PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF JOURNAL OF BALTIC SCIENCE EDUCATION

Science Education is a multidisciplinary field of study with roots about three centuries ago. Researches in this field were published for the first time in a scientific journal with School Science and Mathematics, which started in 1901. The number of scientific journals in Science Education has increased in parallel with the increase in the number of related research. The published literature is sometimes about trending topics. In some other cases, they offer novelty and new paradigms. Last 50 years of Science Education are shaped by various topics. Hence, these different issues are being published in scientific journals. At the end of the 70s, studies on constructivism, meaningful learning, misconception, conceptual learning (Driver, & Easley, 1978; Driver, 1983; Driver, & Oldham, 1986; von Glasersfeld, 1984; Ausubel, Novak, & Hanesian, 1978; Novak, 1979 & 1990, Novak, & Gowin, 1984; Novak, & Musonda, 1991) began to come forward. Conferences are being held especially on misconception. Many articles have been published and continue to be published on the topic. Starting with the second half of 80s, studies on PCK, which were first described by Shulman, began to surface in science education journals in the field of teacher training (Shulman, 1986; Usak, 2009, Usak, Ozden, & Eilks, 2011; Usak, Ozden, & Saglam, 2011).

Chemistry education research trends: 2004–2013

This paper presents findings from a content analysis of 650 empirical chemistry education research papers published in two top-tiered chemistry education journals Chemistry Education Research and Practice and Journal of Chemical Education, and four top-tiered science education journals International Journal of Science Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Research in Science Teaching and Science Education from 2004–2013. We found that empirical chemistry education research (CER) papers accounted for 7.7 percent of the publications in the four science education journals. The most highly published area of research was in conceptions and conceptual change and most studies adopted mixed methods. The majority of the studies were conducted in higher education contexts and in the United States. Researchers who publish prolifically in the field included Vicente Talanquer, Derek Cheung, Michael Sanger, Keith Taber, Melanie Cooper and Marcy Towns. Current research trends and gaps are illuminated and possible future work in CER is discussed in the paper.

Successful Implementation of Technology to Teach Science

In this review of recent literature on the use of technology to teach science content, 143 articles from 8 science education journals were selected and analyzed for the use of technologies in teaching science, pedagogies employed, and successes of the implementations. The resultant data provides a snapshot on how technology is being used in the teaching and learning of science, and the research methods used to explore these issues. Levels of research and levels of success were developed and applied to the article data set to characterize the types of research and technology implementations described in the literature. Articles that showed high levels of successful implementation of technology along with a high level of research were explored and explained in greater detail. The review underscores the research trend toward using technology to illustrate abstract concepts and make objects that are invisible to the naked eye, visible and malleable in computer modeling programs. Implications for successful use of technology to teach science are discussed.