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Teaching engineering at the middle and high school levels has been a topic of discussion among scholars regarding the challenges it creates. One of the most critical challenges at the school level is identifying qualified teaching staff to lead engineering courses. The present study explored teachers’ willingness to lead an engineering course and the reasons behind their willingness or unwillingness to do so. The study involved 434 participants, who were enrolled in a STEM professional development program and were diverse regarding their teaching subjects, the grade levels they taught, and the locations of their schools in Turkey. In this mixed-methods study, researchers collected data at the beginning of an online professional development program. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively, while qualitative data were analyzed with a data-driven codebook. Almost two-thirds of the participants were keen to teach an engineering course, yet differences were observed according to the subjects they taught and their professional backgrounds. Most of the mathematics teachers, the group with the highest percentage of willingness, seemed to have a holistic approach towards engineering, with half emphasizing collaboration between teachers and engineers. The study provided further insights into how initial teacher training and continuous professional development programs can be structured based on teacher expectations and needs.

The problem of enactment describes a teacher’s inability to translate effective theories of teaching into practice. This is common for student-teachers, and invariably results in instructional practices that are ineffective and inconsistent with their beliefs. The motivation for this study was based on the observation that student-teachers move away from practices linked to relational understanding of mathematics and regularly fail to enact their mathematical knowledge in the classroom, despite having proven competence in the area. Therefore, the objective was to understand the reasons for this failure and make subsequent changes in the designated module to address the problem of enactment. Action Research was chosen as the research design considering the changes into one’s practice and subsequently evaluating those changes. The current study represents Cycle 1 of a larger two-cycle Action Research study. Qualitative data were gathered from student-teachers using focusgroups and classroom observations and analysed using Braun &Clarkes (2006) thematic analysis and the Mathematical Quality of Instruction framework, respectively. The findings indicated that the intervention was effective in addressing the problem of enactment, but further changes needed to be made in Cycle 2 to ensure it meets the needs of student-teachers and the pupils they teach.

Advances in visualisation techniques provide new ways for us to explore how we introduce complex topics like remote sensing to non-specialist audiences. Taking inspiration from the popularity of augmented reality (AR) apps, a free, mobile digital AR app titled SatelliteSkill5, has been developed for both Androids and iPhones in Unity AR. SatelliteSkill5 helps users conceptualise remote sensing (RS) theory and technology by showcasing the potential of datasets such as multispectral images, SAR backscatter, drone orthophotography, and bathymetric LIDAR for tackling real-world challenges, with examples tackling many of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the focus. Leveraging tried and tested pedagogic practices such as active learning, game-based learning, and targeting cross-curricular topics, SatelliteSkill5 introduces users to many of the fundamental geospatial data themes identified by the UN as essential for meeting the SDGs, imparting users with a familiarity of concepts such as land cover, elevation, land parcels, bathymetry, and soil. The SatelliteSkill5 app was piloted in 12 Irish schools during 2021 and 2022 and with 861 students ranging from 12 to 18 years old. This research shows that both students and teachers value learning in an easy-to-use AR environment and that SDGs help users to better understand complex remote sensing theory.

This research aimed to investigate and compare teachers‘ conceptualizations of their students‘ and their own outcomes of our earlySTEM program at the K4 level in two distinct roles: practitioners only and practitioners and program developers jointly. The study group included 66 teachers, 26 of whom had actively contributed to the development of the earlySTEM program. Teachers in both roles were supported by teacher guides, student books and workshops throughout the 8-month long academic year. Data was collected at the end of the academic year through an open-ended survey. The program developer teachers identified more student outcomes under more diverse categories while the practitioner teachers mainly concentrated on cognitive outcomes and limited their conceptualizations to the national curriculum. In addition, the program developer teachers valued their involvement in the program development process and expressed more diverse professional outcomes referring to different types of teacher knowledge.

This study aims at examining the role of metacognition, which refers to one's ability to control and regulate their own thinking process through various activities in assessing dynamics of stocks and flows. The first research question focuses on the metacognitive activities used by individuals who solved such tasks correctly and who did not. The second question focuses on how successfully participants organized their thinking processes to arrive at a correct answer when prompted and permitted to retry. Forty undergraduate students were involved in the study, and concurrent think-aloud protocol was used to examine their thinking when performing two stock-flow tasks. The findings revealed that participants tend to have difficulties in reading, planning, monitoring, and checking activities. The effectiveness of metacognitive activities employed by the participants is likely to decrease from reading to checking, respectively. The study contributes to our understanding of metacognitive deficiencies in stock-flow failure and provides further research suggestions.

