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The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of Content Representations (CoRes) construction, and reflective peer discussions on pre-service physics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Participants consisted of 16 third year pre-service physics teachers; 12 females and 4 males. The results show that the majority of participants made positive improvements to their initial PCK. Participants became more knowledgeable about students' misconceptions, developed improved orientations to teaching, and suggested more responsive instructional strategies and assessment strategies along with more elaborate justifications. Discussion focuses on implications of these results for professional development of pre-service science teachers and research on PCK.

The purpose of this study was to explore Pre-service Elementary Science Teachers' (PSTs) conceptual understanding of Particulate Nature of Matter (PNM) through a three-tier diagnostic test. Participants were 215 PSTs from Turkey. Data consisted of participants' responses to the Particulate Nature of Matter Test (PNMT). The PNMT consists of three-tier items. Students were asked to choose the correct choice in the first tier, and then to justify their choice of the answer provided in the second tier. Finally, they were asked to indicate the confidence level of their responses in the third tier. Results showed that the PSTs were not competent in their understanding of the PNM concepts. Moreover, some had strongly held misconceptions. Finally, the PSTs struggled to provide coherent answers to the items on the PNMT across three tiers.

Helping students at all grade levels to develop inquiry skills has been an ambitious goal that science educators have been pursuing for the last three decades. Yet, studies consistently report cases of failure from science classrooms with regard to inquiry-based teaching. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument for measuring primary teachers' self-efficacy to teach science through inquiry. An expert panel methodology was used to develop and validate the initial instrument. The final, and thus administered survey consisted of 29 Likert-scale questions. To further validate and develop the instrument, we collected data from 358 pre-service primary teachers enrolled in teacher education programs at five different universities in Turkey. According to exploratory factor analysis, there is only one interpretable factor. Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient was found to be 0.97 for the reliability, indicating the robust scale reliability. We present the need for such an instrument and evidence on the validity and reliability of the instrument. We further discuss the potential contributions of this instrument to the field.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of sustained practice with argumentation on the quality of students' written arguments. Participants consisted of 37 students; 22 males and 15 females enrolled in a 6th grade middle school classroom. Students completed six argumentation tasks but only four of them were considered for data analyses as the first two tasks were used to get the students familiar with the language and structure of argumentation. Data were analyzed using the Claim, Evidence and Reasoning (CER) Framework. Findings reveal several patterns regarding students' use of claim, evidence, and reasoning across 4 tasks that were subject to our evaluation. First, there was not a consistent pattern of improvement in students' use of evidence. Second, there were not any consistent improvements in students' use of reasoning across four tasks. Our discussion focuses on the role of context, content knowledge and teacher framing in the quality of arguments developed by students.

This study argues for the need to clarify the attitude construct in science education. After positing a conceptual definition for attitudes derived from the social psychology and persuasion literature, this study makes a demarcation between science attitudes and attitudes towards science. Based on this conceptual clarity, the study offers a constructive critique of five commonly used measures of attitudes in science education and offers a theoretically grounded alternative. Data gathered to test the alternative measure's validity and reliability is in the main consistent with strong validity and reliability claims for the new measure. Implications for science education are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of inquiry-based science instruction for five elementary students with learning disabilities (LD). Students participated in a series of inquiry-based activities targeting conceptual and application-based understanding of simple electric circuits, conductors and insulators, parallel circuits, and electricity and magnetism. Students' conceptual understanding of these concepts was measured through a test designed by the investigators. The students' attitudes towards science were measured through scientific attitudes inventory (SAI-II). The results indicated that all students acquired the science content covered during the intervention and maintained their performance six weeks later. In addition, students improved their attitudes towards science. Our discussion focuses on the ways in which we can make science learning accessible to students with learning disabilities by making changes in curriculum, instruction and assessment. (Contains 4 tables and 5 figures.)

