The majority of first-year lower secondary school students learn in textbooks that substances in solution “become small invisible particles,” but many different interpretations are possible. In addition, there have been many attempts to convey the concept of particles to students in that cohort, but they have requires prior comprehensive knowledge as well as special lab equipment. In this study, the proposed learning method enables students to concretely imagine the size of particles in a solution and to conduct experiments based on what they have already learned. This study verified whether a dialysis experiment using a colloidal solution and a cellophane membrane is effective as a method for allowing students in the first grade of lower secondary school to correctly visualize the size of particles. Cellophane is a substance that is used even in second- and third-grade science, so becoming familiar with it in the first grade is desirable for future learning. In addition, since the iron (III) chloride aqueous solution used is colored, it is easy for even those who does not have prior knowledge to understand the phenomenon occurring in the experiment. Furthermore, this material can be easily prepared for the colloidal solution. Incidentally, the pupils in this study had already learned about hydrochloric acid, which is produced at the same time. From the results of this study, it was found that even if the materials are used for the first time, the students can fully infer the concept of particles based on the changes during the experiment and their prior knowledge. Moreover, it was confirmed that they were able to concretely imagine the size of “small invisible particles” in the solution and to correctly establish the image. The devised learning method utilizing a colloidal solution and a cellophane membrane was therefore confirmed to be effective in promoting a correct and concrete understanding of the size of particles in solution among the students.

Although pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is a complex construct, this study aims to elucidate the analysis of science teachers and science education researchers of student evaluations of trial science lessons conducted by pre-service teachers by examining the PCK of teachers and researchers. This study investigates differences in PCK based on the analysis of science teachers and science education researchers of student evaluations of lessons conducted by pre-service science teachers. The study identified four points on the basis of the results. First, science teachers and science education researchers analyzed the same set of student evaluations of the same trial lessons differently. Second, science teachers employ different classifications of knowledge areas in students’ evaluation of different trial lessons. Third, science education researchers displayed consistency to a certain extent with regard to the classification of knowledge areas in most of them. Fourth, the difference in their interpretation of the student evaluation of teachers is influenced by the belief and experience of each teacher.

The purpose of this study was to develop a “hypothesis setting and experiment design critical thinking sheet” (CT Sheet) to foster critical thinking in hypothesis setting and experiment planning in lower secondary school science, and to verify the effects of educational practice using the CT Sheet. The developed CT Sheet has columns for the four stages of the critical thinking process: “clarification”, “examination of the basis for reasoning”, “reasoning”, and “decision making”. In addition, while utilizing the new teaching material we made it possible for learners to receive advice from others, so that multifaceted thinking would be encouraged. From our analyses of the questionnaire, CT Sheet descriptions, speech, and CT Sheet evaluations, it became clear that the learners’ critical thinking was activated by the learners’ interactions with others, and that utilizing the new material and method was indeed effective in improving their ability to reflectively review their plans and to examine the validity of their experimental plans.

The purposes of this study were to clarify the effects of incorporating a teaching strategy of fostering students’ use of “functional viewpoints / ways of thinking” on their ability to make a graph from a table of experimental results and to express it in an equation, to analyze and interpret the table, graph, and equation, and on their awareness of the “significance of cross-curricular learning of science and mathematics, as well as to enhance factors that constitute “the significance of cross-curriculum learning in subject of science and mathematics” in a lower secondary school first-grade science class, with a focus on “Hooke’s Law”. To achieve these aims, we conducted science lessons on Hooke’s law for first-grade junior high school students, utilizing survey questions to evaluate the degree of understanding of the relationship between two quantities and the questionnaire survey on the significance of cross-curriculum learning in subject of science and mathematics. The results demonstrated that the method is indeed effective in fostering both the concept of considering things / phenomena in a proportional relationship from their graphs and the students’ ability to formulate equations from the straight lines of graphs showing proportional relationships. In addition, there was a significant increase in four factors (Factor 2 “functional viewpoints / ways of thinking,” Factor 3 “usefulness of science and mathematics learning,” Factor 4 “learning strategies in science,” and Factor 6 “awareness of formulation / quantification”) between the pre- and post-experimental groups. The results further suggest that the experiment had a certain effect on improving students’ awareness of the significance of cross-curricular learning in science and mathematics. It was thus clarified that the teaching strategy deployed in this study has a certain effect in helping students understand the relationship between two quantities and promoting recognition of the significance of cross-curriculum learning in the subjects of science and mathematics.

