We discuss how research on student difficulties was used as a guide to develop, validate, and evaluate a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) to help students learn how to determine the completely symmetric bosonic or completely antisymmetric fermionic wave function and be able to compare and contrast them from the case when the particles…

Although there has been extensive research on students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter (PNM), there is still a lack of research on contexts that can be used to teach this challenging topic. In a previous design-based research study, the authors developed a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) on the PNM in the context of crystal…

This study investigated the effect of using socioscientific issues (SSI)-based learning modules in enhancing physics knowledge. Three SSI-based learning modules were developed in this study and obtained a "Very Satisfactory" rating after the expert's evaluation, electromagnetic (EM) waves module (M = 3.82, standard deviation [SD] =…

We conducted a multiyear project across three institutions to develop an instructional tutorial that supports student understanding of change of basis in quantum mechanics. Building from our previous work, we identified learning goals to guide activity development. The tutorial makes an analogy between spin-1/2 states and a Cartesian coordinate…

This study aims to reconstruct Grade 11 students' misconceptions about force through the Conceptual Change Model (CCM) making use of Predict, Discuss, Explain, Observe, Discuss, Explore, Explain (PDEODEE) tasks. This study was conducted using a mixedmethod approach. The participants in this study were 65 students (33 students in the experiment…

Kinetic energy is usually the entry point for the study of energy in physics and is often perceived as unproblematic. We present evidence, however, that some learners who seem to have accepted the concept, from elementary school students to college physics majors and in-service teachers, nevertheless do not consistently attribute kinetic energy to…

Students at all levels of education experience difficulties with the concepts of measurement uncertainties. One task that includes concepts of measurement uncertainties is a data comparison problem where students decide whether two datasets are in agreement or not--an authentic scientific practice. To aid students with these concepts and tasks,…

The Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey (EMCS) is a multiple-choice survey that contains conceptual problems involving a variety of energy and momentum concepts covered in a typical introductory physics course for science and engineering majors. Prior studies suggest that many concepts on the survey are challenging for introductory physics…

Even after research-based instruction, students who demonstrate the ability to assemble relevant conceptual knowledge on one physics question may have difficulty assembling that same knowledge on a closely related problem. Recent research has suggested that reflexive, bottom-up reasoning processes seemingly unrelated to the physics concepts…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] Uncertainty is an important concept in physics laboratory instruction. However, little work has examined how students reason about uncertainty beyond the introductory (intro) level. In this work we aimed to compare intro and beyond-intro…

The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the Predict-Explain-Enact-Observe-Reflect (PEEOR) instructional strategy on general science students' conceptual understanding and motivation in the topic of motion and force. The research employed a pre-test post-test quasi-experimental design. The sample consisted of 107 general science summer, year…

Digital instructional tools, such as virtual manipulatives, have been widely adopted as an enhanced approach to inquiry-based learning. However, the optimal ratio of mobile devices to students in instructional settings remain controversial. This research introduced a counterbalanced quasi-experiment to compare the learning performance and…

Quantum mechanics (QM) has become part of many secondary school curricula. These curricula often do not include the mathematical tools for a formal, mathematical introduction of QM. QM therefore needs to be taught at a more conceptual level, but making secondary school students understand counterintuitive QM concepts without introducing…

Research-based assessments (RBAs) measure how well a course achieves discipline-specific outcomes. Educators can use outcomes from RBAs to guide instructional choices and to request resources to implement and sustain instructional transformations. One challenge for using RBAs, however, is a lack of comparative data, particularly given the skew in…

The purpose of current study was to investigate the effect of conceptual change-oriented instruction accompanied by conceptual change texts enriched with concept cartoons, gender, and their interaction on primary preservice teachers' conceptual understanding and their attitudes towards simple electricity. Participants were 225 sophomores from six…