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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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. ...

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 ...

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; ...

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, ...