This study identifies how students learn NOS (Nature of Science) in inquiry-based activities conducted in Japanese upper secondary school. In this study, we recorded all the classroom utterances of two students in natural science inquiry and two students in humanities and social science inquiry for one year. The recorded utterances were qualitatively analyzed using MAXQDA, a leading qualitative data analysis software. The results showed that even when NOS was not explicitly taught, there were NOS-related utterances from both students and teachers. In addition, qualitative depth was found for specific content among the NOS as the inquiry activities progressed. This qualitative deepening was found to be influenced by the different areas of inquiry, different teaching styles, and the participating students’ own subjective experiences and interests.

STEM education is gaining increased interest in Japan. However, most Japanese research on STEM education overseas has focused on the United States and the United Kingdom, while relatively little attention has been given to Australia. In this study, we analyze the “Australian Curriculum,” developed by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to identify unique features of STEM education in Australia. The results of our analysis revealed, the following three attributes which can be identified as key features of the STEM education curriculum in Australia. First, STEM education is positioned separately in the individual learning areas of science, technology, and mathematics. Second, engineering is incorporated into the field of technology in STEM education. Third, the degree of integration between branches of STEM can range from moderate to high when teachers follow a practical guide, the “STEM Connections Workbook.” Accordingly, we suggest that Australian STEM education offers a helpful perspective for the integration of STEM into the Japanese education system, in which science, technology, and mathematics currently exist as separate subjects.

STEM education has received a great deal of attention worldwide in recent decades. Australia has focused on and developed its own unique STEM education curriculum. However, there is very little research available in Japan on STEM education in Australia; in particular, there is no prior research with a focus on the contents of STEM education activities in Australian secondary schools. In this study, we analyzed two sets of teaching materials from Australian secondary school STEM courses, one incorporating water games and the other utilizing film canister rockets, to identify their characteristic activities. From our analysis, we identified the following five characteristics of STEM teaching activities. First, the central problem of the whole activity is set up at the beginning of the class. Second, the research methods and solutions are discussed and improved upon during group work. Third, the implemented solutions and investigation methods are evaluated based on several criteria and designed to improve desirable outcomes. Fourth, the solutions and results of investigations are externalized and communicated with the other groups. Fifth, at the end of class, the students reflect on their activities and outcomes. We suggest that these five characteristics should be incorporated into learning activities when STEM education is introduced in Japan.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the actual conditions of various enactive representations formed through activities and the conversion of representational forms via examination of the learning about “the function of the power of rubber” in the third grade of elementary school. In science learning, problem-solving processes are developed from the enactive representations formed by children’s interactions with natural phenomena. As for enactive representations, various modes of representations are formed according to the activities of children, and it is considered that conversion to iconic and symbolic representational forms occurs while forming various concepts based on the types of representations. We focused on the theory of affordances proposed by Gibson (2005) in order to identify the formation of enactive representations and children’s activities in response to natural phenomena. Based on this perspective, we examined the process by which enactive representations are formed by acquiring perceptual information through triggered activities. Then, based on the point of view of Wada & Morimoto (2010), who modeled the process of conversion of the different mode of representations, we perceived the actual state of enactive representations formed by children and the subsequent conversion of representational modes. From the results of the case study analysis, the triggered activities were classified into six categories, and enactive representations formed by information perceived through related activities were classified into ten patterns, and it became clear that, through problem-solving processes, there exists a variety of conversion processes to various modes of representations.

