This volume presents a "photograph" of the state of the art in Science Education Research in Europe as it has emerged from the first ESERA Conference held in Rome in September 1997. The Conference saw the participation of more than 280 researchers from European and some extra European countries distributed as follows U. K. 46 The Netherlands 10 Germany 35 Finland 9 Italy 28 Switzerland 6 Spain 26 Portugal 6 France 18 Israel 5 Sweden Argentina 15 3 Denmark 14 Australia 3 Greece 14 USA 3 Brasil 11 Others 18 Norway TOTAL 11 281 As it can be seen from the table, although the group from U. K. where research in science education has a well established tradition is the most consistent one, quite a large number of researchers has come from Germany and the Scandinavian countries, sign of the increasing attention these countries pay to scientific education at all levels. The presence of researchers from extraeuropean countries has allowed a comparison of experience over a wider basisthan the national one. The themes of research, identified a priori by the organizers as important, were: of the Art in Science Education Research (Biology, - The State Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science) - Science Teaching and Learning - Science, Science Teaching and Society - Teachers' Education and its Cultural Components The Scientific Committee of the Conference decided to publish a selection of the papers presented and we accepted the task of the editing.

The research in Physics Education has to do with the search of solutions to the complex problem of how to improve the learning and teaching of physics. The complexity of the problem lies in the different fields of knowledge that need to be considered in the research. In fact, besides the disciplinary knowledge in physics (which must be considered from the conceptual, the historical, and the epistemological framework), one has to take into account some basic knowledge in the context of psychology and the cognitive sciences (for the general and contextual aspects of learning) and some basic knowledge in education and comunication (for what concerns teaching skills and strategies). Looking back at the historical development of the research one may recognize that the complexity of the endeavour was not clear at first but became clear in its development, which shifted the focus of the research in the course of time from physics to learning to teaching. We may say that the research started, more than 30 years ago, with a focus on disciplinary knowledge. Physicists in different parts of the western world, after research work in some field of physics, decided to concentrate on the didactical comunication of physical knowledge.

This volume presents a "photograph" of the state of the art in Science Education Research in Europe as it has emerged from the first ESERA Conference held in Rome in September 1997. The Conference saw the participation of more than 280 researchers from European and some extra European countries distributed as follows U. K. 46 The Netherlands 10 Germany 35 Finland 9 Italy 28 Switzerland 6 Spain 26 Portugal 6 France 18 Israel 5 Sweden Argentina 15 3 Denmark 14 Australia 3 Greece 14 USA 3 Brasil 11 Others 18 Norway TOTAL 11 281 As it can be seen from the table, although the group from U. K. where research in science education has a well established tradition is the most consistent one, quite a large number of researchers has come from Germany and the Scandinavian countries, sign of the increasing attention these countries pay to scientific education at all levels. The presence of researchers from extraeuropean countries has allowed a comparison of experience over a wider basisthan the national one. The themes of research, identified a priori by the organizers as important, were: of the Art in Science Education Research (Biology, - The State Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science) - Science Teaching and Learning - Science, Science Teaching and Society - Teachers' Education and its Cultural Components The Scientific Committee of the Conference decided to publish a selection of the papers presented and we accepted the task of the editing.