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What are some emerging trends and promising areas of research in science education that you believe can have a significant impact on improving student learning outcomes and the overall quality of science education?

John L. Rudolph has challenged the leaders of science education to find ways to break the cycle of 1. teaching using techniques meant for pre-college/pre-science students, 2. failing both this target and the lay student, 3. changing the technique (but not the target), and 4. failing again; as indicated by the general science ignorance of american society.  He has suggested that a more effective approach would be teaching the nature of science (NOS), using a story telling approach.  His suggestion is not original.  But the data he presents documenting the depth of our previous failures is the clearest I've seen.  When I started teaching high school biology teaching in 1962, the U.S. was mobilizing in response to Sputnik and science teachers were inundated with specialty teaching materials for each of the big three sciences.  That failed, according to the measure of a science-literate lay public.  There have been intervening failure cycles.  Now we have begun a STEM cycle.  At the same time, there is a viable NOS movement.  Is there anything 'just a scientist' (for 50+ years) like me can add that might help join NOS with STEM so that the failure cycle might be avoided?  As I examine NSTA material, I see a paucisty of attention to the roles of failure as a learning tool and uncertainty as a fundamental component in real research.