In order to clarify students’ understanding of the “moment of force” concept in high school physics, questions that can measure the level of understanding of high school students were developed. Trial surveys were then conducted with high school and college students using these questions. The results of the survey imply that many students are likely to be misinformed about “length of arm,” which is important in considering the “moment of force”. Therefore, in this paper, an experimental, easy-to-fabricate apparatus that can find the conditions under which the “moment of force” is balanced is proposed. This new teaching material carries the advantages of the apparatus used in the previous study, while solving the problems of fabrication and cost; indeed, a large number of devices can be manufactured at a low cost. The results of the trial practice with high school students suggest that it is possible to find the rotation condition of an object via thoughtful consideration using the experimental apparatus. It is thought that this will enable the understanding of the “moment of force” concept to be successfully acquired by students with a greater sense of reality than ever before through experimentation.

This study clarifies how the recognition of the usefulness of utilizing ICT by students in lower secondary school science classes affects the evaluation and awareness of online classes in the future. The purpose of the study is to obtain suggestions for the effective implementation of online lessons. After measuring the recognition of the usefulness of ICT utilization by the target students in the first grade of lower secondary school, we practiced online lessons on “properties of aqueous solutions” and examined the students’ evaluation and awareness of the online lessons using a questionnaire survey. After categorizing the target students by hierarchical cluster analysis using recognition of the usefulness of ICT utilization, the answers to the questionnaire survey were analyzed, and the students’ degree of recognition of the usefulness of ICT utilization in the evaluation items were related to many online lessons they had taken. Students with a high scores tended to have a higher evaluation of online lessons, and among the recognition of the usefulness of ICT utilization, “aggressiveness in learning” and “comparison/sharing with others” promoted positive evaluation of online lessons. Furthermore, when we analyzed the impressions of students’ free writing by text mining, we recognized the usefulness of ICT utilization in “sustaining learning/understanding of contents”, “sense of security in class”, and “interaction with teachers and others”. The differences in consciousness was thus demonstrated, and from these results, it was suggested that it would be effective to incorporate online learning into lesson design in daily lesson practice, rather than considering online lessons as an alternative only for use in emergencies.

In this study, we developed a step-by-step teaching method that divides hypothesis setting into “finding variables” and “examining causal relationships.” In the finding variables stage, students are asked to find multiple variables related to an event by comparing multiple events with different variables, and to share the found variables with the class. In the examining causal relationships stage, the students are asked to organize the causal relationships among variables and then write their own hypotheses. With the aim of clarifying the effects of this teaching method, we conducted two continuous teaching practices in the unit of “Electric Current and Its Use” in the second grade of junior high school. The results supported that the step-by-step method of teaching hypothesis setting through the comparison of multiple events improved the quality of learners’ hypothesis setting skills.

This study aims to clarify the perceptions and misconceptions of fossils held by lower secondary school students. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 105 students in the second year of lower secondary school. Analysis of the results revealed the following three points: 1) Among fossils, ammonites in particular tended to be recognized by many students and are the most representative fossils for them. In contrast, among the fossils listed as a representative in the government course guidelines, the white-tailed gull, beech, and Naumann elephant tended to be relatively unrecognized by most students. 2) About 70% of students correctly recognized the definition of fossil types, including trace fossils, but very few students recognized trace fossils compared to body fossils. Moreover, very few students were aware of trace fossils as compared to body fossils, and many students were unaware of the specific types of trace fossils that exist. 3) Among the students who have misconceptions about fossils, many believe that fossils are geological structures formed by physical phenomena, and that only body fossils are fossils. A few students also believed that only body fossils were fossils and had no traces. These results indicate a significant bias in the taxa of fossils that students recognize and that they retain certain misconceptions about fossils.

