This research investigated pre-service science teachers’ intention to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in inquiry-based teaching using Azjen’s Theory of Planned Behavior. Quantitative data were collected by means of a survey that was administered to pre-service teachers enrolled for an undergraduate teacher education degree at a South African public university. Thereafter, through interviews, the study investigated how the pre-service teachers explained their intentions to use AI in inquiry-based teaching. The survey results showed that pre-service teachers’ AI literacy, subjective norm, attitude to the use of AI, perceived behavioral control, and perceived usefulness have significant effects on their intention to use AI for inquiry-based teaching. However, pre-service teachers’ concern about generative AI and their perceived skill readiness had no significant effect on their intention to use AI. The findings of the interviews that were presented as themes provided some corroboration of the results of the survey. In exploiting the use of AI to drive inquiry-based teaching, the findings of this study provide some insight into possible enablers and inhibitors in the use of AI for inquiry in the classroom. From a practical perspective, these findings could inform teacher educators on issues they may engage pre-service science teachers when discussing the uses of AI.

This mixed method study investigated changes in 3rd year Bachelor of Education students’ attitudes towards chemistry after learning interventions with virtual chemistry simulations. After participant students identified certain concepts from their 3rd year chemistry module as being abstract and not easily comprehensible, these concepts were facilitated during a 5 week learning intervention using PhET simulations as an alternative to traditional laboratory experimentation. In the first quantitative phase of the study, a 30-item pre-attitude test was administered to assess students’ attitudes towards chemistry, followed by PhET chemistry simulation learning interventions. Thereafter, students wrote a post-attitude test. Findings of this phase revealed a significantly higher mean post-attitude test score, with students showing a positive attitude towards chemistry learning, post-intervention. The quantitative phase was followed by a qualitative phase which examined students’ experiences on the use of simulations through semi-structured interviews. Findings from the qualitative phase revealed that students experienced autonomy and enjoyment during engagement with the simulations. They also perceived that their experiences in the virtually simulated environment improved their visualisation of chemistry concepts, thereby improving conceptual understanding. However, the students acknowledged that simulations cannot replicate the realism and authenticity associated with practical work in an actual laboratory. The implications of these findings are that virtual simulations provide a complementary learning tool capable of improving students’ attitudes towards chemistry, and perceived by students to support their visualisation of abstract chemistry concepts. The findings of this study are particularly significant for chemistry learning at schools and universities in economically challenged countries such as South Africa where there is a shortage of well-equipped laboratories.

This article reports on an analysis and comparison of three South African Grade 9 (13–14 years) Natural Sciences textbooks for the representation of nature of science (NOS). The analysis was framed by an analytical tool developed and validated by Abd-El-Khalick and a team of researchers in a large-scale study on the high school textbooks in the USA. The three textbooks were scored on targeted NOS aspects on a scale of −3 to +3 that reflected the explicitness with which these aspects were addressed. The analysis revealed that the textbooks poorly depict NOS, and in particular, there was scant attention given to the social dimension of science, science versus pseudoscience and the ‘myth of the scientific method’. The findings of this study are incommensurate with the strong emphasis in a reformed school science curriculum that underlies the need for learners to understand the scientific enterprise, and how scientific knowledge develops. In view of this, the findings of this research reinforce the need for a review on the mandate given to textbook publishers and writers so that a stronger focus be placed on the development of materials that better represent the tenets of NOS.