Gathering contributions from leading scholars around the world, this handbook offers a comprehensive resource on the most recent advances in research surrounding the theories, methodologies, and applications of science learning progressions. Researchers and educators have used learning progressions to guide the design and alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and to help students learn scientific knowledge and practices in a coherent and connected way across multiple years. This handbook lays out the development and current state of research in this field across four sections: learning progression theories and methodologies; learning progressions to promote student learning; teachers’ learning and use of learning progressions; and new technology in learning progression research. Featuring internationally-recognized experts in learning progression research as well as up-and-coming voices, the Handbook of Research on Science Learning Progressions offers a defining new resource for researchers, teachers and teacher educators, and curriculum and assessment developers in science education.

Building on the foundation set in Volume I—a landmark synthesis of research in the field—Volume II is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art new volume highlighting new and emerging research perspectives. The contributors, all experts in their research areas, represent the international and gender diversity in the science education research community. The volume is organized around six themes: theory and methods of science education research; science learning; culture, gender, and society and science learning; science teaching; curriculum and assessment in science; science teacher education. Each chapter presents an integrative review of the research on the topic it addresses—pulling together the existing research, working to understand the historical trends and patterns in that body of scholarship, describing how the issue is conceptualized within the literature, how methods and theories have shaped the outcomes of the research, and where the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps are in the literature. Providing guidance to science education faculty and graduate students and leading to new insights and directions for future research, the Handbook of Research on Science Education, Volume II is an essential resource for the entire science education community.

Volume III of this landmark synthesis of research offers a comprehensive, state-of-the-art survey highlighting new and emerging research perspectives in science education. Building on the foundations set in Volumes I and II, Volume III provides a globally minded, up-to-the-minute survey of the science education research community and represents the diversity of the field. Each chapter has been updated with new research and new content, and Volume III has been further developed to include new and expanded coverage on astronomy and space education, epistemic practices related to socioscientific issues,design-based research, interdisciplinary and STEM education, inclusive science education, and the global impact of nature of science and scientific inquiry literacy. As with the previous volumes, Volume III is organized around six themes: theory and methods of science education research; science learning; diversity and equity; science teaching; curriculum and assessment; and science teacher education. Each chapter presents an integrative review of the research on the topic it addresses, pulling together the existing research, working to understand historical trends and patterns in that body of scholarship, describing how the issue is conceptualized within the literature, how methods and theories have shaped the outcomes of the research, and where the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps are in the literature. Providing guidance to science education faculty, scholars, and graduate students, and pointing towards future directions of the field, Handbook of Research on Science Education Research, Volume III offers an essential resource to all members of the science education community.

Conceptual change research investigates the processes through which learners substantially revise prior knowledge and acquire new concepts. Tracing its heritage to paradigms and paradigm shifts made famous by Thomas Kuhn, conceptual change research focuses on understanding and explaining learning of the most the most difficult and counter-intuitive concepts. Now in its second edition, the International Handbook of Research on Conceptual Change provides a comprehensive review of the conceptual change movement and of the impressive research it has spawned on students’ difficulties in learning. In thirty-one new and updated chapters, organized thematically and introduced by Stella Vosniadou, this volume brings together detailed discussions of key theoretical and methodological issues, the roots of conceptual change research, and mechanisms of conceptual change and learner characteristics. Combined with chapters that describe conceptual change research in the fields of physics, astronomy, biology, medicine and health, and history, this handbook presents writings on interdisciplinary topics written for researchers and students across fields.

This inaugural handbook documents the distinctive research field that utilizes history and philosophy in investigation of theoretical, curricular and pedagogical issues in the teaching of science and mathematics. It is contributed to by 130 researchers from 30 countries; it provides a logically structured, fully referenced guide to the ways in which science and mathematics education is, informed by the history and philosophy of these disciplines, as well as by the philosophy of education more generally. The first handbook to cover the field, it lays down a much-needed marker of progress to date and provides a platform for informed and coherent future analysis and research of the subject. The publication comes at a time of heightened worldwide concern over the standard of science and mathematics education, attended by fierce debate over how best to reform curricula and enliven student engagement in the subjects. There is a growing recognition among educators and policy makers that the learning of science must dovetail with learning about science; this handbook is uniquely positioned as a locus for the discussion. The handbook features sections on pedagogical, theoretical, national, and biographical research, setting the literature of each tradition in its historical context. It reminds readers at a crucial juncture that there has been a long and rich tradition of historical and philosophical engagements with science and mathematics teaching, and that lessons can be learnt from these engagements for the resolution of current theoretical, curricular and pedagogical questions that face teachers and administrators. Science educators will be grateful for this unique, encyclopaedic handbook, Gerald Holton, Physics Department, Harvard University This handbook gathers the fruits of over thirty years’ research by a growing international and cosmopolitan community Fabio Bevilacqua, Physics Department, University of Pavia

The Sage Handbook of Research on Classroom Assessment provides scholars, professors, graduate students, and other researchers and policy makers in the organizations, agencies, testing companies, and school districts with a comprehensive source of research on all aspects of K-12 classroom assessment. The handbook emphasizes theory, conceptual frameworks, and all varieties of research (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods) to provide an in-depth understanding of the knowledge base in each area of classroom assessment and how to conduct inquiry in the area. It presents classroom assessment research to convey, in depth, the state of knowledge and understanding that is represented by the research, with particular emphasis on how classroom assessment practices affect student achieventment and teacher behavior. Editor James H. McMillan and five Associate Editors bring the best thinking and analysis from leading classroom assessment researchers on the nature of the research, making significant contributions to this prominent and hotly debated topic in education.

