Costas P. Constantinou

University of Cyprus · Department of Education

We report on a study investigating the relationship between cognitive ability grouping, reflective inquiry scaffolding, and students’ collaborative explanations of an ecosystem disturbance which took place when a number of flamingo birds died in a salt lake because of nearby intensive human activities. Twenty-six pairs of students from two intact s...

We have reviewed the existing literature on teaching and learning about energy to develop an overview of the ongoing debate on conceptual aspects of the construct and also to highlight the issues that have emerged in approaches to designing teaching–learning sequences. Our review is informed by those aspects of the historical evolution of the const...

The modeling-based learning framework is an approach to science learning involving model construction, refinement, and validation. We begin by describing the epistemological underpinnings and the rationale for a modeling-based teaching and learning approach for developing knowledge of natural phenomena. We proceed by describing the modeling-based l...

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been proposed as a framework for conceptualizing the priorities and values of authentic science teaching and learning. The main features of this framework include active pupil engagement in the learning process with emphasis on supporting knowledge claims with observations, experiences or complementary sou...

The present study examines whether university Education students’ prior knowledge regarding controversial socio-scientific issues (SSIs), epistemic beliefs and socio-scientific topic context can predict the types of arguments about SSIs that students construct, by single persons in personal reasoning. University Education students (elementary or ea...

Our purpose in this paper is to shed light on the intricacies of designing and enacting curricular innovations aiming to enhance students’ interest in science and their understandings of STEM careers. We present the design and describe the implementation of a set of STEM career-oriented curriculum materials referred to as career-based scenarios. A...

The Dimensions of Epistemological Beliefs toward Science Instrument (DEBS; Baytelman, Iordanou, & Constantinou, 2020) was developed to measure the nature and characteristics of epistemic beliefs (epistemic dimensions) relative to science. Originally designed by Baytelman and Constantinou (2016), this instrument was later refined in a study conducte...

The present study examines whether university education students’ prior-knowledge regarding controversial socio-scientific issues (SSIs), epistemic beliefs and socio-scientific topic (SSI-topic) context can predict the types of arguments on SSI that students construct, by single persons in personal reasoning. University education students (elementa...

Background: Developing upper secondary school students’ understanding of the nature of science and technology are important priorities in educational systems worldwide. More research is needed to better understand the conditions under which teaching and learning of epistemological insights become possible, as well as the tools that are necessary fo...

We have investigated student ability to translate from one representation to ano ther in the context of sets operations. The sample included students in grade 7 who had alread y been taught the topic of sets as part of their formal mathematics teaching. Three representation formats are explored: verbal, symbolic, graphic and the operations that exi...

Theoretically framed within Social Cognitive Career Theory emphasising on the construct of situational interest, this study explores the impact of career-based scenarios, as an instructional approach, on students’ interest in science and understandings of STEM careers. This case study involved 16 students aged 13–15 years old, who participated in a...

In this study we investigated whether high school students can effectively argue on SSIs of Biotechnology when they lack the relevant knowledge but they have been taught Biology over at least two years in a context that is considered to enhance argumentation skills. Twenty Cypriot students participated in this study. They responded to open-ended qu...

Formative assessment has received attention for many years as a mechanism for offering timely feedback to students, for enhancing their engagement and for refining the scaffolding of their efforts to attain meaningful learning. Within inquiry-oriented science education, formative assessment presents renewed challenges in terms of what to assess, in...

This study investigates whether university students’ epistemic beliefs and prior knowledge about controversial socioscientific issues (SSIs) can predict the different types of arguments that students construct. Two hundred forty-three university students were asked to construct different types of supportive arguments—social, ethical, economic, scie...

This study investigates whether university students' epistemic beliefs and prior knowledge about controversial socio-scientific issues (SSIs) can predict the different types of arguments that students construct. Two hundred forty-three university students were asked to construct different types of supportive arguments-social, ethical, economic, sci...

The purpose of this research was to identify to what extent teaching Biology only through socioscientific issues (SSIs) for a long period of time contributes to the development of students' argumentation skills even when they lack the cognitive background about the subject they are asked. We worked on a random sample of 20 Cypriot students who were...

The purpose of this research was to identify to what extent teaching Biology only through socioscientific issues (SSIs) for a long period of time contributes to the development of students' argumentation skills even when they lack the cognitive background about the subject they are asked. We worked on a random sample of 20 Cypriot students who were...

