implicate the great importance of rich opportunities for children to have repeated experiences of different phenomena to deepen their knowledge and understanding in science in preschool. The research questions are: What characterizes children’s sharing of embodied and expressed knowledge during construction play? How do children develop knowledge during activities in collaboration with other children? In what way do children with knowledge notice when and how to share this knowledge with children who do not yet know?

ABSTRACT. The Biohead-Citizen project (Biology, Health and Environmental Education) for better citizenship was initiated in 2004 aimed to understand how Biology, Health and Environmental Education can promote a better citizenship in which the teachers’ conception related to six topics on Human Brain; Human Genetics; Human Origin; Human Reproduction and Sex Education; Health Education and Ecology and Environmental Education. This research project was extended to Bhutan, a deeply religious country with religion permeating all facets of life under the guiding development philosophy of Gross National Happiness. This paper shared the findings of the teachers’ conceptions of evolution varying with their religions on Biology, Health and Environmental Education in promoting a better citizenship, including their affective and social dimensions. A total of 36 student teachers from Samtse College of Education and 5 Lower School Teachers in Samtse, who filled out the questionnaire were life sciences teachers. More than half of the teachers who declared their religion were Buddhist, the official Bhutanese religion, while 31.7% of teachers were Hindus. The older teachers (above 25 years) were more conservative as compared to the younger teachers. Based on 15 questions related to evolution, all the teachers were found more oriented toward the evolutionist pole due to the influence of their religious background. However, the perception towards origin of life oriented towards evolutionists was contrasted by perception of human origin with orientation towards creationist particularly among the Hindus. In asking whether the theory of evolution contradicted their belief, there were similar pattern of response for both religions in which 50% indicated ‘yes’. But 70% and 25% of the Buddhist and Hindu teachers respectively indicated that creationism contradicted their belief.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to explore upper secondary school students’ written argumentation regarding a socioscientific issue (SSI). Focus lies on how students justify their claims. The data consists of students’ texts and was collected at the end of an intervention designed to develop skills related to high quality argumentation. SSI has been put forward to have the potential to place science content into a meaningful and relevant context and also to prepare students for life as citizens in a democratic society. Studies focusing on how students support their claims in socioscientific argumentation (SSA), show that students tend to base their arguments on values rather than knowledge. Students also have difficulties to construct arguments where claims and evidence connects to one another in an adequate way. The intervention study took place in a chemistry class in a Swedish upper secondary school. A total of 24 students (age 16-17) from the science-, and technology-major programs participated in the study. The intervention was performed in eight steps during five weeks where the students practiced argumentation in several different ways and studied the issue of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in every-day products. At the end of the intervention, the students had to take a stand in whether they would buy products containing PFAS, this was done in written form. The results show that after being taught about argumentation and the context surrounding the SSI, the students mainly based their arguments on content knowledge. This applies for both supporting-, and counter arguments. Value justifications are present in the students’ texts, but they constitute a smaller proportion. The justifications in the argumentative texts contain a great breadth of different subject areas, where chemistry knowledge plays an important role. This study shows that subject knowledge can constitute a substantial part in student argumentation.

ABSTRACT. To meet future challenges regarding sustainability issues, science education needs to address how to educate scientifically literate and responsible citizens. Chemistry education must be organized in a way that gives the students opportunity to participate in discussions and decision-making regarding sustainability issues in which chemistry knowledge is needed. One aspect of education for responsible citizenship is to draw students’ attention to the complexity in sustainability issues.

The aim of this study is to analyse how complexity in sustainability issues can be visualized in upper secondary school chemistry education.

This study was conducted as a didactic modelling inspired by Design Based Research. Two cycles were conducted: cycle 1 with 12 students discussing batteries in different products and cycle 2 with 38 students discussing organic pollutants in everyday products. The data was analysed using Practical Epistemological Analysis (PEA) (Wickman & Östman, 2002) and Deliberative Educational Questions (DEQ) (Lundegård & Wickman, 2007).

Four different kinds of considerations emerged in students’ discussions which were used to develop a didactic model visualizing complexity. Those considerations regarded facts and values in relation to sufficient and insufficient factual knowledge. All four kinds of considerations are needed to visualize complexity.

The results showed that conflicting perspectives/values and the issues’ incompleteness and uncertainty only emerged to a small extent in the students’ discussions in cycle 1. In cycle 2 all four kinds of considerations emerged more equally. The design principles in cycle 2 were that the students’ activity should explicitly request conflicting perspectives and values and also include frontier research in chemistry. The result indicates that those gave the students more opportunities to visualize complexity.

The didactic model and design principles that were developed can together be used for teaching and learning from sustainability issues in chemistry education.

ABSTRACT. ‘STEAM education’, also known as the addition of 'arts' to STEM subjects, is a newly emerging concept in science education. While responding to the economic drivers which characterise STEM, engaging the Arts may serve to broaden science learning through inter and trans- disciplinary relationships, across a range of contexts and modes of inquiry (Colucci-Gray et al., 2017). Such approach is in line with the growing body of literature in sustainability science, seeking to expand participation in a shared, and unfolding future by encouraging cross-fertilisation between different domains of knowledge, languages, and experiences of the world, which are fundamentally embodied. To this aim, specific attention here is paid to aesthetics and art forms as modes of knowing engaging sensorial and affective dimensions, as they may be deployed across the sciences, arts, and crafts. In this view, complementary approaches to knowing the world may be brought together; for example, to promote deeper understanding of scientific concepts and practices in science, but also to overcome the limitations of cognitivist approaches, by re-appraising the multiplicity of the body’s intra-actions with the material context. Through such dialogue, a variety of epistemological positions may be explored. One which follows the linear trajectory of knowledge accumulation presupposes a reality ‘out there’, amenable to discovery and prediction. Another conception examines verbal and non-verbal language in giving visibility to our actions and perception of the world. Knowledge is relational and agentic, arising in continuity with tools, mind, and body (Barad, 2007). Finally, recognition of complexity of socio-environmental conditions and our inextricable dependence upon the Earth, calls for awareness of oneself in continuous, affective relationship with an ever-changing context (Kagan, 2011). Drawing on such multiplicity, this symposium will explore the potential and limitations of STEAM for a science education vis-à-vis a sustainable future.

ABSTRACT. We used socio-scientific issues as a means to discuss risk in connection to irradiation. The subject was radiation as nuclear phenomena in technical and medical contexts. The lessons on risk assessment were planned iteratively with the aim to enable students to perform risk assessments both in discussions and in writing. The students performed a risk assessment on irradiation of strawberries, structured as an argumentation with references from literature. References were provided by the teacher and researcher and supplemented with questions. The student work was documented with video-recordings. We report results from analyses of risk assessment assignments used in four physics classes (110 students, age 16 -17 year) in a Swedish upper secondary school, and with sound recordings for 10 groups of two – three persons in total. The assessments are studied with a thematic analysis based on argumentation, and we investigate how a risk assessment task stimulates students’ discussion of authentic physics. The presentation will discuss the thematic analysis of the risk assessments and the students’ communicative moves. Furthermore, a questionnaire was distributed at the end of the intervention to gather students’ thoughts about the risk assessment. After the exercise students were positive to irradiation of strawberries, now not allowed in Sweden, they were also positive to the format of teaching though risk assessment.