This study explored the impact of a reflective teaching method on pre-service elementary teachers' conceptual understanding of the lunar phases, reasons for seasons, and simple electric circuits. Data were collected from 40 pre-service elementary teachers about their conceptual understanding of the lunar phases, reasons for seasons and day and night, and simple electric circuits pre and post instruction. Findings show that the instructional approach adopted by a science teacher educator had a significant impact on pre-service elementary school teachers' conceptual understanding of lunar phases, seasonal changes and simple electric circuits. The discussion focuses on pre-service elementary school teachers' misconceptions about the lunar phases, seasonal changes and simple electric circuits as revealed through their answers to the pre-test questions. Further discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for pre-service elementary school science teacher education.

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of an intervention on pre-service science teachers' self-efficacy to teach science through argumentation and explore the challenges they experienced while implementing argumentation. Forty pre-service science teachers in their final semester of schooling participated in an intervention that lasted for 11 weeks. Intervention focused on participants' understanding of argumentation as a scientific practice and as a pedagogical tool. The participants engaged in argument construction, evaluation, and critique, taught three argumentation lessons, engaged in peer observation of teaching, and reflection on their teaching skills. Data were collected through Argumentation Self-Efficacy Scale and an open-ended questionnaire. The results show that the intervention had a significantly positive effect on pre-service teachers' self-efficacy. Despite this reported self-efficacy, participants experienced significant challenges in guiding their students to construct scientific arguments and assessing the arguments developed by their students. Discussion focuses on implications for professional development of pre-service and in-service science teachers.

Background: There has been an increasing emphasis on empowering pre-service and in-service science teachers to attend student reasoning and use formative assessments to guide student learning in recent years. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore pre-service science teachers' pedagogical capacity for formative assessment. Sample: This study took place in Turkey. The participants include 53 pre-service science teachers in their final year of schooling. All but two of the participants are female. Design and methods: We used a mixed-methods methodology in pursing this inquiry. Participants analyzed 28 responses to seven two-tiered questions given by four students of different ability levels. We explored their ability to identify the strengths and weaknesses in students' answers. We paid particular attention to the things that the pre-service science teachers noticed in students' explanations, the types of inferences they made about students' conceptual understanding, and the affordances of pedagogical decisions they made. Results: The results show that the majority of participants made an evaluative judgment (i.e. the answer is correct or incorrect) in their analyses of students' answers. Similarly, the majority of the participants recognized the type of mistake that the students made. However, they failed to successfully elaborate on fallacies, limitations, or strengths in student reasoning. We also asked the participants to make pedagogical decisions related to what needs to be done next in order to help the students to achieve academic objectives. Results show that 8% of the recommended instructional strategies were of no affordance, 64% of low-affordance, and 28% were of high affordance in terms of helping students achieve the academic objectives. Conclusion: If our goal is to improve pre-service science teachers' noticing skills, and the affordance of feedback that they provide, engaging them in activities that asks them to attend to students' ideas and reasoning may be useful.

This study examines the impact of argumentation on pre-service science teachers' (PST) conceptual understanding of chemical equilibrium. The sample consisted of 57 first-year PSTs enrolled in a teacher education program in Turkey. Thirty two of the 57 PSTs who participated in this study were in the experimental group and 25 in the control group. The experimental group students learned the concept of chemical equilibrium through argumentation; the control group students learned the same concepts through business as usual (i.e. lectures, supported by laboratory experiments). The intervention lasted for 12 instructional hours, of which 4 were spent in the laboratory. The chemical equilibrium concept test was administered to both groups of students one week after the intervention. The results show that the experimental group students performed significantly better than then control group students on the chemical equilibrium concept test. The mean difference between two groups is 14.026. This difference is statistically significant at (*p < 0.001). However, the control group students performed significantly better on the comprehensive course final exam.

