This edited volume presents innovative current research in the field of Science Education. The chapter's deal with a wide variety of topics and research approaches, conducted in a range of contexts and settings. Together they make a strong contribution to knowledge on science teaching and learning. The book consists of selected presentations from the 12th European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) Conference, held in Dublin, Ireland from 21st to 25th August, 2017. The ESERA community is made up of professionals with diverse disciplinary backgrounds from natural sciences to social sciences. This diversity enables a rich understanding of cognitive and affective aspects of science teaching and learning. The studies in this book will stimulate discussion and interest in finding new ways of implementing and researching science education for the future. The twenty-two chapters in this book are presented in four parts highlighting innovative approaches to school science, emerging identities in science education, approaches to developing learning and competence progressions, and ways of enhancing science teacher education. This collection of studies showcases current research orientations in science education and is of interest to science teachers, teacher educators and science education researchers around the world with a commitment to bridging research and practice in science teaching and learning.

1. Introduction; Eilish McLoughlin, Odilla E. Finlayson, Sibel Erduran and Peter E. Childs.- PART 1: Innovative Approaches to School Science.- 2. Science Education: A Balancing Act Between Research in University, Daily Instruction in Schools and Politics in Education Ministries; Peter Labudde.- 3. Energy teaching at high school based on history and philosophy of science; Manuel Bächtold and Valérie Munier.- 4. An explorative laboratory study: Changing representations of functional dependencies in physics class of lower secondary school; Marie-Annette Geyer and Gesche Pospiech.- 5. Multiple external representations (MER) as a component of special language in biology; Christina Beck and Claudia Nerdel.- 6. Heat angels and paper cups: Discovering pupils' multimodal experiences of heat using thermal cameras; Andreas Larsson, Matilda Stafstedt and Konrad J. Schönborn.- 7. Science or magic? Reactions of 5 years old pupils to a counter-intuitive experiment; Estelle Blanquet and Eric Picholle.- PART 2: Emerging Identities in Science Education.- 8. Using theoretical and methodological triangulation to study motivation in the science classroom; Jenny M. Hellgren.- 9. Students' Awareness of Working Life Skills in the UK, Finland and Germany; Anssi Salonen, Anu Hartikainen-Ahia, Tuula Keinonen, Inês Direito, John Connolly, Annette Scheersoi and Lara Weiser.- 10. Participation and Learner Trajectories in Computing; Anne-Kathrin Peters.- 11. Addressing Complexity in Science|Environment|Health Pedagogy; Albert Zeyer, Nuria Álvaro, Julia Arnold, J. Christian Benninghaus, Helen Hasslöf, Kerstin Kremer, Mats Lundström, Olga Mayoral, Jesper Sjöström, Sandra Sprenger, Valentín Gavidia, and Alla Keselman.- 12. Promoting Students' Critical and Active Engagement in Socio-scientific Problems: Inter/Trans-national Perspectives; Larry Bencze, Lyn Carter, Audrey Groleau, Mirjan Krstovic, Ralph Levinson, Jenny Martin, Isabel Martins, Chantal Pouliot and Matthew Weinstein.- 13. Understandings of Scientific Inquiry: An International Collaborative Investigation of Grade Sseven Students; Judith S. Lederman, Norman G. Lederman, Selina L. Bartels and Juan P. Jimanez.- PART 3: Learning Progressions and Competences.- 14. Frantic Standstill and Lack of Future: how can Science education take care of students' distopic Perceptions of time?; Giulia Tasquier, Laura Branchetti and Olivia Levrini.- 15. What does it mean to understand a physics equation? A study of undergraduate answers in three countries; John Airey, Josefine Grundström Lindqvist, and Rebecca Lippmann Kung.- 16. Affordances and constraints of learning progression designs in supporting formative assessment; Erin Marie Furtak and Kelsey Tayne.- 17. Learning progressions and competence models - a comparative illustration through models and modeling in science education; Annette Upmeier zu Belzen, Alicia C. Alonzo, Moritz Krell and Dirk Krüger.- 18. Sciences teaching through the lenses of students - lower secondary school; Eva Pennegård.- 19. Change in first graders' science-related competence beliefs during digitally intensive science workshops; Anni Loukomies, Kalle Juuti, Jari Lavonen and Katariina Salmela-Aro.- PART 4: Enhancing Science Teacher Education.- 20. The value of school partnerships in improving primary science teaching; Irina Kudenko, Pauline Hoyle and Ben Dunn.- 21. A Design-based Process in Characterizing Experienced Teachers' Formative Assessment Enactment in Science Classrooms; Hannah Sevian and Vesal Dini.- 22. Teachers' training in developing nanoscience and nanotechnology teaching module in the context of a community of learners; Giannis Sgouros and Dimitris Stavrou.- 23. Developing pre-service teachers' competencies of students' allergies management in school environment; Iztok Devetak, Sonja Posega Devetak and Tina Vesel.