ABSTRACT. This study focuses on how students learn to integrate facts and values as they engage in deliberation around socio-scientific issues involving risk. Decision-making in socio-scientific issues requires a risk perspective that involves both scientific knowledge and moral judgments. The research question was how science-subject matter and moral judgments interact in students’ deliberation around gene-technology. The teaching design is a modification of a previous iteration in genetics, in which we observed that students regularly requested more knowledge of both scientific facts and moral issues before making decisions during value-clarification exercises on gene-technology. The modification consisted in subjecting students to value-clarification exercises already at the beginning of the unit, and include their questions in subsequent teaching. The unit closed with group work in which students formulated value-clarification questions to their classmates, requiring them to deliberate and make a decision. The interaction between scientific knowledge and moral judgments was conceptualized as two different language games, epistemological and moral. Conversations during initial and closing value-clarification exercises were video-recorded and transcribed. Analyses of how the two language games interacted were made using Practical Epistemological Analysis (PEA) and Deliberative Educational Questions (DEQ). Preliminary analyses confirm the results from the previous iteration that moral and epistemological arguments were entangled and that students identified a need for both epistemological and moral knowledge. Integration of student questions in subsequent teaching led to increased continuity between classic genetics concepts and gene-technology as well as student engagement. Expected results from the closing value-clarification exercises are that there will be increased interaction between the two language games, and that new questions arising within both language games will display differences to those from the initial deliberations. The findings are discussed in relation to how to support progression in students’ ability to integrate facts and values when engaging in decision-making in socio-scientific issues.

ABSTRACT. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of argument-driven inquiry method on academic performance, argumentation levels and willingness to take part in an argumentation of 7th-grade students in the teaching of "Power and Energy" unit. In this study pre-test-post-test and experimental-control group research design was used and a class (of 27) was selected as experimental group and another class (of 28) as control group randomly among 7th grade classes of a secondary school in Gaziosmanpaşa district of İstanbul through the method of purposive sampling. Courses were designed and implemented with activities based on argument-driven inquiry model for experimental group and traditional laboratory method for the control group. While quantitative data was collected through "Argumentative Survey" (AS) and "Achievement Test" (AT) which was prepared by researchers, qualitative data was obtained from individual lab reports of students from the implementation process. Quantitative data analysis was based on independent samples t-test and paired sample t-test. Lab reports by individual students were first analysed through argumentation-level model, and then comparisons among those scores were made by t-test as well. At the end, it was observed that laboratory education through "Argument-Driven Inquiry" was effective in improving students' academic performance and argumentation levels in science and technology courses compare to the traditional methods. However, there were no significant differences found between groups in case of students' enthusiasm to join argumentation.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the impacts of differentiated instruction on learner perception, engagement, learning retention and outcomes and perceived challenges in its implementation. Using a pragmatic mixed-methods design, an experimental study was conducted in one public high school in Mthatha, South Africa, with one grade 11 physical science classes. A total of one physical science teacher and 42 physical sciences learners in their intact classroom constituted the sample for the study. The intervention involved learners in physical science class instructed under Instruction 1 Teaching Strategy: where the differentiated instructions were implemented for two weeks for the teaching of sub-topics under electricity and magnetism. The intervention is followed by a control in the same class where physical science learners were instructed under Instruction II Teaching Strategy: where the traditional teaching strategies were implemented for another two weeks for the teaching of sub-topics under electricity and magnetism. A PSAT pre-test and post-test questionnaire, followed by semi-structured interviews and direct classroom observation schedules were used to gather data for the study. A series of statistical analyses were conducted to reveal the impact of differentiated instruction on learner engagement, perception, retention and learner learning outcomes. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that learners developed positive learning experiences, engaged in their school work and retained the information they learned. The study has implications for curriculum development, teacher professional development, and research directions. Conclusions drawn from this study may be used to help improve teacher instructional practices and ultimately learner achievement in high school physical sciences.

ABSTRACT. Recent studies of the teaching and learning process has shown that learners tend to receive and process information in different ways. This study was conducted to understand learning styles and learning style-based instructional strategies and to explore its impact on physical science education success. To achieve the intended objective and to answer the research question “what impact does the learners’ learning style preferences and learning style-based instructional strategies have on learners’ academic success in physical sciences”, a total of 205 physical science learners were sampled for the study. A purposive convenience sampling technique was used to select four schools from the target population. A mixed method exploratory design was adopted for the study. Physical Science Achievement Test, semi-structured interview, and Index of Learning Style Questionnaire were the main instruments used for gathering the data. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including an independent sample t-test and multiple regression analysis, together with thematic framework analysis. The results indicate that learning style-based instructions improved learner success in physical sciences.

ABSTRACT. The study is guided by the social constructivist epistemological view that knowledge is not discovered, but is constructed within the minds of the individuals through social interactions. Therefore, knowledge construction involves the socialisation of individuals into the practices of the communities in which they are embedded, and as previous researchers have noted, different communities have their own ways of validating their knowledge claims.

Thus, this study is based on the constructionist epistemology which assumes that in order to, understand an individual’s interpretations of reality, one has to understand the particular social contexts within which they operate. The paper addresses the question: How does the integration of learners’ practices, experiences and beliefs in science teaching influence classroom interactions? Three Natural Sciences teachers were observed as they integrated their learners’ socio-cultural practices, experiences and beliefs into their teaching, through the use of real-life scenarios or authentic problems familiar to learners.

The teachers used argumentation activities to assist learners to evaluate the authenticity of their socio-cultural beliefs against scientific knowledge or vice versa. Teachers also used cooperative group activities, used learners’ home languages to explain abstract concepts and drew on learner experiences from their communities.

In all the three teachers’ classes, learner interactions in class were found to be valuable in fostering a sense of belonging or being valued in the class on the part of learners.

Consequently, most learners became active participants during the teaching and learning process. This paper suggests that integration of learners’ socio-cultural practices, experiences and beliefs may support learners from disadvantaged townships in South Africa in conceptualising science concepts in a comprehensible manner, and allow them to realise the utility value of the school science knowledge and skills to their home and community life.

