Big ideas, sometimes referred to as key, core, fundamental or threshold concepts, are widely applicable concepts at the heart of disciplines that are or have been central and influential for their fields. Attention here is particularly directed to meta-concepts common to sister disciplines in the sciences. "Learning thresholds",…

Creativity is one of the important skills of the twenty-first century and central to higher education (HE). When we look closer into research on creativity in HE, however, it is not clear how university teachers conceptualise student creativity. How do teachers grasp, observe and express student creativity? Different methods such as interviews and…

Examines the relationships between organic chemistry achievement and a number of cognitive and noncognitive variables, and explores whether gender differences existed for any of these relationships. Concludes that general chemistry grade, ACT-math score, and motivation are significant predictors of organic chemistry achievement. Indicates gender…

This paper shows what research about student perceptions of lecture courses can indicate about student approaches to learning and the outcomes of learning. The amount that students will learn from a lecture course depends on: 1) student approach to learning, 2) perception of what is to be learned, and 3) level of information processing. It was…

Two different conceptions of ability are proposed. The first conception of ability is more differentiated and generally employed by adults and older children. Here ability level is defined with reference to the performance of others assuming that optimum effort was employed. High ability means higher than others. The second conception of ability…

The theory of reasoned action is a social psychological model that was first considered by science educators in the early 1980s to investigate attitude-behavior relationships. The theory has encouraged intense investigations in the prediction of behavior, development of instruments, and creation of belief-based interventions. This investigation…

This study explores the instructional impact of using computer multimedia to integrate metaphorical verbal information into graphical representations of biotechnology concepts. The combination of text and graphics into a single metaphor makes concepts dual-coded, and therefore more comprehensible and memorable for the student. Visual stimuli help…

This annotated bibliography focuses on individualized education, learning characteristics, and learning motivation. The reference book is intended to help teachers and administrators identify resources needed to develop teaching strategies based on up-to-date learning research and development. More than 500 technical reports, theoretical papers,…