Teachers and employers realise that work experience should be more than just photocopying, answering phones, making the tea, and shadowing office-based staff to "learn about the world of work". The challenge is to ensure the experience is engaging for the student, and worthwhile. The British Science Association has been piloting ways to…

The use of handheld computers in educational contexts has increased considerably in recent years and their value as a teaching tool has been confirmed by many positive experiences, particular within collaborative learning systems (Mobile Computer Supported Collaborative Learning [MCSCL]). The cost of the devices has hindered widespread use in…

Physics First--a movement to invert the traditional science course sequence to teach physics at the ninth-grade level--is gaining interest. However, there is limited literature exploring how to support teachers in successfully implementing Physics First. To address this, a professional development (PD) program supporting a cadre of teacher-leaders…

Open educational resources (OER) are gaining ascendancy in education, particularly in higher education. Logic suggests that the potential benefits of OER are likely to be greatest in resource-poor contexts such as Africa. However, little is known about the feasibility and sustainability of their use in African institutions. In the Health OER…

Although many states in the United States are adopting policies that require all students to complete college-preparatory science classes to graduate from high school, such policies have not always led to improved student outcomes. There is much speculation about the cause of the dismal results, but there is scant research on the processes by…

What does it mean for ethnic minority girls, who have historically been marginalized by schools, to "see themselves" in science? Schools fail to create spaces for students to engage their identity resources in the learning of science or to negotiate and enact new science-related identities. This study investigates relationships among…

Over the past several years, the authors have been developing an instructional technology, called Teachable Agents (TA), which draws on the social metaphor of teaching to help students learn. Students teach a computer character, their "agent," by creating a concept map of nodes connected by qualitative causal links. The authors hypothesize that…

The purpose of this pragmatic action research study was to explore our re-conceptualization efforts in preparing pre-service teachers to guide the inquiry process with formative assessment and subsequently use the understandings to improve our teacher preparation program. The process was guided by two questions: to what extent did course…

Engineering education directly supports the nation's capacity for economic growth, infrastructure renewal, and security, as well as environmental and human health. Numerous reports have recommended federal support to advance our understanding of how students learn, how faculty teach, and how teaching and learning are assessed. The U.S. National…

This study describes the analogical models and narratives used to introduce and teach Grade 9 chemical covalent compounds which are relatively abstract and difficult for students. We explained each model's development during the lessons and analyzed understanding students derived from these learning materials. In this context, achievement,…

This three-year Virtual Measurements Environment curriculum development project for higher education within the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union is the result of intense collaboration among four institutions, teaching applied sciences and technology. It aims to apply the principles and possibilities of evolved distance and…

This article introduces the Nokia Mobile Learning for Mathematics Project in South Africa, which made use of mobile technology to support mathematics learning at 30 public secondary schools. It draws on the evaluation of this project from January to June 2010. The article discusses learner access to mobile devices, learner and teacher uptake and…

This study contextualized the use of the engineering design process by providing descriptions of how each element in a design process was integrated in an eleventh grade industry and engineering systems course. The guiding research question for this inquiry was: How do students engage in the engineering design process in a course where technology…

In 2006, the National Science Foundation (NSF) began funding the Model Replication Institutions (MRI) program, which sought to improve the quality, availability, and diversity of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Faced with pressing national priorities in the STEM fields and chronic gaps in postsecondary…

As teachers of first-year college mathematics and science students, the authors are constantly on the lookout for simple classroom exercises that improve their students' analytical and computational skills. In this article, the authors outline a project entitled "Predicting Precipitation in Darwin." In this project, students: (1) analyze…