ABSTRACT. Didactic games are pedagogical tools that combine playful aspects with situations that require students' logical reasoning, initiative, imagination, attention and curiosity. When teachers decide to make use of such tools in their classes, students' interests are enhanced in what is being studied and actively inserts them into the teaching and learning process. This study aimed at: a) analyzing if knowledge worked in Sciences through the use of didactic games became more meaningful for Brazilian students at the Basic School level (6th to 9th grades), contributing positively to the appropriation of such knowledge in the short and long term; b) studying the interferences that the use of didactic games can cause in the interpersonal relationships of the students of the same group and of these with the teacher who applied them. Five didactic games (namely, ‘Prey-Predator’, ‘Natural Selection’, ‘War of the Biomes’, ‘Skeletal System’, and ‘Ionic-Covalent Bonds’) were applied to students in two different schools. Themes worked on with these games included ecological ideas, anatomical and physiological skills, and chemical principals. Questionnaires answered by students after game application were applied to evaluate their learning in both short and long terms. The percentage of assertive answers made it possible to affirm that the goal of the games was reached, since the students demonstrated to understand the relation between the concepts studied during the theoretical classes and the rules presented in the games, even after they played it months later. Another positive point to note is the intense interaction of students during the application of the games and how they were interested in knowing the theoretical concepts about the subjects in order to earn points and win the games.

ABSTRACT. To make the learning of Physics more authentic, engaging and visible for the students, they are exposed to investigative group hands-on activities. This align with studies that suggest that concrete learners make greater improvement in subject mastery with more reflective (Saunders & Sheperdson, 1987) and positive attitude (Lawson, 1995) in Science learning. We designed activities where students work in groups cooperatively, to facilitate discussion and presentation using White boarding. The process of the activities fits into the 5E Learning Cycle Model.

To help students relate to circuit design questions and make their learning more visible and achieve deeper understanding, we built the circuitry for the Foutan board activities. This activity is an adaptation of the Foutan board activity used by Cornell University “Xraise Outreach for CLASSE” Wilson Lab (CNS Institute for Physics Teachers 2011 Revised). Our data-logging activities expose students to technology that are being adapted pervasively in our work place and homes. The students use sensors, semiconductors and electronic data analysis gadget, developed in Singapore, to capture the physical data and processed the collected data. This aligned with the information skills of the 21st Century Competencies. Students are more confident in forming and communicating explanations and display a higher level of academic self-efficacy through keener interest and motivation. Students’ survey feedback showed on average above 3.2 of 4 where 4 is highly agreeable, with standard deviation of 0.55-0.65. 91.7% of the responses agree favourably to the survey. Our survey thus shows that our students felt more confident to question, clarify and reflect on their learning; the hands-on activities helped to spur their interest in the topics; they can relate better to real world application and the activities help them have a clearer understanding of the Physics concept than through the usual approach to learning these topics.

ABSTRACT. Game-based learning (GBL) is emphasised in research referring to students’ 21st century skills. In particular games with design-thinking appear to have both a learning and motivational potential. The body of research focusing on GBL in science is however still small, and mainly focused on using games to promote scientific knowledge, not targeting so much students’ problem-solving. The aims of the present study are to condense the research results focused on GBL in science education in particular, and to develop teaching sequences for primary and lower secondary science based on these principles. The teaching sequences are developed and piloted in the frames of the longitudinal Danish research and development project GBL21. The project operates with an iterative approach to theory-informed design, piloting, redesign and adaptation in the developmental phase, followed by an intervention with experiment and control schools. Results in this paper are from the developmental phase, presenting a narrative synthesis from a literature review, and 4x2 teaching sequences for 5th and 7th grade referring to these principles. The teaching sequences are presently being piloted collecting observation data and student and teacher interviews. Four main principles were condensed in relation to the project focus on GBL, design-thinking and 21st century learning. First of all, when focusing on integrating content and process in science education in particular terms like inquiry-based or engineering seems to be used in a very similar way as design-thinking. Furthermore, it needs to be considered how student collaboration and exploratory dialogues can be scaffolded, and how to bridge real and virtual worlds. Finally, framing GBL by socio-contextual questions like UN Sustainable Development Goals can be recommended. The headlines of the teaching sequences are: 1)Build a world - sustainable energy, 2)Students as game-designers - the global water cycle, 3) GBL inspired maker-space and 4) Tragedy of the commons game.

ABSTRACT. This presentation explores epistemic cultures and knowledge practices in a vocational education and training (VET) program in Norway. The presentation draws on preliminary findings from an ethnographic study that analyses how knowledge is configured, understood and practiced in two main educational arenas in VET: the workshop and the classroom. In Norway, science is a mandatory subject in VET programs. However, many vocational students regard school science as a “culture” they reject or are indifferent to, whereas they often embrace their vocational subjects. To investigate this “culture clash”, the project employs the concept “knowledge practice”, as practices can be seen as an enactment of culture. From this perspective, education is not only about attaining knowledge, but also about gaining insight into procedures, methods and principles for development of knowledge and for making ethical and aesthetic judgements. Moreover, the term practice overcomes the dualism between human actions and structures such as time and physical space. This presentation explores the differences and similarities between knowledge practices in the school’s workshop and in the science classroom. The data consists of observations of student activity and the structures found in the two arenas. The preliminary findings indicate differences in structures in the workshop vs. in the classroom: open vs. restricted space, longer vs. shorter time spans for activities, established work-teams vs. voluntary collaboration. The workshop’s knowledge practices is thus marked by dynamic movement, responsibility for knowledge construction and collaboration, which school science is not. These findings suggest the importance of understanding schools as arenas that contain multiple epistemic cultures that shape knowledge practices and student learning in fundamental ways. For science educators, it is important to understand how students negotiate and move across these cultures.

ABSTRACT. Developing scientific literacy, which includes understanding the nature of science (NOS), is a laudable goal of science education, in particular understanding the nature of observations and inferences in scientific endeavour. Understanding where and how NOS views develop can inform science curriculum development in the tertiary sector. Mature NOS views are also important for science teachers, many of whom enter the profession after a degree or career in science, as their beliefs and values influence the manner in which they teach.

This research reports on education students’ views about the nature of observations and inferences (OI) and makes a comparison to the views of students enrolled in a biomedical science degree. The SUSSI survey instrument (Liang et al., 2008) was used to measure OI views. Data highlighted that students enrolled in an education degree (n=185) held more naïve views about the nature of OI compared to biomedical science students (n=71) and staff (n=26).

Analysis of qualitative comments in relation to OI revealed participants held more complex views than those described by Liang, et al. (2008). Implications include greater awareness about how OI are represented and discussed in science education settings.

This study adopted a novel approach which included collaboration between education students and staff. Students became research partners, participating as equals in data analysis and writing, developing their graduate attributes and professional skills.

