David F. Treagust

• Curtin University

This study explores the influence of external resources on students’ construction of mental representations of curved spacetime and their understanding of General Relativity (GR). Using the Cognitive Mediation Networks Theory (CMNT) as the theoretical framework, a short extracurricular course with Year-12 students was developed. Through the course,...

A necessidade de modernizar o currículo de ciências e promover a alfabetização científica é amplamente reconhecida. No entanto, a ciência ensinada nas escolas muitas vezes não aborda o conhecimento desenvolvido nos séculos XX e XXI, especialmente no campo da física einsteiniana (FE), que engloba a física quântica e a relatividade. Essa discrepância...

A necessidade de modernizar o currículo de ciências e promover a alfabetização científica é amplamente reconhecida. No entanto, a ciência ensinada nas escolas muitas vezes não aborda o conhecimento desenvolvido nos séculos XX e XXI, especialmente no campo da física einsteiniana (FE), que engloba a física quântica e a relatividade. Essa discrepância...

Background Modern and Contemporary Physics (MCP) play crucial roles in today’s world, but most classrooms’ practice focuses on Classical Physics, neglecting MCP even when it is present in the curriculum. Special Relativity Theory (SRT) is of particular interest to students but presents challenges due to its abstract concepts. Purpose Based on Cogni...

Recent years have seen a growing interest in modernizing school science curricula to reflect the discoveries in physics since 1900, especially with the recent broad recognition of the importance of quantum physics in the modern world. Much effort has been expended in the development of appropriate teaching instruments for teaching Einsteinian physi...

There has been a growing realisation that school science curricula do not adequately reflect the revolutionary changes in our scientific understanding of the 20th century. This discrepancy between current school education and our modern scientific understanding has led to calls for the modernisation of the science curriculum. Although there have be...

Background: To support collaborative drawing, it is essential to investigate how students make collaborative drawings and how these contribute to elaborating their ideas. This study examines how 5th and 6th grade students’ group drawings contributed to increased levels of explanations of their drawings about sound transmission. Methods: We analyz...

This study investigated how different learning tasks influence students’ collaborative interactions in immersive Virtual Reality (iVR). A set of chemistry learning activities was designed with iVR, and 35 pairs of undergraduate students went through the activities. Videos of students’ interactions were analysed to identify patterns in students’ phy...

Developing students' creativity is an important educational goal in many countries. The Australian Curriculum Authority has mandated that all teachers teach creative thinking across all subjects and grades. However, after more than 10 years working within this mandate, how do science teachers see their role in promoting creativity in the classroom?...

This study investigates how students utilized artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images to represent their understanding of general relativity concepts. Ten high school students participated in an extracurricular course on relativity theory. Using AI chatbot, these students created visual representations of ‘relativity’ before and after the cou...

Aversion to mathematics is a recognised and widespread problem. Following a review of the literature on this subject, this paper presents an education program which has been developed to test the hypothesis that transferring attention from traditional school arithmetic to a broad range of mathematical skills relevant to modern science at an early a...

There has been a growing realisation that school science curricula do not adequately reflect the revolutionary changes in our scientific understanding of the 20th century. This discrepancy between current school education and our modern scientific understanding has led to calls for the modernisation of the science curriculum. Although there have be...

Recent years have seen a growing interest in modernizing physics and science curricula around the world. While many science educators and curriculum developers design instructional resources to successfully introduce topics of Einsteinian physics to young learners, it is clear that successful curriculum development needs to rest on successful teach...

Understanding mechanisms underpinning formation of convection currents is pivotal for developing explanations of plate tectonics when teaching Geoscience topics. While student generated diagrams explaining convection currents may be used to evaluate student conceptual understanding and alternative conceptions in this topic, students may need suppor...

DESCRIPTION Students’ understanding of optical phenomena was an early topic of research interest and continues to be an important focus for physics education researchers world-wide. In this chapter, we review a wide range of studies with an emphasis on the different types of diagnostic instruments used to generate qualitative and quantitative data...

The most famous equation in physics, E = mc ² , is rarely introduced in middle school physics curricula. Recent research has shown that teaching Einsteinian concepts at the middle school level is feasible and beneficial. This paper analyses an Einsteinian energy teaching module for Year 8 students (13–14 years old), which encompasses the two fundam...

