This paper presents an intervention aiming to promote students’ learning by enhancing their interest in the concept of energy. Junior high school students’ learning and interest is evaluated after engaging in activities on work and energy. The intervention integrated hands-on and simulated experiments included a structured series of guided investigative tasks and whole-class discussions. The intervention was delivered to an experimental group consisting of 110 junior high school students. The control group consisted of 96 students of the same grade level, where students were taught about energy in the traditional sense, i.e., via the standard textbook. Written tests were then handed to all students to assess their learning outcomes. The results showed that the learning outcomes of students in the experimental group were significantly better than those of students in the control group. A notable increase in interest from students in the experimental group compared to that of the control group was also observed. Findings also showed a significant positive correlation between interest and academic achievement. This study reconfirms that enhancing interest could lead to better learning outcomes and its evidence-based methodology can be equally applied when introducing students to other difficult concepts of science.

This paper presents an epistemological analysis of typical didactical activities noted in early‐years science lessons, which was carried out in an attempt to diagnose the extent to which the teaching practices adopted by early‐years educators are successful in supporting young children’s understanding in science. The analysis of didactical activities used a framework that allowed us to discover whether they promoted desired connections between theoretical ideas, evidence and the material world. Theoretical ideas, evidence and the material world are entities internal to scientific inquiry and, in educational contexts, connections between them are considered essential in assisting the development of young children’s scientific thinking. The results indicated that in the early‐years science classroom scientific activity was mainly confined to the representational level. Intervention practices into the material world were limited, and were based on collected evidence. No interventions based on ideas were identified in the science lessons. Missing links between evidence and theory and between ideas and the material world suggest that the didactical activities analysed did not promote scientific understanding.

In the present study we test the effectiveness of a teaching intervention concerning the phenomenon of floating and sinking as a property of the matter the bodies are made of. The treatment, designed for children aged four to six years, comprises two units of hierarchically sequenced activities. The children experiment with objects having specifically designed characteristics aiming at shifting children's attention from the objects to the material(s) these are made of. Both solid and hollow objects were used. The activities were developed collaboratively by a researcher and early years teachers and were implemented by the teachers of the work group in their own public school classes in a sample of 104 children. Action research processes were used to optimise classroom practices. Teacher preparation took place within the work group before implementation. Concept cartoons were used for the children's final assessment. Analysis of classroom data recorded during the course of the activities showed gradual redirection of the children's attention from the objects to the materials of which they were made. The results of the post-instructional assessment revealed high percentages of pupils understanding the kind of material as the determining factor for the bodies' behaviour in water.

Teachers’ knowledge rooted in classroom practices guides their actions when dealing with a specific subject matter. To assess the quality of these practices, a close examination of the “classroom reality” is needed. The present study, which was carried out in Greece, investigates secondary science teachers’ practices. To record these practices, we used special classroom observation tools as well as questionnaires to record students’ views of their teachers’ practices. The observation tools and the student questionnaire focus on specifically formed criteria deriving from aspects of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). In total, 32 secondary science teachers and 1154 students participated in our study. The results indicated that the strong points of teachers’ teaching practices concern their subject matter knowledge, the use of representations, their questioning, their communication of the instructional objectives to the students, and knowledge of students’ difficulties. The weak points are related to the use of a variety of teaching approaches, the investigation of the students’ alternative conceptions, the experimental and ICT-based teaching, and the implementation of inquiry-based activities. The methodology employed in our study was fruitful in providing a holistic view of science teachers’ practices and can be used for investigating classroom practices of teachers of other subjects as well.

Cognitive style differences, also known as ‘empathizing’ and ‘systemizing’ have been argued as one reason that may explain differences in children’s motivation to learn science. Researchers claim that people with a ‘systemizing’ cognitive style are likelier to engage in science than those with an ‘empathizing’ cognitive style. As such, they propose tailor-made teaching approaches and themes to specifically motivate children with an ‘empathizing’ cognitive style. In the present study, we introduce structured inquiry-based science activities to children of both cognitive styles and explore whether there is a correlation between cognitive style and engagement, as well as cognitive style and learning outcomes. The main features of this specific learning approach include building knowledge through experiments and investigations, engaging children in problem-solving situations, giving them opportunities to form coherent arguments and test their own spontaneous ideas, draw conclusions, and reflect. The results revealed no statistically significant correlation between the children’s cognitive style and their level of engagement or learning outcomes. The findings suggest that an inquiry-based approach with the above characteristics may be suitable for encouraging science learning and motivation in young children of all cognitive styles.