Liang, L. L., Chen, S., Chen, X., Kaya, O. N., Adams, A. D., Macklin, M., & Ebenezer, J. (2008). Assessing preservice elementary teachers’ views on the nature of scientific knowledge: A dual-response instrument. Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, 9(1), 1-20.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the role of aesthetic practice in elementary school science and the consequences for children's learning and meaning-making. Data consist of audio recordings, field notes and photographs of children's (grade 1) drawings. The data were analyzed using a Practical Epistemology Analysis, PEA, allowing us to study the ongoing process in science class. Taking departure from the idea of science in-the-making as well as drawing-in-the-making, our focus is to scrutinize which science learning emerges within the children’s process, target the consequences when adopting aesthetic practice in science class and finally explore these two dimensions as a whole in order to contribute with knowledge on young learners’ meaning-making when involved in exploring animals’ ecology. In a Deweyan pragmatic perspective, art is suggested as an aesthetic practice and part of ordinary life challenging the idea of art as exclusive and reserved for only a few. Moreover, Dewey claims that art and art practice are significant for communication, indicating the value of including visual language in science education. The result shows that the intertwinement of art practice and the children’s ongoing conversations cultivated children’s observations and explorations regarding morphology, hunting skills, prey-predator arrangements, camouflage scenarios as well as creation of scientific problems under construction. More specifically,the ecological web grew and expanded into eight different prey-hiding strategies. Those strategies emerged as a consequence of dealing with science learning as an aesthetic event. Besides, the predators’ role in the children’s knowledge production of ecology indicated teachers being tentative to all phases in the science learning process, empirically shown in the return of the shrew-mouse at the end. This is in accordance with Dewey’s pragmatic theory on learning elaborated as an aesthetic experience.

ABSTRACT. There is a broad consensus that the contemporary problems concerning social justice in which science plays an important role only can be faced through the complex lenses of interdisciplinarity, taken as an example the problems around environmental changes and citizenship education in a broader sense. Given the large-scale exams’ importance to Brazil and along the side of other likely exams around the world (PISA, for instance), it seems chief to analyze how curricula policies and science education research are being translated into the items of these exams over the year. For this purpose, we analyzed science items of a Brazilian large-scale exam from 2009 until 2017 to grasp how the theme energy has been approached in these years on its questions. The results showed the number of interdisciplinary questions is proportionally meager in the theme “energy” and did not grow over the years. Even though the official documents of Brazilian education suggests interdisciplinarity as a differentiated and progressist pedagogical path, most of the questions do not contemplate this point of view. These results reinforce previous studies that already have shed light on disagreements between the educational guidelines and ENEM concerning interdisciplinarity. We also comment the results in the light of critiques about large-scale exams.

ABSTRACT. In Denmark, a new interdisciplinary agenda has been invented for Physics/Chemistry, Biology, and Geography in lower secondary school. Interdisciplinary integration around six major problem-based teaching sequences in grades 7-9 is now mandatory and a new oral end examination has been devised. It is interdisciplinary and shared between the three science subjects, and it has students (or student groups) working with an authentic real-life problem they themselves have formulated. Prior to the examination students are supposed to have in-class time to shed an interdisciplinary light on their problem, making guided/independent inquiries in lab, finding relevant models, explanations and perspectives from all sorts of material, and being supervised by teachers across the science subjects. At the 2-hour end exam students present their problem-solving synthesis, arguing with models and demonstrating relevant practical inquiries. The new assessment format was trialed with a minor set of schools during the spring 2016 examinations and made compulsory for all schools from spring 2017. Importantly, few Danish science teachers will have met problem-based, interdisciplinary, and competence-oriented teaching & assessment as part of their teacher education. In this explorative study we report how teachers and students perceive this new assessment format, and how it was enacted at the first compulsory take at spring 2017. Methodologically, we have used a convergent Mixed Methods approach, comprising surveys to students (pre- and post, Npre = 10299) and teachers (N= 781), interviews with student-groups and teacher-teams on 7 case-schools, and observations of preparatory phases and end examinations (N=36) at the same schools. Generally, students are positive about the new assessment as are the majority of teachers. However, 72 % explicate “worries” of various kinds. Our analysis identify critical challenges regarding the interdisciplinary and competence-oriented nature of teaching sequences that should qualify students for the examination. At the end exam competence-assessment particularly needs improvement.

ABSTRACT. For STEM education science teachers usually choose topics which are related to both science and other disciplinary contents. Nevertheless it is not clear for the teachers to adopt what kind of criteria for their choices. Interdisciplinary teaching is not a mixture of science content with another one from different disciplines as resources for the content teaching. Instead the criteria and perspectives for the integration need to be clearly defined. In this study we investigated how to integrate science and other disciplines in terms of interdisciplinary teaching. Family resemblance approach by Wittgenstein, recently revised by Erduran and Dagher, was applied to comparative analysis of science, math, and social studies curriculum documents in Korea. Aim and value, methodological rules and methods, knowledge, and activities in each discipline were compared and analyzed with the view of FRA. Results of the study described alternative criteria of how to find appropriate topics for interdisciplinary teaching.

ABSTRACT. There is a large body of literature that involves nature of science (NOS) in school science – e.g. different aims of including NOS, what NOS content should be taught, and how this could be done. One aim of including NOS in school science is related to citizenship education. There is also a large body of literature related to issues on equity and social justice (SJ) within the context of science education – e.g. the possibilities and hindrances for different groups in relation to science education and the need of empowering students to act in society. Both NOS and SJ are on the priority agendas of contemporary research. However, research relating NOS and SJ is scarce and the intersection between the two research areas has been minimally developed. In this theoretical paper we explore, based on an extensive literature review and an emerging theoretical framework, the intersection between these two research areas with the purpose of shedding light on how and why they can and should mutually contribute to each other. We argue that in the preparation of future citizens, NOS needs to incorporate elements of SJ and teaching science for SJ needs to consider traditional, stereotypical images of science and scientists discussed in the NOS literature. One example is how a SJ framework enables bringing to the conscious level, and scrutinizing together with students, specific images and characteristics of NOS communicated in science classrooms, and how those images influence student access to science learning and their empowerment to act in society. We highlight the need for research that integrates NOS and SJ frameworks. In particular, we shed light on the need for normative and empirical research that raise overall questions such as: How does NOS teaching facilitate or impede SJ? And how should NOS teaching in school science facilitate SJ?

ABSTRACT. Many versions of 'STEM' (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) education, while promising citizens better lives, appear to perpetuate neoliberal interests. Many initiatives appear, for instance, to prioritize training of elite experts while de-emphasizing critical analyses of these fields and sociopolitical actions to address perceived personal, social and environmental harms. Such apolitical approaches to STEM education seem to be intensifying, moreover, through recent emergence of right-wing populism - with perhaps the most dramatic example being Donald Trump's US presidency. Although definitions vary, they often seem reactionary - emphasizing return to an earlier, often idealized, status quo, such as Trump's claim to "Make America Great Again." Promises for better futures, however, may be part of disaster capitalism; that is, further instilling capitalist perspectives and practices while citizens desperately hope for recovery from economic and social struggles. Indeed, while many voters saw Trump as saving them from economic destitution (e.g., loss of jobs and job security) resulting from neoliberalism, his government has now successfully minimized taxation for the rich. Apparent keys to such capital concentration have been STEM fields - which appear to have long been used in 'knowledge economies' to assist neoliberals in, for instance, promotion of consumerism. Cell phones are seen as 'sleek' and 'sexy,' for example, often distracting consumers from awareness of poor working conditions of labourers. Such subterfuge seems destined to continue. On the one hand, phenomena of the world (e.g., climate conditions) may be translated (as 'science') into idealized representations (e.g., denials of anthropogenic climate change) while, on the other hand, engineering generates - with increased deregulation - technologies (e.g., petroleum-fueled vehicles) that further enrich capitalists. Accordingly, this presentation will feature analyses of a field-tested framework for science and technology education emphasizing matters of political economy and, associated with that, liberatory pedagogies prioritizing social justice and environmental sustainability.