Teaching science The demand for improving student interest in science has increased efforts toward teaching Einstein's theory of general relativity in schools. Research has already shown that teaching Einsteinian gravity at the secondary level is feasible, however, appropriate resources must be readily available for science teachers to make Einst...

This study focuses on examining senior high-school students’ conceptual understanding and difficulties concerning electrochemistry and comparing patterns of thinking across Turkish and Indonesian contexts. The Electrochemistry Concept Questionnaire (ECQ) was applied to 516 Indonesian and 516 Turkish high school students right after the teaching of...

We explore how students developed an integrated understanding of scientific ideas and how they applied their understandings in new situations. We examine the incremental development of 7th grade students’ scientific ideas across four iterations of a scientific explanation related to a freshwater system. We demonstrate that knowing how to make use o...

Peter Fensham had a deep concern that the school science curriculum should have a focus beyond that for academically oriented students and have a direct relevance to everyday lives. In a keynote address at ESERA 1999, later published in 2001, he offered a challenge for researchers to consider science content as being problematic and offered example...

This study aimed to explore Omani teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs for teaching science as inquiry and investigate the influence of demographic characteristics such as gender, teaching experience, and preparation programme on their beliefs. The study was conducted with a sample of science teachers for grades 5-8 (n=588). Data collected from administ...

While there has been much interest in the power of student-generated multiple representations to promote student reasoning and conceptual understanding, most studies of student explanations have been of written artefacts or only included diagrams as an adjunct to written explanations. This approach may be because teachers do not have an accessible...

The advanced visualisation and interactive capabilities make immersive virtual reality (IVR) attractive for educators to investigate its educational benefits. This research reviewed 64 studies published in 2016–2020 to understand how science educators designed, implemented, and evaluated IVR-based learning. The immersive design features (sensory, a...

A remote laboratory that measures the enthalpy of vaporization (ΔHvap°) and the entropy of vaporization (ΔSvap°) of n-octane was designed, constructed, and offered to second-year physical chemistry undergraduates at the University of New England (UNE) and Curtin University. The experiment was delivered in real-time, using equipment controlled remot...

Promoting socio-scientific issue ( SSI )-based instruction in Indonesian science classrooms requires competent science teachers. To understand teachers’ perceptions about the implementation of SSI -based instruction, a case study involving four biology teachers engaged in a teacher professional development program was conducted. The program consist...

High school students learn the basic voltaic and electrolytic cell concepts during their last year prior to entering an undergraduate teacher-education science degree. During the 4 years of university, students complete a sequence of topics designed to build on conceptual understanding presented in previous years. At the end of their degrees, gradu...

Understanding plate tectonics is pivotal to development of an integrated understanding of Geoscience topics. However, geology is frequently introduced to students in lower secondary school by describing separate processes, such as sedimentary rock formation, rather than investigating the overall driving forces for change. This study investigated wh...

This paper describes the development, final design and validation of an instrument that measures a range of student interactions and satisfaction in undergraduate chemistry laboratories. Student surveys or conceptual and attitudinal instruments are widely used techniques for collecting relevant information on student learning. However, there is a l...

• Despite the focus on supporting student creativity across all subjects, science teachers are often left wondering what creativity looks like in science education and what activities they can use to promote student creativity • Most teachers interviewed focused on developing student creativity through project based learning and inquiry projects •...

The contributions of research presented in Physics Education are genuinely necessary for content and quality of physics teacher education and for developing new lessons based on research. Teaching and learning in a subject, physics in this case, can only be successful if it is informed by research in the respective areas of educational activities....

The modern Einsteinian conception of space, time, matter and radiation represents a radical paradigm shift compared with the traditional Newtonian physics that underpins most primary and secondary school science. It is increasingly recognised that school education should encompass this modern paradigm to allow a seamless progression of learning thr...

Abstract Although there have been many investigations of the social, motivational, and emotional aspects of conceptual change, there have been few studies investigating the intersection of these factors with cognitive aspects in the regular classroom. Using a conceptual change approach, this case study reports experiences of a student of low to ave...

Student-generated drawing is a useful strategy to construct students’ scientific ideas. For exploring ways to support student-generated drawing, we focused on the perspective of ‘Norms’ – shared behaviour patterns desirable in a community. We investigated what norms were formed and how they emerged when students made drawings to explain phenomena....

