Magnet schools focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as well as extracurricular programs in STEM support talented students and help increase their participation rates in those domains. We examined whether and the extent to which the learning and educational capital of male and female students (N = 801) enrolled in…

Background: One of the topics students have difficulties in understanding is electromagnetic induction. Active learning methods instead of traditional learning method may be able to help facilitate students' understanding such topics more effectively. Purpose: The study investigated the effectiveness of physical models and simulations on students'…

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to examine how educators lead with passion. The study identified key characteristics in school administrators and teachers who lead effective schools. This research study analyzed whether there were any significant differences in the leadership styles of administrators and teachers. Five…

This qualitative, multicase study examined the support, instruction, coursework, discussions, field and clinical experiences, and critical reflection that took place within a precollegiate Urban Teaching Academy (UTA) magnet program located in a southeastern school district. Two major themes emerged with sub-themes undergirding each. The first…

Prior research has contributed to our understanding about the ways teachers communicate their expectations to students, how students perceive differential teacher behaviors, and their effect on students' own perceptions of ability and achievement. Despite more than half a century of this work, historically marginalized students continue to be…

The initial phase of undergraduate engineering degree programmes often comprises courses requiring mathematical expertise which in some cases clearly exceeds school mathematics, but will be imparted only later in mathematics courses. In this article, an approach addressing this challenge by way of example within a "fundamentals of electrical…

This study aims at diagnosing which subjects pre-service physics teachers have difficulty understanding in introductory physics courses and what accounts for these difficulties. A questionnaire consisting of two qualitative questions was used to collect data for this study. The questionnaire was administered to 101 pre-service physics teachers who…

This study analyzes the nature of pre-service teachers' conceptual models of various electromagnetic phenomena, specifically electrical current, electrical resistance, and light/matter interactions. This is achieved through the students answering the three questions on electromagnetism using a free response approach including both verbal and…

One of the main components of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge refers to their use of representation forms. In a similar vein, organizing concepts logically and meaningfully is an essential element of teachers' subject matter knowledge. Since subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge of teachers are tightly connected as categories…

This study documents the mental representations of magnetism constructed by students aged 15-17 and attempts to investigate whether these display the characteristics of models with an inner cohesiveness and constancy; whether they share common features with typical historical models of the Sciences; and whether they evolve through conventional…

The frequency and quality of intergroup contact within racially and ethnically diverse schools has potentially important implications for the achievement of desegregation goals. The analyses presented here use survey data to assess intergroup contact within a sample of ten interdistrict magnet schools in Connecticut. Findings indicate frequent…

Discussion and study of the social-emotional development of deaf and hard of hearing children, though extensive, has yet to provide an accurate understanding of the differences between deaf and hearing children. Consequently, the goal of the researchers was to conduct a profile analysis to determine similarities and differences between the two…

This study investigates the predictive validity of students' levels of critical thinking disposition, as measured by the California Measure of Mental Motivation (CM3; Giancarlo, Blohm, & Urdan, 2004) for students' math achievement, as measured by the Mathematics assessment included in the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). The CM3…

This study examined the perceptions of Language Arts teachers, Mathematics teachers, and administrators in four high schools in a large urban New Jersey school district regarding a standards-based teacher evaluation system implemented in 2003 adapted and modeled on "Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching" (Danielson,…

This study aims to analyse university students' reasoning regarding two laws of electromagnetism: Gauss's law and Ampere's law. It has been supposed that the problems seen in understanding and applying both laws do not spring from students' misconceptions. Students habitually use reasoning known in the literature as 'common sense' methodology that…