Introduction

Abstract

Representing an increasingly public and policy-relevant issue across the great diversity of nations, education is a field in which research-informed findings can illuminate important concerns in society (TLRP, 2006). Especially science education is an area that is frequently discussed in terms of challenges, shortcomings and deficiencies, as indicated by recent debates on the outcomes of international comparative studies on competences of students such as PISA (OECD, 2003, 2004a, 2007b, 2010, 2014) and TIMSS (Baumert, Bos, & Lehmann, 2000; Beaton et al., 1997; Bos et al., 2008; Martin, Mullis, Foy, & Stanco, 2012).