Educational reforms in Qatar have seen the implementation of inquiry-based learning and other student-centred pedagogies. However, there have been few efforts to investigate how these adopted western pedagogies are aligned with the high context culture of Qatar. The study presented in this article highlights the implementation of a student-centred...

The topic of natural selection presents challenges to high school students since it requires understanding of an emergent process, which is a missing schema for most students. Many interventions for teaching natural selection have limited effect in bringing about substantial ontological conceptual change. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a...

Students hold many alternative conceptions of thermal physics which are very resistant to change. A conceptual change strategy, the thinking frames approach, based on evidence from educational research was used to address commonly held naïve conceptions about heat in a series of thermal physics lessons. Students’ gains in conceptual understanding w...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of students’ construction of scientific explanations through drawing explanatory diagrams. For this, we observed fifth and sixth graders’ drawing processes in a gifted science class involving learning physics concepts in mechanics. The analysis was carried out on three pictorial representation...

Although the benefits of addressing cognitive, social and affective aspects of learning in order to support conceptual change have been discussed in the literature, there are few studies of such interventions in the normal classroom. This study used a multidimensional conceptual change framework in order to teach five biology and physics topics ove...

Students hold many alternative conceptions of thermal physics which are very resistant to change. A conceptual change strategy, the Thinking Frames Approach, based on evidence from educational research was used to address commonly held naïve conceptions about heat in a series of thermal physics lessons. Students' gains in conceptual understanding w...

This paper reviews the ways in which interactions have been studied, and the findings of such studies, in science education in both face-to-face and remote laboratories. Guided by a systematic selection process, 27 directly relevant articles were analysed based on three categories: the instruments used for measuring interactions, the research findi...

Declining interest among high school and university students in the study of science as a major subject has had educators and curriculum designers searching for a teaching approach that would raise interest and engender a positive perception of learning science. At the same time, government and industry leaders have expressed concern about the need...

This article presents the development, description, application, and discussion of an analytical framework to examine students’ drawings of scientific concepts and processes. Student-generated representation, particularly drawing, is increasingly emphasised as an important learning strategy to help students reason, explain, and demonstrate their sc...

The laboratory instruction sheet (sometimes called a laboratory manual), together with the equipment used by students, is an essential resource for laboratory work. It has a direct influence over all the interactions that can occur in the laboratory activity, of which student-equipment is the only common synchronous interaction in both face-to-face...

The topic of natural selection presents challenges to high school students since it requires understanding of an emergent process, which is a missing schema for most students. Many interventions for teaching natural selection have limited effect in bringing about substantial ontological conceptual change. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a...

Both students and teachers have misconceptions about Force and Motion, often caused by teachers not being well-prepared to teach the accepted scientific theory. Besides, teachers rarely or never use a cognitive conflict strategy in their teaching. The present study is aimed at investigating the use of a discrepant event to facilitate preservice ele...

Computer-aided visualisation has played an essential role in helping students construct a better understanding of molecular interactions over the years. However, students still need to translate 2D images on a screen into 3D molecular structures in their minds, and they often find it challenging to develop a clear mental picture of complex molecule...

This study provides an analysis of selected aspects of the intended curriculum related to redox reactions as represented in secondary chemistry textbooks from the People’s Republic of China, with a special view also on Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, and the Chinese minority in Malaysia. This study reveals how chemistry textbooks deal with visual repr...

A follow-up study was conducted on foundation-year chemistry students who were taught in an inquiry- and role-based, small-group active learning environment in order to evaluate their attitudes, experiences and self-efficacy during pre-medical chemistry courses. The study adopted a mixed-methods research design that involved both experimental and c...

Short title: Comparing two types of diagnostic items Full title: Comparing two types of diagnostic items to evaluate understanding of heat and temperature concepts Short description of this study: Two-tier multiple choice items which are developed based on alternative conceptions research have better efficiency to monitor Year 8 student's science l...

Assessment of students’ performance in laboratory activities evaluates students’ achievements and weaknesses in practical work. This is vital from both student and institutional perspectives. Practical skills assessment methods evaluate students on three major components: the ability to collect data and perform calculations, to analyse the cause of...

