In our rush to get to deeper learning, it's easy to undervalue the essential role that "shallow" understanding (e.g., basic factual knowledge) plays in students' capacity to explore and understand content more fully, write Kevin Krahenbuhl and John Lando Carter. In this article, they outline three strategies to ensure students have a…

In this contribution, we address the gap that has appeared in mathematics education research and practice with the emergence of dynamic geometry environments and build on the opportunities these environments offer to school geometry. In our qualitative empirical study, we investigate how to elaborate on the general model of conceptual knowledge to…

Pre-service teachers (PSTs) often encounter challenges grasping the conceptual understanding of fractions, which can affect their readiness to teach this topic. This study investigates a novel approach to enhancing PSTs' comprehension of fractions by focusing on the fraction-as-a-measure meaning within a measurement context. Through a modified…

This study used structural topic models (STMs) to analyze physics pre-service teachers' conceptual understanding of scientific literacy. Participants included 126 physics pre-service teachers studying at Shandong Normal University in China. First, we used an open-ended questionnaire to collect the data. Second, STM was used to classify the data,…

As phenomena, time, and history, particularly the nature of the two and how to tell them apart, are not easily defined. In the tradition of historical consciousness, time, and the human understanding of the nature of time are defined as a part of a historical consciousness, where this may more or less evolved. In this study, students aged 11 were…

Previous research has shown that students employ intuitive thinking when understanding scientific concepts. Three types of intuitive thinking--essentialist, teleological, and anthropic thinking--are used in biology learning and can lead to misconceptions. However, it is unknown how commonly these types of intuitive thinking, or cognitive…

Although researchers have extensively studied student conceptions of radioactivity, the conceptions held by preservice teachers on this subject are largely absent from the literature. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of problem-centered interviews with preservice teachers (N=13) to establish which conceptions are held by preservice…

My dissertation asks: "What does an Angel Investor learn about the venture capital investment process and how do they learn it?" This is important, because Angels finance the earlier stages of venture investing (referred to as Seed or Series A) and play an instrumental role in the formation, financing, and success of today's leading…

False alarming, or detecting an error when there is not one, is a pervasive problem across numerous industries. The present study investigated the role of elaboration, or additional information about non-error differences in complex visual displays, for mitigating false error responding. In Experiment 1, learners studied errors and non-error…

Statement-verification studies indicate the coexistence of intuitive conceptions and scientific concepts within learners. The underlying assumption is that the intuitive conceptions typically built in childhood never disappear, but are co-activated with scientific concepts when we face relevant situations. This is visible in increased reaction…

Genetic variation is historically challenging for undergraduate students to master, potentially due to its grounding in both evolution and genetics. Traditionally, student expertise in genetic variation has been evaluated using Key Concepts. However, Cognitive Construals may add to a more nuanced picture of students' developing expertise. Here, we…

Environmental components, including soil, water, air, and biodiversity, are vital for maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. However, environmental pollution is one of the most significant threats to these balances. With environmental pollution, the balance of ecosystems is disrupted, and the food chain is negatively affected. The food chain,…

Recently, the importance of statistical literacy has been stressed, and three central concepts in statistical literacy are the measures of central tendency: mean, median, and mode. This study explores aspects of statistical literacy expressed by 12-13-year-old students, focusing on mean, median, and mode. Their responses were analysed using a…

The "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education" report establishes a set of five core concepts that students should build an understanding of throughout college biology programs. While student conceptual understanding is well studied in 4-year contexts, there are minimal studies in community college contexts. Community…

The current study examined how prospective first- and second-grade mathematics teachers define the polygon diagonals concept, how they reconstruct their definition during and following an intervention, and how their concept images develop over time. Twenty-three prospective teachers participated in the study, during which they were asked to…