Abstract Family is the core institution for infant-toddlers’ science learning. However, little is known about how caregivers support infant-toddlers’ science concept formation at home. The study presented in this paper follows 18 families with infant-toddlers aged 4 to 24 months old (mean age 10 months old) over five weeks in an educational experiment of Fleer’s Conceptual PlayWorld (CPW) at home using We Are Going on a Bear Hunt story. 46 h of recorded data, including 29 h of Zoom workshops, 5.5 h of the family-collected videos, and 11.5 h of pre-and post-CPW interviews, are analysed from a cultural-historical perspective to explore how families identify and engage with science concepts in moments of interaction with infant-toddlers at home. The findings show that with the support of CPW educational experiments, families become more conscious of science possibilities in their everyday lives at home, and they reframe routine activities into enjoyable science learning experiences for infant-toddlers. Three family practices have been identified to draw out science concepts from their moments of interaction with infant-toddlers: (1) creating phenomena central to a science concept using cultural objects such as mirrors for light reflection; (2) drawing infant-toddlers’ attention to the salient aspects of a phenomenon through scientific narratives, and (3) creating imaginary play scenarios in CPW or everyday routine activities that require problem-solving actions informed by science concepts. It is argued that by reframing routine activities into enjoyable science experiences and drawing out science concepts, families become more confident and skilful in enriching infant-toddlers’ learning in science.

Abstract Student engagement with science remains a critical concern in science education policy and practice. This study explores how Finnish lower secondary school students construct their emerging science identities across out-of-school and school science contexts. We first screened questionnaire responses from 401 seventh-grade students to examine their interest and self-perceptions in science. A purposefully selected sample of 26 students was then interviewed to explore their science identity constructions in greater depth. The results uncover nuanced and unexpected positive identity expressions. Students described emotionally meaningful experiences particularly through nature-oriented engagement. Parental influence and pedagogical approaches were also found to shape students’ science identities in both supportive and limiting ways. Four identity positions emerged: Engaged Science Members, Unconfident Science Participants, Reluctant Science Achievers, and Disconnected Science Observers. The findings highlight the relational and dynamic nature of science identity development. The study underscores the importance of recognising and supporting diverse science identity trajectories through both formal instruction and informal, lived experiences with science. Implications for science education practice and identity support are discussed.

The Rationality Index of Plant Use (RIPU) heuristic was developed as a tool to guide ethnobotanists on the rationality of plant uses by cultural groups. However, this heuristic also holds affordances in science education, to promote self-directed learning, and to provide students with more nuanced understandings of the tenets of science, the nature of indigenous knowledge, and what constitutes pseudoscience. In this paper, the authors reflect on a sequential embedded mixed-method study, where pre-service teachers in a natural sciences course, studying thermodynamics, applied the RIPU heuristic to investigate various commercial health products claiming to support weight loss. The learning activity was structured around problem-based and cooperative learning principles, and 36 pre-service teachers participated in the study. Responses to the Self-Directed Learning Instrument, administered in a pre- and post-intervention context, constitutes the quantitative data. Qualitative data includes the completed RIPU instruments, the presentations that cooperative groups made to their peers, focus group interviews that were conducted with the pre-service teachers, and their reflections on the learning activity. Six major themes were distilled from the data, namely, (a) the RIPU addresses the affective domain, as it fosters enjoyment in the learning process, (b) it is cognitively demanding, and could lead to meaningful learning, development of analytical skills and scientific understanding, (c) following a cooperative learning strategy with the RIPU heuristic leads to critical engagement and the participation of all members, (d) the RIPU provides pre-service teachers with more nuanced understandings of the nature of the natural sciences, and the subject’s syntactical nature, (e) the real-world context makes it very suitable for the classroom, and (f) the RIPU heuristic holds affordances to enhance self-directed learning.

Abstract While the socio-ecological challenges of the Anthropocene are complex and interdisciplinary in nature, contemporary science is profoundly implicated in understanding and responding to them. The latest Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Development (PISA) 2025 Science Framework has responded by expanding the scope of science education to prepare students for the decision-making and action-taking required of all citizens in the face of these contemporary challenges. Yet, mainstream science education has historically been dominated by a program of introducing students to the conceptual products and associated practices of science. In this manuscript we briefly trace the history of science-society-environment advocacy in science education to argue that the dimensions needed for this revitalisation are in many senses a natural extension of historical movements, but that some dimensions, particularly the need to develop decision-making skills and action focusing on developing student agency and calls for consideration of diverse ways of knowing and social justice framings, require a substantive extension of traditional practice. We explore the history of how agency has been framed in science education research, and apply theory and practice developed within the field of environmental education to explore ways forward for engaging students in the substantial agentic practices implied by the PISA Science Framework. In particular, we examine the construct of agency as a useful extension to earlier constructs attempting to capture critical action-oriented educational purposes. We draw on existing practices in both the science and environmental/climate change education literature to suggest classroom practices that represent this expanded vision of science education.

Abstract 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.

Abstract The prominence of multimodal generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) facilitates students’ comprehension of scientific knowledge through linguistic and visual modes. However, there is a lack of research that investigates how students read image-text outputs created in GenAI. We conceptualize a model of image-text reading of GenAI scientific texts that comprises the interpretation, exchange, and evaluation domains. Based on this theoretical model, we explored how 68 junior secondary students read two image-text socio-scientific texts created by GPT-4 with DALL.E plugins, one focusing on cognitive-epistemic aspects and another focusing on social-institutional aspects of climate change. Our findings indicated that these domains did not exhibit a hierarchical structure, while students’ performance in the evaluation domain in the cognitive-epistemic text was better than that in the social-institutional text. More importantly, students expressed a range of uninformed ideas regarding the nature of GenAI when they read the two texts, including equating GenAI to an Internet search engine, picture creators, and human. We discussed how teaching and learning can foster students’ image-text and epistemic reading by targeting the three domains of our theoretical model.