ABSTRACT. Abstract The South African national curriculum acknowledges that learners’ love for science should start and be nurtured in the early years to enable them to become critical thinkers and problem solvers. This study explored foundation phase teachers’ ability to teach natural science in the foundation phase with regard to three constructs i.e. science content knowledge, integration with other subjects and hands- on science activities. A theory of curriculum implementation was applied to determine each teacher’s profile of implementation by placing them on a particular level with regard to each of the three constructs mentioned.

The setting for the study was a primary school in a province of South Africa. This interpretative, qualitative study attempted to explore four foundation phase teachers’ implementation of the natural science curriculum from grades R to 3. Classroom observation, learners’ workbooks and post-observation interviews provided the necessary data to develop an in-depth understanding of teacher’s knowledge, their understanding of integration and their facilitation of hands-on science and in this way determine their profiles of implementation. By placing teachers on levels one to four, where level one indicated the least competence, their profile of implementation was established.

The findings reveal that while teachers have varying degrees of knowledge and competence to teach appropriately, all four teachers were lacking in their effectiveness as natural science teachers. When rated according to their profiles of curriculum implementation all four were allocated low scores. The study concluded that teachers struggle to teach natural science effectively. This is due to their poor subject knowledge, as well as the poor guidance they receive from the curriculum. Action is required on two fronts: inclusion of more in-depth science education programmes in teacher education and more guidance with regard to integration of learning areas in the foundation phase.

ABSTRACT. The South African natural science curriculum emphasises the acquisition of process skills as a priority in the development of a scientifically literate society. This case study explored the acquisition of science process skills within the context of learners’ transition from elementary to secondary school. In South Africa the natural science curriculum includes grades four to nine, however, grades four to seven are located in the elementary school, while grades eight and nine are located in the secondary school. This study attempted to find out how process skills are taught in the two phases and what teachers’ expectations are when learners transit to secondary school. The process skills investigated were taken from the natural science curriculum. Four teachers participated in the study; two from the elementary school and two from the secondary school. Qualitative data was obtained from a number of sources i.e. a questionnaire, interviews, learner books and class room observations. The findings show that elementary school teachers and secondary school teachers focus on different process skills. Elementary school teachers teach basic process skills, while secondary school teachers expect them to enter secondary school having acquired integrated process skills as well. They are critical of elementary school teachers for not teaching learners integrated process skills. However, the study found that secondary school teachers do very little to close the gap and assist learners in acquiring integrated process skills. The reason for this is that they themselves have a poor understanding of what these skills entail and consequently do not teach these skills appropriately. The demands of the curriculum are not met as learners do not acquire the necessary integrated process skills they need for the higher grades. This has implications for science education and constitutes a challenge that requires urgent attention by both curriculum developers and teacher educators.

ABSTRACT. This study is part of an ongoing research project focused on contributing to expand the concept of co-teaching, considering the particular case of the teaching practice (practicum) in the context of the Physics Teacher Education Program. Co-teaching is generally known as the practice of two or more teachers throughout a lesson in the same classroom in which collaboration among them are mandatory to achieve the educational goals. Nevertheless, we are proposing an expanded co-teaching as a triad intern-teacher-student's collaboration and coordination of actions rather than considering just the teachers on this partnership. The expanded coteaching is more evident in the context of the practicum that pre-service teachers undergo supervised teaching practices in high schools, where teaching initiation takes place. This is a qualitative-based research grounded on the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). Data are gathered by videotaping the intern's practicum in the high school classes in order to analyze the discursive interactions among the constitutive subjects of the teaching-learning activity. In this paper, we will analyze a successful co-taught physics class in a Brazilian public high school where practicum was carried out. Based on CHAT, we could understand that the co-teaching accomplishment is due not just to the good partnership between the intern and the supervisor, but also to the high school student's acknowledgement, acceptance, and legitimization of the intern as teacher. Thus, as an activity, the expanded co-teaching brings up on its dynamics the concept of emergent teacher. This concept expresses the collective process in which the intern's teaching agency emerges from both dynamic interactions with supervisor and students, when a new division of labor begins. The intern emerges as a teacher, taking decisions and choosing actions, but now not just supervised by the supervisor, but accepted as a teacher by the students.

ABSTRACT. Today, many people live with climate anxiety, and both politicians and companies emphasize how important sustainable strategies and activities are for developing a society with less impact on climate change. Within education, it is central to implement themes dealing with such issues as well. As a technology teacher, one will be expected to have knowledge and ideas about teaching the climate issue, and to be prepared to manage climate anxiety among students. With the aim of supporting teachers, a group of actors consisting of science researchers, a municipality, and a science center, have cooperated in developing a Climate Kit, including an instruction sequence, and teaching materials. This climate kit will be used in schools during spring 2018. When the kit will be implemented, a research study will be accomplished as well. Empirical data emerge from both A) observations of (1) workshops with the actors when the kit is created, (2) teacher training courses, and (3) in classrooms when technology teachers will use the climate kit for teaching and B) interviews with different actors. The observations and the interviews will thereafter be analysed using a discursive perspective partly with aim to identify what knowledge content in relation to climate change that is highlighted in the technology teaching, and partly with a discourse analytical perspective focusing on the values and steering strategies within the teaching practice. The research question: What content and what values concerning technology and climate change emerge as important in workshops, in the professional development course, and within the teaching material (climate kit)?

ABSTRACT. This paper deals with an important part of the school's mission - education for sustainable development (ESD). It describes a teacher training and professional development module produced by the Swedish National Agency for Education, the central administrative authority for the public school system. The module is cross-curricular and aims at teachers in secondary school. When following the module, teachers work in project groups with collective and collegial learning. Five researchers representing the areas of ESD, education, science education and political science author the module.

The module raise questions as; why should we educate for sustainable development?, what content should we deliver and how should we teach? These questions connect to pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

The why question, the purpose of ESD, is described as composed of three interconnected functions . The functions are defined as:

• Qualification - learning to be able to act and contribute to society • Socialisation - to grow into current norms and values • Subjectification - To develop a personal approach in social contexts and to visualize subjects not previously noted.

The other main issue concerns the question "what". What subject content will be taught in the classroom and what questions will be addressed? The central point is that content issues in ESD always rest on values that lead to conflicts of interest between people. Consequently, they should be treated from a pluralistic point of view.

