In multi-ethnic, multilingual classrooms, the science teacher must move students between the subculture of canonical science and the cultural repertoires they bring to the laboratory bench, and Target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals makes that movement an explicit obligation of science education. How a school builds this capacity in its own biology, chemistry, and physics teachers is thinly documented outside Anglophone and Southeast Asian settings. This study asks how a multi-ethnic secondary school converts a national infrastructure program into a working routine for developing its science teachers' cultural competence, and how far that routine reaches the science lesson itself. A single-case insider action research design was used in a state secondary school in Astana, Kazakhstan, with municipal experimental-site status. The authors analyzed seven categories of documentary evidence through qualitative content analysis with two independent coders. The routine runs through three stacked layers rather than by individual initiative: a regulatory layer that authorizes the work, an operational layer that distributes it across a nine-month thematic cycle, and a reflexive layer that converts it into evidence. Its instructional output is a subject-specific didactics cleared by the city Expert Council, in which four chemistry cases invert the concept-culture relation - equilibrium, catalysis, and collision theory become instruments for reading cultural situations - while the biology and geography examples follow the Ethnoscience direction. The evidence equally shows the limits: no record of any case reaching a lesson, nineteen of sixty-six student events carrying natural-science content, and monitoring instruments that measure school climate rather than science teaching. Schools pursuing SDG 4.7 through a whole-school route should install a lesson-facing instrument from the outset.
Quality education must be equally accessible, especially to students with special needs, such as those with visual impairments. This study aims to enhance the scientific literacy skills of students with visual impairments by using Braille-assisted UNO Chemistry Card media integrated with tourism ethnochemistry digital content. The method employed an experimental design, utilizing a quasi-experimental approach. The type of experiment used was the Non-Equivalent Pretest-Posttest One-Group Design. The study population consisted of 15 Grade-XII students with visual impairments at SMALB YPAB Surabaya. The test instrument comprised six questions developed based on scientific literacy competency indicators. The results of the dependent T-test on the differences in scientific literacy abilities of students with visual impairments before and after using the Braille-Assisted UNO chemistry card game integrated with ethnochemical content in elemental chemistry learning for grade XII revealed a significance value of p < 0.05, so that H0 is rejected. Thus, the research hypothesis that there is a difference in the scientific literacy skills of students with visual impairments after using the braille-assisted UNO chemical element card game media in chemistry learning for grade XII is accepted. The n-gain score showed an increase in the scientific literacy skills of students with visual impairments by 33% (5 students) in the high category and 67% (10 students) in the medium category. Educational card games with braille letters integrated with ethnochemistry digital content for students with visual impairments are novel contribution of this research.
The development of e-books related to low-carbon education (LCE) has been used to enhance sustainability literacy and global character diversity (GCD) among elementary students. The research was conducted to identify the three themes of e-books available to students in phases A, B, and C. The three e-books have developed into a supplementary, ongoing curriculum. The e-books with flip mode and a high validity index have already been implemented and researched using a pre-experimental design in each phase. The e-books were designed as picture stories, equipped with various features to train students’ sustainability literacy and GCD through invitations to think critically, to complete projects, and to express their thinking related to the context and environmental problems. The validity of the e-books was ensured through validation by 5 experts and 20 users, and the data were analyzed using simple statistics and CVI/CVR indexes. The sustainability literacy instrument used was developed and implemented together in the context of learning in Indonesia and Japan (Kitakyushu), with some modifications tailored to each phase. Students' GCD was monitored using a standard questionnaire based on GCD indicators. The research shows that all the e-books have high usability, as indicated by the CVI/CVR scores. The implementation results show, on average, an increase in students’ sustainability literacy from moderate to high. The improvement in students’ GCD was from the moderate to the high category. In addition, the books, attractively packaged with cartoon images, were easy to use with an Android app and very handy, which made the learning experience enjoyable for students.
Indigenous-based Experiential Learning (IbEL) model has been developed to promote pre-service science teachers' creative thinking skills. This model emphasizes a more holistic, community-based education grounded in Indigenous knowledge and cultural practices. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the IbEL model in enhancing the pre-service science teachers' creative thinking skills. The study involved 29 participants who were randomly selected from a larger population. The participants were assessed using a pretest and posttest design to determine the changes in their creative thinking skills after being taught using the IbEL model. The study utilized a standardized evaluation instrument to measure creative thinking skills, including Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, Elaboration, Risk-Taking, Complexity, Curiosity, and Imagination. The data analysis method used was Rasch analysis with stacking and racking techniques. Using pretest and posttest evaluations, the researchers found a significant increase in creative thinking skills, with the Observation course showing a higher increase. The study highlights the importance of creativity in teaching and learning and how enhancing creative thinking skills can improve student achievement. The IbEL model encourages students to appreciate local knowledge and experience, context, and situation in learning, and direct experience, leading to more culturally sensitive research outcomes. The study contributes to the development of better learning models to enhance pre-service science teachers' creative thinking skills.
Colloid learning is often difficult for students to relate to real-world phenomena, leading to a lack of conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills. One relevant local context for concretizing the concept of colloids is tofu waste treatment, which involves colloidal systems and environmental issues in the community. Integrating this ethnoscience context through Challenge-Based Learning has the potential to provide more contextual, meaningful, and authentic learning oriented toward problem-solving. This study aims to develop and demonstrate the impact of a Challenge-Based Ethnoscience e-book about colloids in the context of tofu waste treatment on improving students' conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills. This research method used Design and Development Research, consisting of three phases: design (needs analysis and product design), development (based on the 4STMD model), and evaluation (Students' critical thinking and conceptual understanding). Implementation was conducted with 30 eleventh-grade students. Critical thinking skills were measured using the Ennis framework, while conceptual understanding was assessed through context-based essay questions. Data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test, Spearman correlation, and rank-biserial effect size. Results showed significant improvements in conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills, indicating consistent positive score changes across all participants. A very strong correlation was found between conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills, indicating a high degree of shared variance between the two. It can be concluded that the CBL e-book on ethnoscience related to colloid materials, developed according to the 4STMD, is a feasible and effective learning material for chemistry. This learning material aligns with the learning curriculum, is scientific, and organizes materials systematically through local wisdom, specifically in the context of tofu wastewater treatment, to enhance students' understanding of concepts and critical thinking skills.