The purposes of this research is to investigate the existing chemical equilibrium lessons in Thailand based on the multidimensional framework of conceptual change, to determine how the existing lessons could enhance students’ conceptual change. This research was conducted based on qualitative perspective. Document, observations and interviews were...

One of the essential facets in teacher education program is the development of the teachers’ content knowledge and it has been suggested by many scholars that the study to analyse the process of content knowledge development in teacher education program is necessary. Regarding this, the aim of this research is to evaluate the existing program of de...

Researchers have shown the importance of adopting multiple representations when teaching and learning science. In this study, we investigated how effectively students represented their understanding of optics concepts and the difficulties they faced when using multiple representations in an introductory university physics course. To this end, we ob...

This study investigated the understanding of science process skills (SPS) of 329 science teachers from 52 primary schools selected by random sampling. The understanding of SPS was measured in terms of conceptual and operational aspects of SPS using an instrument called the Science Process Skills Questionnaire (SPSQ) with a Cronbach’s alpha reliabil...

In this study, we investigated the value of a concept map marking guide as an alternative formative assessment tool for science teachers to adopt for the topic of energy. Eight high school science teachers marked students’ concept maps using an itemized holistic marking guide. Their marking was compared with the researchers’ marking and the scores...

This one-semester, mixed methods study underpinning social cognition and theory of planned behaviour investigated the attitudes, self-efficacy, and experiences of 559 first year undergraduate chemistry students from two cohorts in modified process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) classes. Versions of attitude toward the study of chemistry (...

This volume is important because despite various external representations, such as analogies, metaphors, and visualizations being commonly used by physics teachers, educators and researchers, the notion of using the pedagogical functions of multiple representations to support teaching and learning is still a gap in physics education. The research p...

This paper presents the effects of a cognitive acceleration program in mathematics classes on Tongan students’ achievements, motivation and self-regulation. Cognitive Acceleration in Mathematics Education (CAME) is a program developed at King’s College and implemented worldwide with the aim of improving students’ thinking skills, mathematics perfor...

The Qatari government has made significant changes in the organization and staffing of schools over the past decade in an effort to improve the academic performance of school-aged citizens. Of interest is the need to encourage teachers to move from a didactic teacher-led mode of instruction to one that is more student-centred, but also teacher-guid...

Environmental education in schools is of increasing importance as the world population increases with the subsequent demand on resources and the potential for increased pollution. In an effort to enhance the standing of environmental education in the school curriculum, this study was designed to determine primary students’ knowledge about the envir...

An action research study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of providing metacognitive support to enhance Year 9 students’ metacognitive capabilities in order to better understand science concepts related to light, environmental health, ecosystems, genetics, ecology, atoms and the Periodic Table. The study was conducted over three years inv...

As has been discussed throughout this volume, the vision and direction of the National Science Council has resulted in science educators in Taiwan being very prominent among the world’s science educators in the international literature and at international meetings and conferences. As an example, I have recently returned from the annual conference...

Reviewing colleagues’ work and providing a review, a commentary, or reflections is always a privilege because it enables the reader to be more aware of his or her own research contributions. The reader may provide critical and constructive comments as in the case of a journal manuscript submitted for consideration or as in the case of this chapter...

This research took place within the context of ongoing educational reforms to promote inquiry-based science instruction and a desire to draw evidence to inform adoptions of western pedagogical practices in a high-context culture like Qatar. We report on the outcomes from Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) in a foundation chemistry cou...

Background: Enhancing students’ metacognitive abilities will help to facilitate their understanding of science concepts. Purpose: The study was designed to conduct and evaluate the effectiveness of a repertoire of interventions aimed at enhancing secondary school students’ metacognitive capabilities and their achievements in science. Sample: A clas...

Using a quantitative case study design, the Acids-Bases Chemistry Achievement Test (ABCAT) was developed to evaluate the extent to which students in Malaysian secondary schools achieved the intended curriculum on acid-base concepts. Responses were obtained from 260 Form 5 (Grade 11) students from five schools to initially create the two-tier multip...

Western pedagogical practices have become increasingly common in Qatar with the emergence of numerous international institutions. Educational researchers continue to identify adaptive strategies for successful implementation of these pedagogical practices in high context cultures to maximise students’ learning outcomes in preparation for future cha...