Botanical gardens are often designed with biological deliberations in mind, such as the need to preserve biodiversity. As in other community acts, functionality is also an important concern. In contrast, the need to connect with human values, such as tolerance, care or justice, and the facility to provoke interaction, reflection and discussion are...

Background: Helping upper elementary and lower secondary school students develop an awareness of various aspects of the nature of science (NOS) and nature of technology (NOT) is a widely recognized goal of science teaching. In this study, we focus on the connections between science and technology (S&T). Purpose: We report on the design, development...

This book is a compilation of edited chapters from different science education disciplines and contexts, aiming to provide resources for the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching/learning (IBST/L), and to highlight ways in which those approaches could be promoted across various contexts. The chapters in the book presented the efforts of...

This book examines the implementation of inquiry-based approaches in science teaching and learning. It explores the ways that those approaches could be promoted across various contexts in Europe through initial teacher preparation, induction programmes and professional development activities. It illustrates connections between scientific knowledge...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of pre-service primary teachers’ epistemological beliefs to their informal reasoning, while trying to manage health socio-scientific issues (health-SSIs). We used dual-process theories to represent the underlying cognitive process. These theories postulate two distinct processes of reaso...

Students' declining interest in embarking on STEM careers has been widely discussed within the science education community since 1970. Although there have been many efforts to promote students' interest in science and lead young people in the STEM pipeline, the lack of scientists and scientifically literate citizens remains a worldwide concern. The...

The ASSIST-ME project has a dual aim: (1) to provide a research base on the effective uptake of formative and summative assessment for inquiry-based, competence-oriented Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM) education and (2) to use this research base to give policy-makers and other stakeholders guidelines for ensuring that assessment enhances...

Inquiry activities generate rich opportunities for STEM learning and for assessment. When teachers pay attention to assessment information collected during the course of learning, they are able to interpret and make decisions about such assessment data in a timely fashion that can drive future planning and support student learning, for example thro...

This chapter reports the results of three research studies on peer assessment carried out in different countries where it is an unusual practice (France, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic). The three research studies focus on different competences and different disciplines (sciences and mathematics), but they all involve inquiry-based approaches...

The processes of constructing and interpreting models comprise effective teaching practices as a means to improve students’ knowledge about science concepts and scientific modeling skills. The interest in getting students to work with models and modeling in science is grounded in the premise that models act as a link between theory and phenomena an...

This article seeks to make the case for the pursuit of a “better” explanation being a productive organizing framework for science teaching and learning. Underlying this position is the idea that this framework allows promoting, in a unified manner, facility with the scientific practice of constructing explanations, appreciation of its epistemic und...

The aim of this study was to investigate how reciprocal peer assessment in modeling-based learning can serve as a learning tool for secondary school learners in a physics course. The participants were 22 upper secondary school students from a gymnasium in Switzerland. They were asked to model additive and subtractive color mixing in groups of two,...

This study investigated the relationship between university students’ content knowledge and the construction of ethical arguments on socio-scientific issues (SSIs). Particularly, we investigated whether university students' content knowledge about value-laden, controversial SSIs, predict the number and the quality of ethical arguments that they con...

Promoting facility with content knowledge is one of the most important objectives of science teaching. Conventionally, the focus for this objective is placed on the substantive side of content knowledge (e.g. science concepts/laws), whereas its epistemic or ontological aspects (e.g. why do we construct concepts?) rarely receive explicit attention....

Peer-assessment is an educational arrangement in which students are actively involved in assessing their peers’ work; it can be perceived also as a learning activity due to the benefits which arise from its enactment. In this study, we sought to examine the heuristics and strategies of undergraduate student teachers in the roles of peer-assessor an...

In this study, we aimed to investigate whether pre-service primary teachers’ epistemological beliefs predict their informal reasoning, while trying to manage health Socio-Scientific Issues. We used dual-process theories to represent the underlying cognitive process. These theories postulate two distinct processes of reasoning –heuristic/spontaneous...

Formative assessment has received attention for many years as a mechanism for offering timely feedback to students, for enhancing their engagement and for refining the scaffolding of their efforts to attain meaningful learning. Within inquiry-oriented Physics education, formative assessment presents renewed challenges in terms of what to assess, in...

The Social Sciences undertake a dual role. On the one hand, they take on the responsibility to study the phenomena relating to human interactions and, through these studies, to contribute to our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms in a way that is coherent and generalizable, to the extent possible. On the other hand, they also take on the respon...

