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Undergraduate research experiences often engender enthusiasm in the students involved, but how useful are they in terms of enhancing student learning? Linn et al. review studies that focus on the effectiveness of undergraduate research programs. Undergraduate research experiences in a class were distinguished from those involving individualized participation in a research program. Mentoring emerges as both an important component of a successful experience and a target for improvement. Science , this issue 10.1126/science.1261757 For any undergraduate contemplating a career in scientific research, participating in authentic research seems like a good opportunity. But what are authentic research experiences? How do they benefit undergraduates? What forms of mentoring are successful? What needs improvement? And how can these experiences meet the needs of interested students while at the same time be cost-effective in large research universities? We review the research tackling these questions and find few answers. While most undergraduates give high ratings to research experiences, specific benefits have not been documented. Of the 60 empirical studies published in the last 5 years, only 4 directly measured gains in research capabilities or conceptual understanding. Most studies draw conclusions from self-report surveys or interviews, notoriously poor methods for documenting impacts. These studies leave us with few insights into what works and little idea about how to make the experiences more effective. Most undergraduates give high ratings to research experiences. Studies report that these experiences improve participation and persistence, often by strengthening students’ views of themselves as scientists. Yet, the evidence for these claims is weak. More than half the 60 studies reviewed rely on self-report surveys or interviews. Rather than introducing new images of science, research experiences may reinforce flawed images especially of research practices and conceptual understanding. The most convincing studies show benefits for mentoring and for communicating the nature of science, but the ideas that students learn are often isolated or fragmented rather than integrated and coherent. Rigorous research is needed to identify ways to design research experiences so that they promote integrated understanding. These studies need powerful and generalizable assessments that can document student progress, help distinguish effective and ineffective aspects of the experiences, and illustrate how students interpret the research experiences they encounter. To create research experiences that meet the needs of interested students and make effective use of scarce resources, we encourage systematic, iterative studies with multiple indicators of success.

The socioscientific issues framework has proven to have a significant impact over the last two decades on many areas related to the development of functional scientific literacy in students. In this article, we summarize and synthesize recent trends in socioscientific issues research that impact both disciplinary and interdisciplinary science education research. These trends represent science-in-context investigations that we propose are advanced by three broad and interrelated areas of research including: 1) Socioscientific Issues and the Central Role of Socioscientific Reasoning; 2) Socioscientific Issues and the Primacy of Socioscientific Perspective Taking; and, 3) Socioscientific Issues and the Importance of Informal and Place-Based Contexts. We discuss the most recent research in those areas and explore the educational significance these new trends.

Skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are increasingly in demand. Theoretical knowledge and formulas alone are frequently not sufficient to understand complex phenomena. Simulations are a valuable tool to support the conceptual understanding by visualizing invisible processes. The constant interaction with the learning material is an essential factor when learning with simulations and virtual worlds. Virtual reality (VR) technologies enable interaction with the virtual environment with a high intensity of immersion. Maroon is a VR platform for teaching physics and has been in development for over five years. Previous results with Maroon have already demonstrated the potential of virtual reality for learners and teachers, but also highlighted a list of potential challenges in terms of VR experience design, usability, and pedagogical concepts. Over the past six months, we have conducted user studies with a total of 85 participants, both student teachers (n = 26) and pupils (n = 59) at high schools and teacher training institutions. In this paper, we want to facilitate the difficult task of designing educational VR platforms by describing the expectations of educators and pupils.

Our technological, information-rich society thrives because of scientific thinking. However, a comprehensive theory of the development of scientific thinking remains elusive. Building on previous theoretical and empirical work in conceptual change, the role of credibility and plausibility in evaluating scientific evidence and claims, science engagement, active learning in STEM education, and the development of empirical thinking, we chart a pathway toward a comprehensive theory of the development of scientific thinking as an example of theory building in action. We detail the structural similarity and progressive transformation of our models and perspectives, highlighting factors for incorporation into a novel theory. This theory will focus on beneficial outcomes of a more collaborative scientific community and increasing scientific literacy through deeper science understanding for all people.