The third question addresses how ESD should be instructed. It is through activities that students train to use knowledge and thus develop it.

The teacher training and professional development module consists of eight parts dealing with different perspectives on ESD.

Each part is divided in four moments. The participants are working with theory and classrooms activities and reaserach based studies on ther own practice.

ABSTRACT. Many researchers have studied the use of curriculum materials as a means of supporting both pre-service and in-service teachers’ learning. However, the teachers’ own aims for using such materials, and how they use them has not been much in focus, and is investigated in the current paper. We collected data from lesson preparation forms, lesson reflection forms and observation data from one ENGAGE lesson for 11 teachers. The ENGAGE curriculum materials are ready-to-use, open educational resources that focuses on using in-the-news socio-scientific dilemmas to train students in inquiry skills such as argumentation and decision-making.

Most of the teachers’ aims were related to the scientific content and/or inquiry skills that were trained in the lesson, but at the same time the teachers picked material they thought would interest or engage their students. Most teachers only did minor adaptions, such as adding or removing scientific content, activities or supporting structures, but some of these changes greatly changed the impact of the lesson on the students towards reaching the teachers own main aim. In addition, also when the teacher tried to follow the teacher guide, the teachers own aims, knowledge and interest affected the enacting of the lesson.

There were no obvious differences between the new and the more experienced teachers. The teachers, however, seemed to use their PCK much more actively in their reflections regarding adaptions and class management after the lessons, than before the lessons. This could indicate that the experience of how the material works in the classroom is an essential part of the process of developing teachers’ PCK, practical knowledge and reflection. Thus, our results support the notion that the teachers can use curriculum materials not only as a nice variation for the students, but also as a means of boosting their own professional development.

ABSTRACT. This study investigated the effect of an inquiry-based pedagogy on the self-efficacy of grade 10 physical sciences learners at five schools located in a socio-economically disadvantaged community in South Africa. The research involved a quantitative survey of learners by means of a questionnaire developed by Vedder-Weiss and Fortus (2010). Self-efficacy is a key construct that relates to achievement, and highly efficacious students tend to expect high grades in examinations and tests. Research in science education has focused largely on cognition with little consideration of the relationship between affective constructs and pedagogical and learning approaches. Hence, there is a need to turn our attention to affective constructs such as student motivation, goal orientation, and self-efficacy with a view to address a dearth of research investigating affective factors related to science in the literature. A quasi-experimental design was adopted in order to compare pre-post-intervention self-efficacy data between-within the experiment and control groups of learners. The experimental group experienced inquiry-based learning, while the control group were taught science in a traditional teacher-centred approach. The experiment group showed a significant increase in self-efficacy pre-post-intervention, however, the control group experienced a decline in self-efficacy during the same period. Between the experiment and control groups, there was no significant difference in self-efficacy pre-intervention, however, a significant difference existed post-intervention. From these results, it can be concluded that inquiry-based learning does support increased science self-efficacy in learners. This finding is significant because other studies suggest that self-efficacy development is a reliable predictor of school and post school achievement. In view of the poor science performance of South African learners at socio-economically disadvantaged communities, it is recommended that an inquiry-based pedagogy be encouraged at such schools.

ABSTRACT. The Department of Basic Education in South Africa designed a spiral Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement for the Physical Sciences. Literature shows adequate evidence supporting the ideology that a hierarchical and coherently organised curriculum fosters meaningful learning. This paper focuses on the extent to which the Physical Science curriculum is spiral in the teaching of electrolytic cells at secondary school level. The analytical tool, pedagogical link making to promote continuity (Scott et al., 2011) unearthed conceptual gaps and a fragmented structural organisation of concepts from the analysed content document and the work schedules. This can pose adverse impediments on the conceptual understanding of Electrolytic cells for learners. Hence, it is suggested that interrelated learning areas should be taught continuously without being split.

ABSTRACT. Quantum physics breaks fundamentally with our view of the world from classical physics and everyday experience. This paper investigates how students conceptualise the wave-particle duality in small-group discussions that form part of a teaching sequence in quantum physics in upper secondary schools. The teaching sequence is undertaken with use of digital teaching resources developed in the ReleQuant project, and focus on how light is described in different ways by physicists. The resources are developed in several cycles with Educational Design Research as a methodological frame. Trials of earlier versions of these resources showed that students may hold an uncritical conception of the duality for light. Therefore, the resources were modified to include a discussion task that encourage students to reflect on the dilemma of having two models for light that are contradictory in a classical sense. 55 small-group discussions on this task were recorded and analysed qualitatively. Results show that students were able to reflect thoughtfully on the two contradicting models for light and on what the duality entails. They also revealed challenges students encounter in how the duality should be interpreted and how the model of light as a wave can be understood and envisioned. It is concluded that upper secondary physics students could benefit from teaching that goes deeper into conceptual aspects of quantum physics than what is usual on pre-university level. This could enhance motivation and conceptual understanding, which earlier research has shown that is often missing among university students, who mainly are taught quantum physics mainly as calculations. It could contribute to students’ understanding of philosophical aspects of modern physics and the nature of scientific knowledge – an aspect that is advocated as central in a science education for the future.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study is to explore what a specific ability in technology - to join materials in working with own constructions - consists of, in primary technology education. Moreover, the aim is to explore how this ability is made possible to develop for students within tasks that they work with in the classroom. Interventions were made in teaching sequences in four different groups of students in grade two (students 8 years old). Data collection was mainly made through video observation. The phenomenographic analysis of students’ verbal and non-verbal actions resulted in seven categories, describing qualitatively different ways of knowing related to joining materials in the own construction work. The identified categories were related to aspects of function, such as to evaluate and analyze the duration of the joining; and construction, such as selecting joining materials based on properties. The tasks in terms of teaching materials, instruction or task design, given to students were related to the different ways of knowing identified. The study shows how young students develop their knowing when working on specific tasks. In this way, the study contributes to the specification of what knowledge students can develop, and what kind of student tasks in early technology education that can contribute to it.

ABSTRACT. Engineering is gaining momentum as a significant part of the STEM agenda. In Denmark a nationwide projetct is building capacities for implementing Engineering in primary and lower secondary school. Approximately 120 teachers from four municipalities is in the spring of 2018 being trained in working with projectorganised problembased engineering challenges. A central part of the project is the integrated iterative development of didactical tools and teaching materials. Starting with a collaboration in a development cycle on developing the didactics and teaching materials between 12 teachers in two municipalities and 12 consultants from two university colleges. The development cycle included that the 12 teachers taught engineering sequences in their classes. Didactical tools and teaching materials was subsequently tested on approx. 40 teachers in a test cycle. Again an action learning approach was applied to accumulate knowledge and experiences from the classroom testing of the didactics and teaching materials. This repeated iterative development of the programme intended to integrate teachers experimentation with engineering in their own practice and to let this integration inform the intervention courses to be conducted in the spring of 2018. The session will start with a presentation of the overall design and the results from the development and the test cycles leading to the final programme description with didactical tools, differentiation schemes, evaluation rubrics and teaching materials. The session will then open for the participants to comment and add their experiences with implementing engineering in their school systems.

