Science Education Review Letters (SERL)
Science Education Review Letters is a peer reviewed electronic journal published by the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany) and is accessible at http://edoc.hu-berlin/serl.
Over the past decades, the field of science education research has matured as the result of numerous researchers investigating many topics (e.g. Nature of Science, teachers’ professional knowledge and students’ conceptual understanding). Such research has helped to foster many theoretical and applied advancements in the field of Science Education. New findings are judged according to existing theories, and these existing theories are often revised based upon new findings.
The idea of SERL is to provide a platform for contributions focusing on selected aspects, such as theory, methodology or results briefly embedded into existing approaches.
This peer-reviewed journal will publish contributions with selected foci up to a total of 5 pages in print (approximately 15.000 characters).
Call for Papers
Given the strong body of theory and methodology in science education, many studies build on (and seek to add to) existing constructs and approaches. SERL aims to publish either theory, methodology or empirical findings with only short description of the underlying and already publishes strong concepts.
SERL aims for:
- newly combined theoretical perspectives
- new methodological approaches
- empirical findings based on published theory and methodology
- analysis of already published datasets with a different focus of the analysis
- replication studies
Against this background, we will not publish entire studies including theory, methodology and re-sults within a publication of 5 pages length.
Technical Requirements of Submitted Manuscripts
Manuscripts submitted for publication to SERL are required to fulfill the following criteria:
1. The content is original and has not been published elsewhere, including print and online media.
2. The authors are responsible for the content of the article and the legal consequences thereupon.
3. The authors must agree to the publication of the article online and/or in print media.
The manuscript should be submitted to SERL as a Microsoft Word document via ruediger.tiemann@chemie.hu-berlin.de. The initial submission should be a complete preprint including figures, tables, references and appendices. The format of submissions should follow guidelines supplied in the 6th edition of the American Psychologist Association (APA) Publication Manual. The manuscript should contain the following parts: Abstract, Introduction, Theory or Methodology or Results to be presented, and Discussion. The manuscript should not exceed 5 pages in print (approximately 15.000 characters). If an author is in doubt about the suitability of a potential submission, he/she may contact the editors and submit a simple outline of what is planned. The editors will provide feedback as to suitability and will also provide feedback on how the paper might be improved.
Editors
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Tiemann: ruediger.tiemann@chemie.hu-berlin.de
Prof. Dr. Annette Upmeier zu Belzen: annette.upmeier@biologie.hu-berlin.de
Prof. Dr. Andreas Borowski: andreas.borowski@uni-potsdam.de
Correspondence
Science Education Review Letters (SERL)
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Tiemann
Chemistry Education
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Brook-Taylor-Str. 2
12489 Berlin
Germany
ISSN 2566-9087
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2022-04-20ZeitschriftenartikelPromoting Pre-service Physics Teachers’ Science Media Literacy The Science Media Literacy (SML) framework aims to prepare students for the rapidly changing mediascape, where the task of gatekeeping is increasingly transferred to consumers. In this explorative study we reconstructed ...
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2020-01-16ZeitschriftenartikelInvestigating students’ modelling styles in the process of scientific-mathematical modelling Modelling plays an important role for inquiry in science and mathematics education; therefore, a lot of research has been done in this field from both perspectives. However, an integrated view combining previous findings ...
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2019-03-18ZeitschriftenartikelAssessment of meta-modeling knowledge: Learning from triadic concepts of models in the philosophy of science Meta-modeling knowledge is an established construct in science education, typically conceptualized in frameworks encompassing hierarchically ordered levels of understanding specific for different aspects (e.g., purpose of ...
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2018-09-24ZeitschriftenartikelVisualizing pre-service biology teachers´ conceptions about population dynamics in ecosystems The Balance of Nature (BoN) metaphor leads to various naïve conceptions about ecosystem dynamics that do not address current scientific theories adequately. An appropriate alternative is the Flux of Nature (FoN) metaphor. ...
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2018-05-16ZeitschriftenartikelDo Linguistic Features Influence Item Difficulty in Physics Assessments? This paper addresses the question if and to which extent linguistic surface features of test items in a physics assessment affect item difficulty. In an experimental study, linguistic features of test items in physics were ...
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2017-04-05ZeitschriftenartikelDevelopment and Evaluation of a Construct Map for the Understanding of the Expansion of the Universe The expansion of the universe is one of three pillars of the Big Bang theory and, therefore, an important aspect in cosmology. How the understanding hereof, including the complex concept of an expanding space, is developing, ...
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2012-11-07ZeitschriftenartikelUsing polytomous IRT models to evaluate theoretical levels of understanding models and modeling in biology education Forced choice-tasks have been developed to assess students’ (N = 901) understanding of models and modeling in biology based on a theoretical structure differentiating five aspects and three levels of understanding (Upmeier ...
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2016-03-18ZeitschriftenartikelUnderstanding Energy - An exploration of the relationship between measures of students’ understanding of energy, general cognitive abilities and schooling Past research has examined students’ understanding of energy at different stages of schooling. This research has led to the widespread view that students progress in their understanding of energy through a sequence of key ...
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2015-12-01ZeitschriftenartikelDevelopment of inquiry competencies during junior classes: A replicationstudy using longitudinal design Scientific inquiry plays a major role in science education. So far competency structures related to knowledge gain through inquiry have been identified and analyzed. Different levels of such structures have also been ...
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2015-04-14ZeitschriftenartikelEvaluating an instrument to measure mental load and mental effort using Item Response Theory Measurement of cognitive load (CL) is seen as a problematic issue since no consensus about appropriate instruments has been reached. In this study, a rating scale instrument to measure mental load (ML; 6 items) and mental ...
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2014-06-05ZeitschriftenartikelSecondary Students’ Visual-Spatial Ability Predicts Performance on the Visual-Spatial Electricity and Electromagnetism Test (VSEEMT) This study examines the relationship between students’ general visual-spatial ability and their understanding of electricity and electromagnetism, a topic that requires imagining many invisible, 3-dimensional phenomena. ...
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2014-06-05ZeitschriftenartikelThe Terminology within German Lower Secondary Physics Textbooks From primary school through university and beyond, textbooks are crucial for teaching and learning science. In most cases the content of the books is aligned with intended state curricula, and teachers in many countries ...
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2013-12-03ZeitschriftenartikelChemistry Student Teachers’ Scientific Inquiry Competencies We constructed paper-and-pencil test-items to assess chemistry student teachers’ scientific inquiry competencies. We focused on the inquiry method experiment, divided into three reasoning steps (question & hypothesis; ...
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2013-07-01ZeitschriftenartikelAnalyzing the FCI based on a Force and Motion Learning Progression In this paper, we bring together a well-established and often-studied instrument assessing students’ understanding about force and motion, the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), and a proposed description of how students ...
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2013-04-03ZeitschriftenartikelTeaching Patterns of Scientific Inquiry: A Video Study of Chemistry Lessons in Germany and Sweden Despite the central role of Scientific Inquiry within science education, this topic is rarely focused upon during science lessons in Germany. A comparison with a school system that emphasises Scientific Inquiry in a ...
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2012-06-15ZeitschriftenartikelCovariates of complex problem solving competency in chemistry The ability to solve complex and real-life problems is one of the key competencies in science education. Different studies analyzed the relationships between complex problem solving (CPS) and covariates such as intelligence, ...