The emergence of ChatGPT brings an opportunity to lighten the workload of in-person teaching assistance in science laboratory courses. We investigated the use of the language model developed by OpenAI as a virtual teaching assistant for an introductory undergraduate biology laboratory course. Student-generated questions related to a laboratory exercise on enzyme activity were separately provided to ChatGPT and a cohort of graduate teaching assistants (TAs). Responses were evaluated for content accuracy and teaching effectiveness. Results revealed that human TAs were more accurate in their responses and that human TAs demonstrated more substantial teaching effectiveness. Furthermore, students preferred a computer-generated response 40% of the time. Students were able to identify an AI-generated response 45% of the time. Students rated human TA responses more favorably. Overall, ChatGPT has the potential to impact undergraduate biology education by serving as a resource to students, lifting a burden from TAs and instructors for answering basic questions. However, students must understand the error rate provided by the system, and a safety net must be in place to ensure students do not proceed with incorrect information, which could present safety concerns in the biology laboratory.

Over the last decade, there has been notable academic interest in the multidisciplinary studies of science education with the emergence of STEAM. Accordingly, this study aimed to conduct an experimental study to explore the effectiveness of a STEAM-based space-themed learning module in science education taught to primary school students. The sample of the study was 6th- and 7th-grade students from the Central Anatolia Region of Turkiye. The experimental group consisted of 180 students, whereas the control group consisted of 94 students. The STEAM-based learning module was applied to the students in the experimental group, and the traditional lecture-based approach was applied to students in the control group. The traditional education and intervention lasted eight weeks. The chi-square test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the differences and associations between the variables. The results indicated that gender and academic achievement level were the two key factors determining the effectiveness of the STEAM-based learning module. The comparison of the pre-test and post-test scores indicated that the scores of the female students who participated in the module increased the most. This suggested that girls benefited more from the STEAM-based learning module than boys. Further, the lecture-based approach led to a decrease in some high-achieving students. The findings have implications for educational policymakers, curriculum developers, and syllabus designers.

The present study aims to determine the perceptions of multicultural competence and democratic values of science teachers in schools where international students study and to find out whether there is a relationship between them. The study surveyed 436 secondary school science teachers in the Western Black Sea region in the 2018–2019 academic year. Data were collected using the Perceptions of Multicultural Competence Scale and the Democratic Values Scale. We found positive and moderate relationship between teachers’ perceptions of multicultural competence and their democratic values. As teachers’ democratic values increased, their perceptions of multicultural competence increased, and as their democratic values decreased, their perceptions of multicultural competence decreased as well. Understanding teachers’ opinions about democratic values, justice, respect for differences, and equality reveals an important relationship between their multicultural competence and their democratic values.

This study aimed to compare the effects of computer-based lessons versus traditional lessons on achievement of university students regarding meiotic cell division. A pretest-intervention-posttest design was used. To determine the effect of our computer-based intervention, we established a control group. In total, 100 second-year university students from a science education department (50 in the experimental group, 50 in the control group) participated in the study. Data were derived from a meiosis content test and interviews. The results showed the computer-based lesson had significant positive effects on student learning.

The purpose of this study is to examine how high school students apply optical principles and relate them to contexts where reflection, refraction, and dispersion occur together. The study group consists of 60 students enrolled in a high school in the Western Black Sea Region. The data consists of progressive (multiple-choice and open-ended) questions that direct students to specific contexts in which they can explain optical principles. The questions aim to determine students’ contextual and contextualized knowledge. The analysis of the data was carried out by making classifications. The findings are that about half of the students correctly associate the events of ‘reflection’, ‘refraction’ and ‘mirage’ with the given contexts and about three quarters of them cannot define the relevant concepts in the context. According to the findings, it was concluded that the contextual knowledge of the students about the concepts given was partially, but their contextualized knowledge was not sufficient. It is recommended to associate the subjects including the concepts of reflection, refraction and mirage with daily events in order to make them concrete and fun for students in the teaching process, to use up-to-date topics that may attract students ‘attention, and to diversify and increase the contexts appropriate to students’ levels. In addition, it is recommended to make sense of the concept in context in addition to context-concept association in teaching processes.