The first purpose of this study was to attempt a classification based on Yoshida (2012) of the “questions” of observations and experiments in the 2019 approved elementary science textbooks by Company Y, and to clarify the characteristics of the “questions” by comparing them with the 2010 approved elementary science textbooks that Yoshida (2012) analyzed, as well as the 2020 approved lower secondary school science textbooks that Yamada et al. (2022) analyzed. The second purpose was to clarify the exploratory characteristics of the “questions” by classifying them based on the three perspectives of Yamada et al. (2021), namely “qualitative/quantitative,” “hypothesis setting” and “variable control.” The results of our findings yielded, the following three points:

(1) The total number of “yes/no”, “how+verb,” and “how/what+noun” questions in the 2019 approved elementary science textbooks by Company Y accounted for approximately 72% of the total

(2) Verifiable “questions” such as “how+verb” that ask about “change/state” and “means” had increased oxer the course of the decade, while “questions” that are difficult to verify such as “call” had decreased.

(3) Comparing the 2019 approved elementary school science textbooks with the 2020 approved lower secondary school science textbooks, the former has significantly more “yes/no” than the latter, and significantly less “how/what+noun” and “call.”

Furthermore, as a result of examining the relationship between the characteristic skills organized from the three perspectives of Yamada et al. (2021b) and “questions,” which was the second purpose of the study, the following three points were suggested.

(4) In the “qualitative/quantitative” perspective, there were significantly more qualitative “questions” in the “nature” of “how/what+noun”.

(5) In the “presence/absence of hypothesis setting,” significantly more “questions” that included hypothesis setting were found in “yes/no,” “how+verb,” and “what” formats.

(6) In the “with/without variable control” category, there were significantly more “questions” that did not include variable control in the “how/what+noun” and “how much” categories.

The applicability of the findings of this study to elementary school science textbooks from publishers other than Company Y, which were approved in 2019, remains to be examined in the future.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the development of scientific expression in learners’ considerations by practicing a junior high school science class that incorporates instruction on formulation of consideration descriptions while utilizing a peer evaluation activity. To achieve this goal, we analyzed the learners’ responses to the investigation questions and lesson text content in three groups: a group with the peer evaluation activity only, a group with instruction on formulation of consideration descriptions only, and a group with both instruction on formulation of consideration descriptions and the peer evaluation activity. From the results of our analysis, we found that learning to incorporate instruction on formulation of consideration descriptions under the peer evaluation activity had the effect of promoting the improvement of students’ consideration descriptions including evidence (reason) that constitute scientific expression, as compared to incorporating only one or the other. One of the reasons for this was that, by incorporating instruction on formulation of consideration description in conjunction with the peer evaluation activity, the learners came to understand how to write more descriptive considerations through collaborative learning. Such collaborative learning included group discussions as well as reflection on the process of inquiry in the course of self-assessment and peer evaluations. Furthermore, by receiving instruction from their teacher on how to write effectively, they became conscious of including results, claim, and evidence in their considerations.

