This article investigates the influences on a teacher’s uncertainty through the use of storyline methodology. As a research method, storylines can be utilised to educe a teacher’s responses to inquiries into their practice. The particular storylines in this article are drawn from the uncertainty work of Floden and Clark (1988) and reflect aspects of teaching that are of concern to all teachers: content knowledge, assessment, teaching and learning and knowledge. By drawing these storylines together, we present two key findings to our research question: ‘how does a teacher accept uncertainties in his teaching, and how does that acceptance interact with his implementation of a new course?’ Our analysis suggests that a teacher’s continued professional learning is underpinned by an acceptance of uncertainty in their teaching. Further, the analysis highlights the value of a culture of long-term professional learning that allows teachers to respond positively to uncertainties that are important to them. This suggests that a science department that is committed to questioning practice may provide many of the supports that teachers need to pursue their own questioning of practice.

In light of the crucial role of teacher education in transforming education and society so that a sustainable future is possible, there is increasing interest in the relationship between academic major and development of student teachers’ environmental literacy (EL). Since science disciplines are the common framework for incorporating environmental education, this longitudinal study investigated, in a paired pretest-posttest design, if student teachers majoring in the environment-related disciplines differ in the development of their EL from other majors. The differences in EL-variables between the two groups were enhanced during studies only in particular behavioral aspects (recycling efforts and citizenship action) and in basic environmental knowledge. Contrary to the expected, environment–affiliated students moved toward a more anthropocentric orientation during their studies, as reflected by decreased support for the 'value-of-nature'. Post-test environment-affiliated majors’ opinions regarding the influence of studies to their EL emphasize the role of the disciplinary component, and its contribution mainly to their biophysical-ecological knowledge. Findings support the need to reorient the science disciplines to include a comprehensive environmental perspective and infuse environmental values education, in addition to content knowledge, within science disciplines. These should be explicitly stated within curricular goals of teacher-training programs, infiltrating down to courses and academic staff.

Informal place-based environmental education is a proven approach for increasing environmental awareness for students in urban cities. This article describes and qualitatively evaluates the first two academic years of the EnvironMentors program at Louisiana State University (LSU-EM), which is part of a national network of EnvironMentors programs. Despite its short history, LSU-EM has already proven successful as an after-school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) mentoring and college-access program predicated on a nearby campus and community partnerships. LSU-EM partners with the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (Gear Up) in the College of Education and the Louisiana Sea Grant program for support and to foster the relationships among scientists, educators, and high school students. Each high school student is paired with two science mentors from the university. Students and their mentors spend the school year conducting an environmental science-based research project to be presented at the LSU-EM Science Fair. Program evaluations indicated students enjoyed forming a bond with their mentors, increased their environmental awareness, and had a better understanding of the scientific method after participating in LSU-EM. Mentors improved their science communication skills, benefited personally by giving back to the community, and took pride in their student’s work. Program success was also measured based on the number of students completing their EnvironMentors projects, graduating high school and enrolling in postsecondary educational institutions.

Globalization together with new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and accelerated changes in society affect the economic and social life to a great extent. In order to achieve the goals mentioned in the strategy document, the necessary arrangements were made and FATIH (Increasing the opportunities and Technology Improvement Movement) project, a new project is being carried out. A scanning model was used in this research. The method of learning objects, the document review project, the Turkish education system, management information systems, have made the case for investigations. This information, in the light of the standards, learning about learning object Management FATIH project information system (LMS-Learning Management System) and learning content management system (LCMS-Learning Content Management System) for definitions and recommendations. Learning objects according to what criteria will be adopted, to evaluate and to determine how the deployment will be the shape of the study and a proposal for the creation of electronic content to the project system.

In this study, students’ understanding of chemical changes was investigated in relation to four individual differences, related to logical thinking, field dependence/independence, convergence and divergence thinking. The study took place in Greece with the participation of students (n=374) from three grades (8th, 10th and 12th grades) of secondary education. A stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the above cognitive variables were statistically significant predictors of the students’ achievement, with logical thinking to be the most dominant. Unexpectedly, no statistically important effect was found across ages. Moreover, students' partial achievement scores on understanding the structure of substances and their changes, along with the cognitive variables, appeared to have an effect on their competence in interpretation of chemical changes. Path analyses were implemented to depict these effects. A theoretical analysis that associates the role of cognitive variables with the nature of mental tasks involved when learning chemistry is also presented. Implications for science education are discussed.

This study has been conducted to investigate conceptions of learning science (COLS) and personal science teaching efficacy belief (PSTE) of Turkish preservice elementary science teachers (PSTs) and to explore the relationship between these variables. Two instruments COLS questionnaire and PSTE subscale of Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI-B) have been administered to 379 PSTs from seven different universities. Descriptive analyses have pointed out that PSTs have higher level of COLS and moderately higher level of PSTE. The results obtained from the structural equation model have revealed that the conceptions ‘testing’, ‘calculate and practice’, ‘increase of knowledge’, ‘applying’ and ‘understanding and seeing in a new way’ have significantly predicted PSTE. We have assumed that lower level of conceptions ‘memorizing’, ‘testing’, and ‘calculate and practice’ predict PSTE by negative coefficients while higher level of conceptions ‘increase of knowledge’, ‘applying’ and ‘understanding and seeing in a new way’ predict by positive coefficients. However, ‘calculating and practicing’ has positively predicted and ‘applying’ has negatively predicted PSTE. Considering the results, adaptation of inquiry- and argumentation-based learning and teaching environments in science teacher education, creating opportunities to develop PSTs’ pedagogical skills about knowledge transfer and application, and utilization of diagnostic tools to pursue PSTs’ development of COLS have been suggested.