This research examined the effects of a problem-based learning (PBL) chemistry laboratory course for second-year college students (N1/4 20) on students' scientific attitudes with an emphasis on their creative thinking abilities. The findings were contrasted with a traditional laboratory course (N1/4 26) to elucidate any differences in the influence...

Two-tier multiple-choice (TTMC) items are used to assess students’ knowledge of a scientific concept for tier 1 and their reasoning about this concept for tier 2. But are the knowledge and reasoning involved in these tiers really distinguishable? Are the tiers equally challenging for students? The answers to these questions influence how we use and...

This paper focuses on a study to develop the reflective teaching practices of Indonesian secondary school teachers. The aims of the study are to help teachers understand reflection as it relates to the teacher standards (Kompetensi Guru) context, to provide examples on how to engage in reflection, and to develop reflection habits to improve the qua...

This study investigated the year 12 students’ (N = 56) understanding of chemical equilibrium concepts after instruction using two conceptual tests, the Chemical Equilibrium Conceptual Test 1(CECT-1) consisting of nine two-tier multiple-choice items and the Chemical Equilibrium Conceptual Test 2(CECT-2) consisting of four structured questions. Both...

In this article, we describe how teachers in the Australian school system are educated to teach science and the different qualifications that teachers need to enter the profession. The latest comparisons of Australian students in international science assessments have brought about various accountability measures to improve the quality of science t...

The need for renewable and non-fossil fuels is now recognised by nations throughout the world. Consequently, an understanding of alternative energy is needed both in schools and in everyday life-long learning situations. This study developed a two-tier instrument to diagnose students' understanding and alternative conceptions about alternative ener...

This study investigated the understanding of diffusion, osmosis and particle theory of matter concepts among 192 pre-service science teachers in Saudi Arabia using a 17-item two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic test. The data analysis showed that the pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion concepts was mildly correlated with the...

This article is a part of research for a doctoral thesis about improving teaching, enhancing representations and conceptual change of chemical bonding for grade 10 students (15-16 year-old) in Thailand. The aim of this research is to explore students’ understanding of chemical bonding concepts. The sample consisted of 102 grade 10 students from thr...

This chapter offers an overview of the process of publishing reports of research in chemistry education. The chapter considers both issues of what makes a submission suitable for publication in a research journal and practical issues of what authors need to do, and what they should expect, at different stages of the process.

As an important subject in the curriculum, many students find chemistry concepts difficult to learn and understand. Chemical bonding especially is important in understanding the compositions of chemical compounds and related concepts and research has shown that students struggle with this concept. In this theoretical paper based on analysis of rele...

This study presents various ways in which secondary biology teachers incorporated diagrams in their classroom teaching. To understand biology teachers’ instructional use of diagrams, classroom observations were conducted in one state senior high school in Western Australia. A total of 120 lessons in Grades 9–12 taught by five biology teachers were...

This study focuses on elucidating and explaining reasons for the stability of and interrelationships between students' conceptions about Light Propagation and Visibility of Objects using contextualized questions across 3 years of secondary schooling from Years 7 to 9. In a large-scale quantitative study involving 1,233 Korean students and 1,149 Sin...

Chemistry Education Research and Practice’ (CERP) is a peer-reviewed electronic-only journal, which is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, has fast publication times and is free to access, for both publication and to read articles. CERP’s authors and readers extend to all over the world, while since 2008 the journal is included in the Soci...

Treagust, Mthembu and Chandrasegaran addressed an evaluation of the Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) instructional strategy to enhance students’ understanding of redox reactions in Chapter 14. Following a teacher inservice programme on the use of the POE instructional strategy to enhance students’ understanding of redox reaction concepts, its efficacy...

Science in the Australian primary school context is in a state of renewal with the recent implementation of the Australian Curriculum: Science. Despite this curriculum renewal, the results of primary students in science have remained static. Science in Australia has been identified as one of the least taught subjects in the primary school curriculu...

This chapter introduces the theoretical perspectives associated with multiple external representations (MERs) (Ainsworth, Comput Educ, 33(2/3):131–152, 1999) and their importance in biology and biological education. We first review Ainsworth’s functional taxonomy of MERs and the related literature in this area of research. Next, we propose a theore...