Learning involves the integration of new information into existing knowledge. Generoting explanations to oneself (self-explaining) facilitates that integration process. Previously, self-explanation has been shown to improve the acquisition of problem-solving skills when studying worked-out examples. This study extends that finding, showing that self-explanation can also be facilitative when it is explicitly promoted, in the context of learning declarative knowledge from an expository text. Without any extensive training, 14 eighth-grade students were merely asked to self-explain after reading each line of a possage on the human circulatory system. Ten students in the control group read the same text twice, but were not prompted to self-explain. All of the students were tested for their circulatory system knowledge before and after reading the text. The prompted group had a greater gain from the pretest to the posttest. Moreover, prompted students who generated o large number of self-explanations (the high explainers) learned with greater understanding than low explainers. Understanding was assessed by answering very complex questions and inducing the function of a component when it was only implicitly stated. Understanding was further captured by a mental model onolysis of the self-explanation protocols. High explainers all achieved the correct mental model of the circulatory system, whereas many of the unprompted students as well as the low explainers did not. Three processing characteristics of self-explaining are considered as reasons for the gains in deeper understanding.

Research on the understanding of the nature of models and modeling processes in science education have received a lot of attention in science education. In this article, we make five claims about the research on modeling competence in science education. The five claims are (1) the development of modeling competence in practice is essential to scientific literacy for twenty-first century citizens, (2) further research is needed to build a holistic and theoretical understanding of models and modeling knowledge (MMingK), (3) providing a modeling-based scaffolding framework for meaningful and active authentic learning is to enhance student's engagement of scientific practice, (4) appropriate formative assessment instruments and evaluation rubrics to assess students' modeling processes and products within the context of modeling practice should be developed, and (5) research on learning progression in modeling competence needs to be intertwined with MMingK and modeling practice. Implications for student learning and teacher professional development will be drawn from existing literature.

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This paper explores whether facial microexpression state (FMES) changes can be used to identify moments of conceptual conflict, one of the pathways to conceptual change. It is known that when the preconditions of conceptual conflicts are met and conceptual conflicts are detected in students, it is then possible for conceptual change to take place. There were 102 university and high school students who were involved in this research, and about 80% of the participants held erroneous preconceptions on the scientific topic chosen. The results showed that FMES changes were detected in the majority of the students who made erroneous predictions as they underwent conceptual conflict. Furthermore, the lack of FMES change was shown to indicate a lowered likelihood of conceptual change, while the presence of FMES change doubled the likelihood of conceptual change. The results confirm that FMES can be useful in determining learners’ awareness of conflicting concepts and their progress towards scientific understanding. Educational implications are discussed.

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Scientific models play a vital role in science learning, representing major characteristics of scientific phenomena. A useful visualization of models that matches target concepts to source objects can facilitate students’ learning of abstract and complex structures of chemical elements and compounds. This report will show the importance of visualization and innovative technology (such as augmented reality), which has the potential of supporting students’ learning of stereochemistry and interactions among molecules. Examples (including organic compounds, chemical elements of 1A and 7A in the periodic table, water polarity, and carbon nanotube) are drawn to illustrate the potential use of augmented reality in chemistry instruction.

This special issue of the International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education devoted to studies on learning celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the constructivist reform effort in science and mathematics education (Ausubel, Novak & Hanesian, 1978;Driver & Easley, 1978). In recognition of this anniversary, more than thirty mission-based national projects on students' conceptions in science and mathematics were recently supported by the Division of Science Education of the National Science Council, Taiwan. The results of these studies have contributed a vast base of useful knowledge about student learning and teacher instruction.One product of this effort was the recent International Conference on Science and Mathematics Learning (ICSML), organized for the purpose of discussing both theory and practice in science and mathematics learning and held in Taipei in December 2003. The Conference provided a forum for a wide range of topics and was designed to promote meaningful and research-based teaching activities. Several internationally recognized scholars from United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany shared their insightful research experiences and thoughts in plenary addresses. Additionally, thirty two papers were presented addressing issues on conceptual structure, meaningful learning, and teaching strategies by researchers from Hong Kong, South Africa, and Taiwan. The conference agenda can be found at http://www.gise.ntnu.edu.tw/sml2003/. Several of the papers published in this issue of IJSME were presented at the conference.Among those attending the conference, a concensus emerged, that the seemingly radical views once espoused by early advocates of the constructivist perspective have become mainstream thinking in many countries. In many ways, the constructivist framework represents the first generally accepted paradigm of the science and mathematics education research communities. In its simplest form, the major assertions of constructivism, now taken as Lakatosian "hardcore assumptions," are: (1) that human beings are meaning-makers; (2) that the principal goal of science, mathematics and education therein is the construction of shared meanings, and (3) that shared meanings may be facilitated by the active intervention of well-

There continues to be a persistent gap between women’s and men’s participation, access, rights, pay, and benefits in the natural sciences, mathematics, and computing. The UNESCO Institute of Statistics reports that fewer than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. Many scientists, mathematicians, computing experts, and policy makers are working to reduce this gender gap by way of a wide range of initiatives. The International Science Council (ISC) funded a unique three-year project in 2017-2019 called, “A Global Approach to the Gender Gap in Mathematical, Computing and Natural Sciences: How to measure it, how to reduce it?” that has provided a wide-ranging view of the issues women face in the sciences and how these issues may be overcome.