Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 7, Issue 1

PREFACE

In this June or First Issue of Volume 7, Prof. Norman G. LEDERMAN who is one of the most renowned researchers on nature of science has kindly written for us a very comprehensive and enlightening foreword on "Research on Nature of Science: Reflections on the Past, Anticipations of the Future". Prof. LEDERMAN is Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Illinois Institute of Technology; Past-President of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching and the Editor of the "School Science and Mathematics" journal.

In the Academic Articles section, there are one article on "primary pupils' science projects" and two articles on teacher education - "Building a teacher education community" and "Turkish chemistry teachers' views about an implementation of the active learning approaches in their lessons" as contributed by six science educators in Australia, Hong Kong and Turkey. In the Genearl Articles section, there are four articles on the teaching and learning of science at early childhood, primary and secondary levels in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Turkey. The underlying themes of those four articles are centred around constructivism, concepts, misconceptions and reflections. Specifically, there are topics on "dissolution of gas in a liquid", "Online reflections about tinkering", "the state changes of water", and "concept and knowledge of DNA".

For all articles published in the Foreword, Academic Articles and General Articles sections, their pdf version are freely available for access in our Download section.

Finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the 19 external referees and all members of our Editorial Board who have carefully and critically reviewed those manuscripts considered for publication in this issue. Thanks are also due to all persons who have contributed articles in this issue and to all research assistants and colleagues in the HKIEd who offered their kind assistance in developing and promoting this online periodical. Besides, we must express our special thanks to the Aristole Educational Press Limited for their financial support to sponsor our organisation of The Tenth National Association of Research in Advanced Physics Education Conference which will be co-hosted at South China Normal University and The Hong Kong Institute of Education from 5 to 9 August, 2006.


 
Yau Yuen YEUNG
Chief Editor
Editorial Board, APFSLT
June, 2006

Copyright (C) 2006 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 7 Issue 1 (Jun., 2006). All Rights Reserved. ISSN 1609-4913.