During the past 30 years, researchers have made exciting progress in the science of learning (i.e., how people learn) and the science of instruction (i.e., how to help people learn). This second edition of the Handbook of Research on Learning and Instruction is intended to provide an overview of these research advances. With chapters written by leading researchers from around the world, this volume examines learning and instruction in a variety of learning environments including in classrooms and out of classrooms, and with a variety of learners including K-16 students and adult learners. Contributors to this volume demonstrate how and why educational practice should be guided by research evidence concerning what works in instruction. The Handbook is written at a level that is appropriate for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners interested in an evidence-based approach to learning and instruction. The book is divided into two sections: learning and instruction. The learning section consists of chapters on how people learn in reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, second language, and physical education, as well as how people acquire the knowledge and processes required for critical thinking, studying, self-regulation, and motivation. The instruction section consists of chapters on effective instructional methods—feedback, examples, questioning, tutoring, visualizations, simulations, inquiry, discussion, collaboration, peer modeling, and adaptive instruction. Each chapter in this second edition of the Handbook has been thoroughly revised to integrate recent advances in the field of educational psychology. Two chapters have been added to reflect advances in both helping students develop learning strategies and using technology to individualize instruction. As with the first edition, this updated volume showcases the best research being done on learning and instruction by traversing a broad array of academic domains, learning constructs, and instructional methods.

Learning progressions – descriptions of increasingly sophisticated ways of thinking about or understanding a topic (National Research Council, 2007) – represent a promising framework for developing organized curricula and meaningful assessments in science. In addition, well-grounded learning progressions may allow for coherence between cognitive models of how understanding develops in a given domain, classroom instruction, professional development, and classroom and large-scale assessments. Because of the promise that learning progressions hold for bringing organization and structure to often disconnected views of how to teach and assess science, they are rapidly gaining popularity in the science education community. However, there are signi?cant challenges faced by all engaged in this work. In June 2009, science education researchers and practitioners, as well as scientists, psychometricians, and assessment specialists convened to discuss these challenges as part of the Learning Progressions in Science (LeaPS) conference. The LeaPS conference provided a structured forum for considering design decisions entailed in four aspects of work on learning progressions: de?ning learning progressions; developing assessments to elicit student responses relative to learning progressions; modeling and interpreting student performance with respect to a learning progressions; and using learning progressions to in?uence standards, curricula, and teacher education. This book presents speci?c examples of learning progression work and syntheses of ideas from these examples and discussions at the LeaPS conference.

One of the central features in current educational reforms is a focus on learning outcomes. Many countries have established or revised standards to describe what teachers are supposed to teach and students are expected to learn. More recently, the emphasis has shifted to considerations of how standards can be operationalized in order to make the outcomes of educational efforts more tangible. This book is the result of a symposium held in Kiel, that was arranged by two science education groups, one at the IPN (Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Kiel) in Germany and the other at the University of York, UK. The seminar brought together renowned experts from 12 countries with different notions of the nature and quality of learning outcomes. The aim was to clarify central conceptions and approaches for a better understanding among the international science education community. The book is divided into five parts. In Part A, the organizers set the scene, describing the rationale for arranging the symposium. Part B provides a broad overview about different approaches, challenges, and pitfalls on the road to the clarification of meaningful and fruitful learning outcomes. The set of papers in Part C provides deep insights into different, although comparable approaches which aim to frame, to assess, and to promote learning and learning outcomes in science education. Smaller projects are presented as well as broad, coordinated national programs. The papers in Part D outline the individual historical development from different national perspectives, reflecting the deficits and problems that led to current reforms. Finally, a summary of the organizers analyses the conclusions from different vantage points.

Teaching Science in Elementary and Middle School offers in-depth information about the fundamental features of project-based science and strategies for implementing the approach. In project-based science classrooms students investigate, use technology, develop artifacts, collaborate, and make products to show what they have learned. Paralleling what scientists do, project-based science represents the essence of inquiry and the nature of science. Because project-based science is a method aligned with what is known about how to help all children learn science, it not only helps students learn science more thoroughly and deeply, it also helps them experience the joy of doing science. Project-based science embodies the principles in A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards. Blending principles of learning and motivation with practical teaching ideas, this text shows how project-based learning is related to ideas in the Framework and provides concrete strategies for meeting its goals. Features include long-term, interdisciplinary, student-centered lessons; scenarios; learning activities, and "Connecting to Framework for K–12 Science Education" textboxes. More concise than previous editions, the Fourth Edition offers a wealth of supplementary material on a new Companion Website, including many videos showing a teacher and class in a project environment.