We describe a process of designing, developing, and gradually refining a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) on electromagnetic properties of materials (EPM). The design of the teaching-learning sequence draws on principles from the frameworks of inquiry-oriented teaching-learning and learning through technological design. Combining these two framewor...

Η παρούσα έρευνα στόχευε στην κατασκευή και επικύρωση ενός εργαλείου μέτρησης επιστημολογικών πεποιθήσεων, δηλαδή πεποιθήσεων που αφορούν στη φύση της γνώσης και της μάθησης. Για την κατασκευή και επικύρωση του εργαλείου χρησιμοποιήθηκε δείγμα 319 υποψήφιων δασκάλων. Το εργαλείο αποτελείται από 30 δηλώσεις που αντιπροσωπεύουν πέντε διαστάσεις επιστ...

This book includes studies that represent the state of the art in science education research and convey a sense of the variation in educational traditions around the world. The papers are organized into six main sections: science teaching processes, conceptual understanding, reasoning strategies, early years science education, and affective and soc...

This study investigates how undergraduate students' epistemological beliefs and prior knowledge about controversial socio-scientific issues might affect the arguments that they construct. 242 undergraduate students were asked to construct different types of arguments − social, economic, ecological, scientific and ethical− as well as counterargument...

The focus of this study was to develop and validate a multidimensional instrument to measure the dimensions of epistemological beliefs of undergraduate students toward science. The instrument is called the Dimensions of Epistemological Beliefs toward Science (DEBS) Instrument. In this study, epistemological beliefs refer to individuals’ beliefs abo...

This paper reports on the development of a valid and reliable instrument which measures the dimensions of epistemological beliefs (EB) of university students toward science, called the Dimensions of Epistemological Beliefs toward Science (DEBS) Instrument. Although theoretical interest and empirical research in the area of EB have grown tremendousl...

Presidential Address by Costas P. Constantinou at the Biennial Conference of the European Associationf or Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI 2015) Modeling Based Learning in Science

Quality in education has been regognized as an issue that should guide our efforts for improvement for many years. eLearning is the latest attempt to take advantage of developments in technology to improve learning. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of establishing a theory of elearning, the value of design patterns, and the possible scenar...

The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative teaching intervention for the 3rd grade Lyceum class for Biology, which refers to X-linked inheritance. The teaching intervention is based on digital educational material developed under the project of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus «eContent Project:ΕΚΤ02/07».

The purpose of this study was to investigate the pre-service teachers’ (teacher candidates) beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing, which are characterized as epistemological beliefs. For this study, 200 pre-service teachers completed a specially designed validated questionnaire. The results showed that the respondents have moderate to w...

We investigated whether it is possible for 12-year-old students to develop a qualitative conceptualization of energy and four associate features (forms of energy, transfer processes, conservation, and degradation) as a framework for constructing interpretive accounts for the operation of physical phenomena (specifically, for changes taking place in...

The aim of this study was to examine how students used evidence in argumentation while they engaged in argumentive and reflective activities in the context of a designed learning environment. A Web-based learning environment, SOCRATES, was developed, which included a rich data base on the topic of climate change. Sixteen 11th graders, working with...

The European Union has set ambitious goals: to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, to find pathways to create new jobs and to offer a sense of direction to our societies. This requires significant strengthening of our knowledge and innovation capacity and our creative capability as drivers for future growth. As the world becomes more i...

Energy is recognized as a core idea in science and, hence, a significant learning objective of science education. The effective promotion of this learning objective posits that teachers themselves possess sound conceptual understanding. This is needed for enabling them to organize effective learning environments for their students. In this study, w...

Στην παρούσα εργασία παρουσιάζεται ο σχεδιασμός και η ανάπτυξη ψηφιακού εκπαιδευτικού υλικού για το μάθημα της Βιολογίας Γ΄ Λυκείου, το οποίο αναπτύχθηκε στο πλαίσιο του έργου του Υπουργείου Παιδείας και Πολιτισμού της Κύπρου «Ψηφιακό Εκπαιδευτικό Περιεχόμενο», που χρηματοδοτήθηκε από το Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινωνικό Ταμείο κατά 50% και κατά 50% από εθνικούς...

Learning by creating models is an active form of learning, which is well suited to induce deep understanding of phenomena. But how to evaluated such models, and apply feedback accordingly? What makes a learner created model a good model? We present two methods to assess and grade conceptual models and report on the application of these to model-dat...