This studyaimsto evaluate the scientific creativity levels of second, third and fourth grade students whoenrolledina STEM course for an entireacademic year.The sample consisted of 85 elementary school students in two private schools in Antalya, Turkey. "Scientific Creativity Test" and "Student Demographic Questionnaire" were the instruments used in the study. Findings revealed that the scientific creativity level of the students showed a statistically significant difference with respect to their grade level. No significant differences were observed based for other variables (gender, number of siblings, parental occupation, favorite subject, the most successful subject, future occupation). In this paper, selected student responses will be presented together with a comparison of the existing curricula and the implemented STEM curriculum as well as a discussion of the findings. The study has indicated that the implemented STEM programpositively affectedscientific creativity of the students.

The aim of this exploratory research is to understand teaching orientations of freshman pre-service science teachersand their rationales for those orientations. Through a mixed method, the current study collected quantitative(Pedagogy of Science Teaching Test) and qualitative(semi-structured interviews)data to deepen and analyze the research. The sample ofthe quantitative part in the study consisted of143 freshman pre-service science teachers (122 females and 21 males) purposefully drawn from a state university in Turkey. To understand theirrationalesoftheir teaching orientation preferences, semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen interviewees, who heldvarying science teaching orientations.The findings of this research showedthat the freshman pre-service science teachers hada variety of orientations that were not influenced by their earlier science learning experiences. Also, the results indicatedthat the orientations were largely related to the freshman pre-service science teachers‟ conceptions of „rolesof teachersand students, students‟gradesand nature of subject matter‟rather than their immediate experiences as learners. The current study recommends that theseconceptions shouldbe adressed in the teacher education programs with appropriate experiences that engage pre-service teachers to critical reflection throughout the teacher education program.

This study aims to investigate effects of a treatment implemented in an environmental education course on pre-service elementary teachers’ environmental literacy and self-efficacy beliefs. During the course, 58 participants were informed about basic concepts of ecology, went to climate change exhibition, and prepared presentations and reflections about selected environmental problems. Scale of Self-Efficacy Belief towards Environmental Education and Scale of Environmental Literacy were used as pre- and post-tests. The participants’ reflections were analyzed to provide a deeper insight of their understanding of climate change. Results showed that the participants’ environmental attitudes, perception of environmental uses, and self-efficacy beliefs increased significantly, although there was no significant change in their environmental knowledge and concern at the end of the course. Analyses of their reflections indicated an improvement in understanding climate change. The article includes suggestions for overcoming limitations of the study.

This research aims to investigate the extent to which a visit to a climate change exhibition embedded within an environmental education course affects pre-service elementary teachers’ understandings about climate change. The sample comprised 58 pre-service teachers, enrolled in the environmental education course offered as part of the Elementary Education program at a private university in Turkey during the 2011/2012 academic year. The course lasted 13 weeks and was composed of various environmental issues as well as an exhibition visit and student reflections. Pre- and post-reflections written by pre-service elementary teachers’ were analyzed and coded to examine the effect of the visit on their understanding of climate change. It was found that the course, and specifically the exhibition, had a positive effect on their understanding of climate change and ways in which to ameliorate the problem.

Purpose – This study aims to enable pre-service teachers to cooperate with teachers and to participate in solving classroom problems with the guidance of academic staff in an action research (AR) project. Design/methodology/approach – Eight pre-service teachers took an AR course and simultaneously participated in a collaborative AR project. While learning about the steps and nature of AR, pre-service teachers worked with teachers and designed their own project proposals in order to solve classroom problems. A questionnaire about “doing” an AR and reports prepared by the pre-service teachers were used as instruments. Findings – Pre-service teachers worked on different classroom problems together with the teachers and seven out of eight ARs were presented at a national teachers’ conference. Moreover, all the pre-service teachers reported that they were eager to apply AR in their future classrooms and they decided to apply their AR proposals even though the course had finished. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited by the participants and the instruments used here. Practical implications – AR courses enable pre-service teachers to take an active role in authentic workplaces, thereby encouraging them towards workplace learning. Originality/value – The study shows that collaborative AR can enable pre-service teachers to identify and solve classroom problems, thereby providing them with an environment in which to use their theoretical knowledge gained at university. Hence, AR courses could be integrated into teacher training programs in order to fulfil the missing link between theory and practice in teacher training