ABSTRACT. This work presents preliminary results of an investigation about the use of experimental activities, from problematization, in physics classes to primary school students. It is proposed initially a reflection about physics teaching in primary schools, and how experimental activities based on solving problems can contribute to the teaching of sciences from a broader perspective. In an empirical essay, we present some results of a didactic action applied to students aged 9 to 11 years old. Experimental activities related to the contents of physics have been developed, based on the approach Inquiry science teaching (IST), from a perspective of problematization. The construction of data from discursive interactions was used as a methodological reference, and content analysis was used as a data analysis tool. The theoretical framework and the methodological reference of the IST guided the reflections present in this work; guided the development of experimental activities, as well as the creation of the unit of analysis. In the analysis of the results, recorded episodes were verified with the production of small texts and pictorial representations (drawings) made by the students.

ABSTRACT. This study explores how students in year nine make their way through an open inquiry project on sound and light extending over eight weeks. The research question concerns the role that understanding the nature of scientific inquiry may have for students’ experiences of inquiry and meaningful learning within these. The work of five student groups were followed and documented with observations, sound recordings, group interviews and students´ written reports. The students’ sense of ownership of their unique projects encouraged them to spontaneously share their different investigations with each other, even outside of class and in some cases stimulated a desire to broaden investigations beyond their original frames. Students’ interest in their work was observed to move through peaks and valleys following the idiosyncratic development of each project. The resistance that scientific inquiry with a higher degree of freedom naturally tends to lead to played an important role both to stimulate interest, and in some cases bring it to a halt. It is suggested that meaningful learning in science can be developed through meeting and overcoming the resistance and problematic nature of open inquiry. Understanding the iterative and nonlinear nature of scientific inquiry may therefore help students and teachers to orient themselves in the processes of inquiry, overcome resistance and develop more flexible and deeper learning strategies. The results also emphasise the situational and dynamic nature of interest and meaningfulness and to question more static methods to study these constructs.

ABSTRACT. Nowadays, a discursive resource widely used is images. Concerning the teaching of the Natural Sciences, it is almost consensual that the use of images facilitates the explanation of concepts, constituting essential support for the communication of scientific ideas. This proposal reports the results of a study on the perception of high-school students concerning representations of the physical state change processes at a sub-microscopic domain. The participants were 107 students of two High Schools settled in São Paulo city (Brazil) a private one, and a public. The developed teaching-learning sequence (TLS) begins by the reading of a text about the properties of matter, followed by an experimental class on melting and boiling temperatures of pure substances and mixtures. After discussions conducted both in small groups and with the whole class, students are asked to draw up images that represent their understanding of the phenomena of physical changes at the sub-microscopic level. At first, students have difficulties to express their models at this domain: explanations are simple, and the representations present misconceptions. In the second phase of the TLS, after some discussion about the drawings previously produced, each group of students is asked to create an animation concerning the phenomena. It was possible to perceive both the evolution of their expressed mental representations that present scientifically features more consistent, as the students more coherent and secure speech. These results suggest that the creation of diverse opportunities both for the building of models by the students, and their expression is essential to the learning of the language of chemistry. This practice favors the teacher´s perception of students’ conceptual difficulties, and helps them to select and to organize their information, contributing to the development of educational concepts on the subject studied closer to those accepted by the scientific community.

ABSTRACT. Scientific communication is an inherently multimodal endeavor in which information is represented in multiple forms including text, diagrams, graphs, charts, and mathematical equations.the Science Writing Heuristic Approach used in this study is an immersive argument based inquiry approach. The purpose of this study was to exaamine the effect of the science writing heuristic approach on students' engagement of multimodal representations. From different grade levels, students' writings were examined with a designed rubric. The findings indicated that Results support the contention that participation in an argument-based SWH classroom can positively impact multimodal competency, although the impact did vary somewhat by grade level. The findings here can provide a framework by suggesting that effective argument-based teaching practices can be instrumental in the development of understanding related to effective scientific communication.

ABSTRACT. Representations are important vehicles when science researchers produce and communicate knowledge and likewise are representations important in school settings where science is consumed and communicated for pedagogical reasons. Furthermore, recognising the multimodal character of science communication is a vital aspect of becoming a scientific literate citizen. Research show that students often have difficulties in making meaning of representations in general and of arrows specifically e.g. in science textbooks arrows have a number of meanings, e.g. as labels, for measurement, as forces, to illustrate relationships, to represent changes, and for sequence in time and/or space. The aim of this study is to investigate grade 8 students meaning making of arrows and we asked students to explain (unpack) a representation of the greenhouse effect produced for pedagogical reasons by a NGO (Swedish Society for Nature Conservation). The study was conducted in a school in Southern Sweden, where 77 students were divided into 33 groups of two or three students each. All groups were audiotaped and handed in written explanations. Beside that 12 groups were videotaped during their work. 11 groups were interviewed. The representation showed arrows in two modes, colour (yellow and orange) and shape (straight, curved and wavy). The students made quickly sense of yellow straight arrows as “sunrays/sunlight”. The orange wavy arrows presented less meaning to the students and caused a variety of explanations. Students suggested that the waviness symbolized heat, different amounts of gases at different times, unstable discharge/effluent gases, heat that becomes wavy when the wind blows through the air and greenhouse gases that moves back and forth in the wind. The results are discussed in relation to Peirce’s triadic model with three aspects of a subject content; the object in real world, how the object is represented and the meaning that is made from the representation.

ABSTRACT. Background: The drawing is a powerful tool for thinking and communicating, regardless of the discipline. It helps to make the unseen seen and the complex simple. This visual representation is reflected in anatomical works of Leonardo da Vinci and the theoretical phylogenetic work of Charles Darwin. It is difficult to imagine teaching, learning, or doing biology without the use of visual representations because. Drawing is a learner-generated external visual representation depicting any type of content, whether structure, relationship, or process, created in static two dimensions in any medium. Drawing methods can be used as a diagnostic tool to elicit students’ mental models and to reveal misconceptions. Results: This study aims to investigate the effect of the drawing method of determining school students’ misconceptions concerning photosynthesis and transpiration in plants. The study explored whether the drawings of students accurately reflect their conceptual understanding about photosynthesis and transpiration in a manner that can be interpreted by others. Data was gathered from drawings of 146 students from high school classes and interview of 15 students. These drawings were analyzed and categorized based on five levels of drawings criteria suggested by Kose (2008). Conclusions: Several misconceptions were found among the students, some of them with both relationship between photosynthesis and transpiration in plants and food and nutrition of plants. Some of these misconceptions were similar to those found in previous studies and distributed across all age classes. Drawings may be used as a tool to investigate students’ prior knowledge and their misconceptions about various biological concepts. From this study I realized that the drawing may reflect students’ in-depth thinking, but these are difficult to quantify and sometimes subjective. In this study drawing and interviews have been successfully used to diagnose students’ conceptual understandings and misconceptions about photosynthesis and transpiration.