In this paper, we analyze the science activities offered at 7th grade in the Turkish science and technology curriculum along with addressing the curriculum's original intent. We refer to several science education researchers' ideas, including Chinn & Malhotra's (Science Education, 86:175--218, 2002) theoretical framework and Edelson's (1998) conceptualization of authentic science practices in our analyses. Our primary goal is to critique the science and technology curriculum and then offer alternative insights into learning science and doing science about force and motion concepts at 7th grade from epistemological and sociological perspectives. We introduce an Immersion Unit for teaching and learning the concepts of force and motion and discuss the elements of this immersion approach. Finally, we provide recommendations for designing and implementing similar immersion units for the science activities that are in practice.

The purpose of this study was to explore 15 graduate research assistants' understanding of the nature of science. Data were collected through administration of a modified version of the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire (VNOS-C). The findings suggest that graduate research assistants held underdeveloped views related to several nature of science (NOS) aspects including the argumentative nature of science, the process of modeling in science, scientists' treatment of unexpected results, collaborative nature of science, and the process of theory formation. The discussion focuses on the missing link in preparation of future scientists and offers suggestions to address the learning needs of graduate research assistants regarding their understanding of NOS.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the challenges we faced in designing an instrument aimed at measuring pre-service science teachers' topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). After the instrument was conceptualised and developed, it was administered to 30 pre-service chemistry teachers. The findings suggest that the instrument can be used as a teaching tool to enhance pre-service science teachers' topic-specific PCK along with some limitations. The discussion focuses on the implications of the aforementioned PCK assessment tool for enhancing pre-service science teachers' topic-specific PCK and the challenges associated with measuring and enhancing pre-service science teachers' PCK. Finally, our discussion focuses on the ways in which science-teacher educators can engage in transforming the concept of PCK and its use for research and professional development.

This study investigated the effects of a multi-pronged approach of increasing the nature of science (NOS) understandings of high school science students. The participants consist of 63 high school students: 31 in the intervention group and 32 in the control group. Explicit/reflective NOS instruction was imbedded within authentic inquiry experiences and supported by online discussions. The students in the intervention group were prompted to engage in various discussions focusing on essential tenets of NOS in an online environment that assured student confidentiality. NOS views were assessed through multiple data sources including pre- and post-intervention questionnaires as well as students' responses to online discussion prompts. Results show that the instructional intervention used in this study which combined explicit/reflective NOS instruction with intense inquiry exposure along with ample reflective opportunities in an anonymous online discussion format led to positive learning gains in participants' understanding the NOS aspects assessed. Implications for enhancing data collection with high school students and for promising professional development opportunities for science educators are discussed.

This study explored the impact of explicit instruction on argumentation-based pedagogy, coupled with modelling and hands-on learning activities on pre-service physics teachers' perceived self-efficacy to teach science through argumentation. Participants consisted of 24 pre-service physics teachers attending an established teacher education program at a Turkish university. The results showed that the intervention had a positive impact on participants' self-efficacy to teach science through argumentation. More specifically, pre-service teachers who participated in this study: 1) viewed argumentation as a pedagogical tool that can help students to engage in meaningful learning, 2) reported high self-efficacy to teach science through argumentation and 3) indicated high motivation to teach science through argumentation in their future classrooms. In spite of these positive outcomes, participants shared their hesitations to teach science through argumentation as well. The implications of these findings for teacher education, teacher induction and future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of argumentation-based pedagogy on college students' conceptual understanding of properties and behaviors of gases. The sample consists of 108 students (52 in the control group and 56 in the intervention group) drawn from 2 general chemistry college courses taught by the same instructor. Data were collected through pre- and post-tests. The results of the study show that the intervention group students performed significantly better than the control group students on the post-test. The intervention group students also showed significant increase in their test scores between pre- and post-test. While at least 80% of the students in the intervention group abandoned their initial ideas on all of the 17 alternative conceptions that were identified by the authors but one, the percent of student abandoning their initial ideas in the control group was less than 50. The discussion focuses on the implications of these results for addressing students' alternative conceptions, promoting the argumentation-pedagogy in college science courses and the challenges associated with the use of argumentation in college science classrooms.