Clouds are a familiar phenomenon, but there are few opportunities to observe them in the classroom. In this study, students were asked to take time-lapse movies of clouds using their own personal devices to investigate whether they could capture the characteristics of clouds, with special regard to their movement and development. The students were asked to take videos on any given day in autumn, when cloud movement is relatively easy to capture, using their own devices, and to present the characteristics of the clouds that could gathered from the videos. The results of the analysis of the videos and the students’ presentations showed that 82% of the learners were able to operate the devices related to video recording without any problems, suggesting that students who are familiar with the operation of devices at the high school level are indeed capable of using their own devices for such observations. However, when video is taken using individual devices, it is not always possible to obtain video that is easy to view as a teaching material. It is advisable for instructors to understand what characteristics of clouds each student tends to focus on from the video obtained. Compared to ordinary sky observation, it was easier to capture the movement and development of clouds in time-lapse videos, and, although 100% of the students were able to record the movement and 84% were further able to capture the development of clouds, it was clear that students were less likely to focus on these features unless the instructor specifically instructed them on what features to observe. One of the reasons for this may be a lack of experience in observing the movement and development of clouds in the actual sky; it is thus desirable to incorporate activities wherein students observe actual conditions using moving images, rather than only using classroom experiments.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is an essential experimental technique in molecular biology and related fields. While the technique is well-known among the general public as a clinical diagnostic method for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), most people may be unaware of the principles and other applications of PCR. In this study, PCR experiments were conducted in an upper secondary school biology class to improve the students’ theoretical and applied knowledge. Conditions for the PCR procedure were as follows: 94°C for 2 minutes, then 25 cycles at 94°C for 20 seconds, 56°C for 20 seconds, and finally 72°C for 20 seconds in three water baths. The target gene was an approximately 1500 bp region of prokaryotic 16S rDNA; the samples were cells and DNA from Bacillus subtilis and natto threads. During the first period, students carried out the PCR process. The students operating the experiment rotated every five reaction cycles, allowing all of them to experience real-life application of PCR. Electrophoresis was undertaken in the second period, and two of the nine groups of students successfully obtained amplicons. The experimental design included infection control measures: all students wore masks, and the classroom was well ventilated during both periods. Prior to the experiment, a survey found that most students were not aware that PCR is a method of DNA amplification. Most knew only that PCR is used to diagnose SARS-CoV-2. A post-class assignment demonstrated that students had successfully understood the principles and applications of PCR.

In the Ministry of Education’s guidelines for junior high school students, the goal for the third grade “Solar System and Fixed Stars” section is to have students understand the characteristics of the sun and planets, such as their sizes. Focusing on the spatial scale among the temporal and spatial scales that are unique to the Earth Science curriculum, an awareness survey of the size of the planets in the solar system and the distance from the sun to the planets was conducted with university students, as a means of gaging their retention of such knowledge. The results revealed the following two points: (1) terrestrial planets were perceived to be larger than they actually are, and this tendency is especially pronounced for Mercury and Mars, and (2) terrestrial planets are perceived to be larger toward the outer solar system. while planets other than Jupiter and Saturn are generally perceived to be about the same in size. On the other hand, with regard to the locations and distances between planets, the survey results showed that (1) it was clear to most of the participating students that the distances between the planets are generally equally spaced, while, on the other hand, (2) the terrestrial planets were generally perceived to be located approximately eight times farther away than they actually are.

Tenacity, one of several important attributes and abilities for successful science learning, is a fundamental aspect in assessing “the attitude to engage in independent learning”. It is imperative to foster perseverance during the learning process, which includes the problem-solving process and the inquiry process. In the field of mathematics, research exists that has detected the tenacity demonstrated in mathematical reasoning by visualizing the feelings along a continuum of curiosity, puzzlement, and bewilderment that interact with trial and error. On the other hand, the situations in which puzzlement is demonstrated in science have not been demonstrated concretely, and no previous research in this area has been found. The purpose of this study was to develop a method for generating puzzlement situations that are necessary for fostering persistence as an attribute and ability fundamental to science learning. The conditions for generating puzzlement situations in science were organized into two categories: “making things” and “naive concepts”. To confirm the effectiveness of these activities, we conducted a survey of 24 lower secondary school students. As a result of video analysis of the learners’ trial and error process, we were able to generate a puzzling situation for 15 learners who retained the naive concept through the trial activity. Furthermore, it was found that the learners who were placed in the puzzling situation were divided into two groups: those who were able to continue with the trial-and-error process, and those who avoided the task by moving into a state of bewilderment, stopping trial-and-error, or leaving the task because they felt stuck. The developed method was found to be effective, and being in a bewilderment state was found to be one of the situations in which persistence was demonstrated. In addition, it was suggested that it is necessary to consider the support for learners who shifted toward the bewilderment state in science.