ABSTRACT. Computer & Information Literacy(CIL) is regarded as an essential competence that students need to have for their success in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era. Many countries, including United States, England, and Korea are focusing on a software education and have adopted related contents in their school curriculum. With this movement, many instruction materials for software education have been developed for recent years in Korea. However, it is scarce to find researches that evaluate the instruction materials from the perspective of CIL. In this study, we selected 4 instruction materials for elementary school students, and analyzed if they can foster students’ CIL. The assessment rubric was developed based on ICILS(International Computer and Information Literacy Study). Twelve elementary teachers independently analyzed the materials using the rubric. The inter-rater reliability was checked. The results showed that first, the textbooks are mainly written to build skills on coding a program and operating physical computing objects such as Arduino, and bitBrick. Second, it is hard to find contents about ethics which are necessary to share online information. Third, many activities in the materials tend to present students ready-made algorithms to solve a problem without providing an opportunity for students to think and try to solve the problem. Therefore, we recommend that first, instruction materials for software education need to provide additional contents such as, background knowledge of computers and scientific principles beyond operations of physical objects and coding. Providing related contents, software education can have a great potential to be an interdisciplinary learning environment. Second, contents about ethics of sharing online information should be included in the instruction materials. Lastly, the the instruction materials should present students a chance to think creatively and to solve problems by themselves. This will foster students’ creativity, computational skills, problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills beyond coding skill itself.

ABSTRACT. The paper is based on a study at two universities in Sweden with the aim to identify and analyse teacher educators' expressed use and needs of digital competence in higher education. The research questions are: a) How do teacher educators use digital tools? b) How do teacher educators evaluate their competence to effectively use ICT? c) What training do teacher educators need to make students functional online? Methodically, a digital survey was distributed via e-mail to 405 teacher educators representing two faculties at the two different universities, 105 respondents answered (26%). The survey included 28 questions with both closed-ended questions (Likert six-point scale), as well as open-ended questions. Two theoretical foundations are applied to analyse different aspects of the teacher’s use and need of ICT knowledge and competence: 1) The TPACK model and the interaction between the three knowledge domains: Pedagogical knowledge (PK), Technical knowledge (TK) and Content knowledge (CK), and 2) three dimensions of Computer Self-Efficacy (CSE), magnitude, strength and generalizability. Results show that 92.3% of respondents use a laptop and 18.3% use interactive boards in their work. Further, respondents who report a low competence regarding digitalization of teaching (16.3%) report a significantly higher need of training (p<0.05) compared to respondents reporting a high competence (27.9%). Also, respondents who report a high competence regarding digitalization of teaching, report creating digital learning environments as something unproblematic to a significantly higher extent (p<0.001) compared to respondents reporting a low competence. 26.3% of the teacher educators (n=15) want training in content knowledge and 17.5% (n=10) in technical knowledge, as well as interactions between them. The findings indicate that all teacher educators use digital tools in planning and executing teaching. However, few teacher educators rate their ICT competence as high and want more training regarding subject didactic knowledge in the students teaching practice.

ABSTRACT. Despite her abundant Renewable Energy resources, Nigeria is still heavily reliant upon fossil fuels to meet the nation’s demand for electricity. Contrary to the national renewable energy targets proposed by the government, implementation consisted only of pilot projects and there is lack of widespread acceptance. This paper explores the attitude and the behavioural intentions of the Nigerian public to Renewable Energy Technology (RET) in relation to sustainable energy behaviour in order to generate policy implications. A mixed method approach consisting of a survey and focus group interviews was employed.The study identified cost, concern for health and environment, maintenance, sabotage by generator sellers, NEPA, durability, corruption, accessibility, need for more information and security as hindrances to the uptake of RETs in the country. Relevant energy education of the citizens was recommended.

ABSTRACT. This study examines the effects of community-based socioscientific issues (SSI-COMM) on the sense of place, & values of middle school students and we explore the relationship between the sense of place and character & values. For this purpose, SSI-COMM was implemented from August to December 2016 in seven classes of five middle schools in Seoul. 145 middle school students (male: 88, female: 57) who participated in the program were surveyed about the sense of place, character & values before and after the implementation of the program. As a result of the analysis, statistically significant results were obtained in all domains of identity (t =4.81, p = .000), attachment (t =5.64, p = .000), dependence (t =4.63, p = .000) and social connection (t =5.94, p = .000) on place, as well as the total of the sense of place (t =6.63, p = .000). In addition, there was no significant improvement in the ecological worldview, which is a sub - domain of character & values, but there was a significant improvement in social & moral compassion (t =4.51, p =.000) and socioscientific accountability (t =4.43, p = .000). As a result of analyzing the correlation between the sense of place and character & values, the correlation increased significantly between the all domains of sense of place and character & values consist of social & moral compassion and socioscientific accountability except ecological worldview (r = .433 ** ~ .506 **). In conclusion, SSI-COMM has the potential as a way of contributing to the voluntary participation and practice of local issues by increasing middle school students' attachment to local communities and having a sense of belonging as a member of the community can do.

ABSTRACT. Environmental education (EE) aims to nurture informed and active citizens who are engaged in sustainable socio-ecological practices (UNESCO, 1977; Fien, 1993). However, studies suggest that approaches focusing on providing information about the environment, especially when used within formal school contexts, only lead to elevated environmental concerns, and not sustained action (Jensen and Schnack, 1994; Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002). Studies point out that an exclusive focus on children undertaking environmental actions leaves out a range of environmental issues where attention and support of adults are needed (Sutherland & Ham, 1992). Most adult-oriented EE is information-based, which does not readily support pro-environmental actions (PEA). Recent EE approaches in schools emphasize action-competence instead of knowledge, where students feel empowered to act in their local communities (Jensen & Schnack, 1997). Extending this approach, the potential of intergenerational-influence, where students catalyze parents' PEAs (rather than the usual transmission of values from adults) is a promising, but an under-researched direction to address environmental issues (Ballantyne, Connell, & Fien, 1998; Duvall & Zint, 2007). In this school-based study, we explored the development of action-competence, particularly in terms of processes involved, by facilitating an urban farming project (40 students, 12-13 years old, tracked for 10 months). We studied students' interaction with environmental entities closely, taking an analysis approach inspired by, 1) recent work highlighting the affective-aesthetic appeal of environmental entities, and 2) embodied cognition models. Based on this data, we show how meaningful and embodied encounters with nature, based on participation, contribute to the enhancement of students' environmental 'action-space'. More interestingly, sharing of these 'action-spaces' with adults, through various social experiences, motivated adults to participate in PEAs. We propose that sustained PEAs in adults can emerge from the development of a 'joint-action-space', where dynamic and participative interactions between students and elders lead to students' motivations transferring to adults.