The study examined the role of action research in promoting critical reflective thinking among twenty preservice teachers engaged in a year-long middle level program. Data from collaborative discussions, final written documents, presentations, and follow-up surveys revealed that conducting action research (a) engaged them in inquiry into their own practice, (b) was a means to reflect upon and determine ways to change their teaching practices, and (c) promoted critical reflection in a collaborative learning environment. Results underscore the importance of preservice teachers critically reflecting to gain insights into teaching and student learning as they are engaged in action research. (Contains 2 tables.)

This study explored American high school and middle school science teachers' attitudes toward the use of standardized testing for accountability purposes, their justification for the attitudes they hold and the impact of standardized testing on their instructional and assessment practices. A total of 161 science teachers participated in the study. Analyses were based on teachers' responses to a questionnaire including nine-item likert-scale questions and two-item open-ended questions. The analyses revealed that science teachers have mixed reactions to the administration of standardized tests and its use for accountability purposes. The findings also reveal that standardized testing has a significant influence on science teachers' instructional and assessment practices in ways that are counter to the learning goals promoted by science education reformists. Our discussion focuses on the implicit and explicit influences of the NCLB Act on science curriculum, teaching and assessment, and how the NCLB driven policies undermine the goals of science education reform.

This study explores middle and high school students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter after they were taught the concept. A total of 87 students (41 high school and 46 middle school) participated in the study. Findings suggest that students held misconceptions about the law of conservation of matter, chemical composition of matter in different phases of matter, the process of condensation, and behaviors of molecules at a microscopic level. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for enhancing science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge.

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of an apprenticeship program on high school students' understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry. Data related to seventeen students' understanding of science and scientific inquiry were collected through open-ended questionnaires. Findings suggest that although engagement in authentic scientific research helped the participants to develop competency in experimentation methods it had limited impact on participants' learning of the implicit aspects of scientific inquiry and NOS. Discussion focuses on the importance of making the implicit assumptions of science explicit to the students in such authentic scientific inquiry settings through structured curriculum.

This article is a response to Pike and Dunne's research. The focus of their analysis is on reflections of studying science post-16. Pike and Dunne draw attention to under enrollments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, in particular, in the field of physics, chemistry and biology in the United Kingdom. We provide an analysis of how the authors conceptualize the problem of scientific career choices, the theoretical framework through which they study the problem, and the methodology they use to collect and analyze data. In addition, we examine the perspective they provide in light of new developments in the field of students' attitudes towards science and mathematics. More precisely, we draw attention to and explicate the authors' use of identity from the perspective of emerging theories that explore the relationships between the learner and culture in the context of science and mathematics.

This study explores through a naturalistic inquiry the tensions between a science professor's two enacted identities. More specifically, this study looks at how a biology professor's identity-in-practice shifts and evolves over time through collaborations with a science education professor. These shifts were marked by an emphasis on teaching, rather than solely a focus on science. Data were collected through formal interviews and notes taken during planning sessions that took place between the biology professor and the science educator. Findings reveal that although the biology professor is able to reconcile both his science and teacher identity, structural elements of his workplace do not encourage him to enact his teacher identity. Recommendations for college science teaching are discussed.

Assessment is a critical component of educational practices and thus impacts educational reform efforts. This article reviews and considers assessment from 2 perspectives: a focus on accountability and a focus on continuous improvement. A class of preservice and practicing science teachers explored notions of assessment while experiencing peer assessment as part of the class. Their online conversations about the processes of establishing quality criteria for peer assessment and their reflections on the experiences compose the primary data source. Two purposes for assessment, accountability and continuous improvement, arose from the data and created conflicts within the individuals and the class. To resolve this conflict, we propose a framework for viewing assessment as part of an integral model (Wilber, 2004) that includes and transcends the dualities.