We describe the implementation of a specially designed teaching innovation, embedded in the context of energy, for the promotion of specific aspects of the nature of science (NOS). We present empirical results from the implementation of the teaching and learning materials in three intact sixth-grade classes that involved a total of 64 students. We...

Understanding energy is widely recognized as a significant learning objective of science teaching. It constitutes a cross-disciplinary concept that spans all domains of science. In addition, energy has been identified as one of a small number of disciplinary core ideas for science learning. Despite this wide recognition of its significance, introdu...

The paper reports on a study of the development and validation of a Design and Technology Scheme of Work (SoW) that is facilitated by Engino assembly toys. Three initial case studies are described; one to assess the suitability of the Engino products for specific age groups; and two which took place in primary schools; one to evaluate the sequence...

The study documents on a framework describing the constituent components of learners' modeling competence and their assessment. The framework served as a guide for the design, development and implementation of assessment tasks which were administered prior and after the instruction, which also followed the guidelines of the framework. The assessmen...

We report on an effort to exchange educational materials developed by working groups of science education researchers and teachers in two different educational systems. The two teaching-learning sequences, one on Acoustic and the other on Electromagnetic Properties of Materials were designed, developed and refined through classroom implementation a...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of conceptual content prior knowledge about socio-scientific issues (SSIs) on university education students' informal reasoning regarding SSI-dilemmas. We used dual-process theories to represent the underlying cognitive process. These theories postulate two distinct processes of reasoning –...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of epistemological beliefs (EBs) on university education students’ informal reasoning (IR), about socio-scientific issues (SSIs). We used dual-process theories to represent the underlying cognitive process. These theories postulate two distinct processes of reasoning,heuristic/spontaneous proces...

In this paper, we examine the importance of scaffolding the environment and the role of cognitive readiness in young childrensÕ construction of operational definitions in magnetism. We discuss various resource constraints and the conceptual background of preschoolers. Then we present an experimental study of 165 children aged 4-6 who took part in a...

This paper reports on an investigation of the difficulties encountered by pre-service teachers and the extent to which they can come to understand energy as a framework for analysing physical systems. We developed three open-ended questions that probed the application of the energy conservation law and required explanations of reasoning. We collect...

Supporting inquiry in the science classroom is challenging work, demanding that teachers utilize abilities for addressing and responding to children’s inquiry. These abilities include, (a) knowledge of the various forms of in-class scientific inquiry; (b) abilities for evaluating elements of children’s inquiry which teachers identify; and (c) a rep...

literature. We set out to design and evaluate a learning environment for promoting argumentation skills. In this paper we seek to explore the impact of a web-based learning environment on students’ argumentation skills. The study sets out to investigate the extent to which high school students are able to effectively engage in argumentation and to...

Teaching and learning about energy, especially in the elementary and middle school grades, constitutes a challenging topic that has received much attention within the science education research literature. Despite this, it is important to notice the lack of consensus on a range of relevant issues (e.g., whether - and how - to address the nature of...

Η εργασία επικεντρώνεται στην προώθηση της κατανόησης μαθητών δημοτικού σχολείου για μια πτυχή της φύσης της επιστήμης που αφορά στη διάκριση ανάμεσα στην παρατήρηση και την ερμηνεία. Οι παρατηρήσεις αποτελούν πληροφορίες που αντιλαμβανόμαστε μέσω των αισθήσεων (ή προεκτάσεών τους) για ένα φυσικό φαινόμενο και για τις οποίες είναι σχετικά εφικτή η...

Teaching and learning about energy at the various levels of school science has been a topic of interest in science education research for nearly five decades. This interest has been motivated by the need to help students appreciate energy-related, socio-scientific issues and formulate appropriate and informed stances and attitudes. The emphasis pla...

This study focuses on promoting primary school students' understanding of an aspect of the nature of science regarding the distinction between observation and inference. Observations are descriptive elements about natural phenomena that are accessible through senses (or extensions of senses) and about which several observers can reach consensus wit...

Twenty kindergarten in-service teachers participated in a 25hr professional development program (PDP) supporting the development of abilities for identifying and responding to students' in-class inquiry. Each teacher taught a science lesson at the beginning and at the end of the PDP. These were videotaped and analyzed in terms of the student inquir...

This multinational research study was carried out between 2004 and 2006 in four teacher education institutions in Cyprus, England, Switzerland, and Germany. With the help of a written questionnaire, the confidence and perceived competence of preservice primary teachers (N = 690) to deliver biodiversity education in school were investigated. Data we...