This study examined the patterns and nature of science co-publications between the USA and China. Based on a scientometric study of Scopus co-publications over the past 5 years, the results demonstrated a continuous rise of bilateral collaboration between the two countries. Challenging the US political rhetoric and attempts to curb international research engagement with China, the findings demonstrated ways that China plays a leading role in US-China research collaboration, based on first authorship and governmental funding patterns. Findings also showed that over the past 5 years, US research article publications would have declined without co-authorship with China, whereas China’s publication rate would have risen without the USA. Using zero-sum and positive-sum frameworks, this study shows the benefits of US collaboration with China for both the US nation-state and global science.

This paper provides a rationale for the changes advocated by the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards. It provides an argument for why the model embedded in the Next Generation Science Standards is seen as an improvement. The Case made here is that the underlying model that the new Framework presents of science better represents contemporary understanding of nature of science as a social and cultural practice. Second, it argues that the adopting a framework of practices will enable better communication of meaning amongst professional science educators. This, in turn, will enable practice in the classroom to improve. Finally, the implications for teacher education are explored.

BackgroundA major concern in science education involves the under-representation of many groups in science and technology fields, especially by gender (Brotman and Moore, J Res Sci Teach 45:971–1002, 2008; Clark Blickenstaff, Gend Educ 17:369–386, 2006), stemming from an intersection of systemic obstacles (Cantú, Equity Excell Educ 45:472–487, 2012; Rosa and Mensah, Phys Rev Phys Educ Res 12:020113, 2016). Research on persistence of minoritized populations within science trajectories has often highlighted identity as particularly important (Archer et al., Sci Educ 94:617–639, 2010; Barton and Calabrese, Am Educ Res J 50:37–75, 2007; Barton et al., Am Educ Res J 50:37–75, 2013; Merolla and Serpe, Soc Psychol Educ 16:575–597, 2013).ResultsThis study quantitatively investigated the nature of science identity in over 1300 seventh and ninth grade students from a range of urban US public schools using survey data on science identity, choice preferences, and optional science experiences. Factor analyses validated this conceptualization of science identity as integrating perceived internal and external identity components. Regression analyses revealed the importance of this conceptualization of science identity for driving students’ choices at this crucial developmental period. Furthermore, science identity had a complex differential function in supporting students’ optional science choices by gender.ConclusionsThe novel contribution to the science identity field highlights the specific multi-component ways in which students endorse science identity in middle school and early high school. There was an important finding that science identity has a complex differential function in supporting student’s optional science choices by gender. Thus, at this age, developing a strong science identity is especially critical for girls.

Secondary school level quantum physics (QP) courses have recently been implemented in the national curricula of many countries. QP gives opportunities to acquaint students with more recent physics and its applications and to discuss aspects of the nature of science. Research has shown that QP is a challenging area for students. Because the inclusion of QP in national curricula is rather new in most countries, it is interesting to compare QP curricula from these countries to make the choices by curriculum designers visible. In this study, we provide a detailed overview of QP courses from fifteen countries. We collected and analyzed official curriculum documents to identify key items present in most curricula. Our inventory identifies a shared current core curriculum of QP which contains the following seven main categories: discrete atomic energy levels, interactions between light and matter, wave-particle duality, de Broglie wavelength, technical applications, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and the probabilistic nature of QP. We also found differences in the focus of the listed topics of certain countries, which indicate different views on teaching QP and might inspire curriculum designers struggling with QP. For instance, challenging items like QP interpretations or epistemological aspects of QP are taught only in a few countries. Although research suggests that epistemological aspects help students to comprehend novel QP concepts, many countries do not explicitly include these in the curriculum. We provide reasons and suggestions for this.

Language learners’ mindsets–their beliefs about whether language is a fixed aptitude that is immutable or a malleable capacity that can be developed–are associated with achievement goals, language-use anxiety, reappraisals of challenges, and persistence. This study integrates these mindset-related constructs to identify mindset-system profiles among foreign language learners. A latent profile analysis of 234 university students in foreign language courses revealed three distinct profiles. The fixed (21.8%) and growth (20.5%) profiles showed distinct and contrasting patterns of goals, reappraisals, anxiety, and persistence. However, most learners (57.7%) endorsed a mixed profile. Although mindsets alone did not predict grades, students in the growth profile were consistently most engaged and achieved the highest grades, suggesting that mindsets function as a system, in concert with related factors. This person-centered approach enhances our understanding of the complexity and functions of the mindset system, as well as the motivation of learners with mixed mindsets.

In the original version of the paper [...]