This study seeks to determine whether giving an explicit incentive to students in an upper-division first-semester electromagnetism course (EM1), in the form of partial credit for reworking unit exam problems, will improve their problem-solving skills as measured by performance on identical problems on the final exam. Three problems--a primarily…

Despite continued efforts to address this issue, many students still exhibit misunderstandings regarding Newton's laws. These misconceptions include beliefs, such as every movement requires a force, that force is directly proportional to velocity, and that action-reaction forces can differ in magnitude. To mitigate these misunderstandings,…

Students' problem-solving strategies and the differences among strategy groups were explored by analyzing the process data collected during student interactions with computer-based science items. Data were gathered from 1516 eleventh-grade students from 4 schools in China. Analyses of the sequences of students' response actions revealed that the…

Non-optimal use of teaching materials and learning techniques impacts students' low skills, especially problem-solving abilities and learning independence. The study aims to develop a flipped classroom-based e-module that is feasible, practical, and effective in improving students' problem-solving skills and learning independence. This research…

Numerous studies compared the effectiveness of various formats of video-based teaching, yet their focus has primarily been on relatively straightforward content, such as concepts and basic procedures. Research on the effectiveness of teaching complex content through different formats of videos remains limited. This study addresses this gap by…

Written examinations for laboratory courses fall short in testing students' technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and execution of experimental design. This has led to practical examinations growing in popularity, but examples for senior-level students remain scarce. Senior organic chemistry students are gearing toward independence to…

DBL is a novel pedagogical approach intended to improve students' conditional knowledge and problem-solving skills by exposing them to a sequence of branching learning decisions. The DBL software provided students with ample opportunities to engage in the expert decision-making processes involved in complex problem-solving and to receive…

Understanding particle motion in force fields (PMFF), which encompasses the nature of forces and the relationship between force and motion, is fundamental to mastering mechanics and electromagnetism. Effectively solving PMFF-related problems requires advanced reasoning skills and the ability to apply knowledge across diverse contexts. Despite…

To be able to support students' competence development in solving physics problems over the course of a lesson series effectively, teachers need a proper appreciation of students' deficiencies. As teachers commonly assess students' competence by means of written tests, teachers are challenged to interpret students' work on these tests and to…

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of activities based on scientific process skills on problem-solving skills of 4th grade students in science lessons. In the study a non-equivalent control group pre-test and post-test design type of quasi-experimental method was used. The research study group was composed of 30 students with 15…

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of the science module which was designed using the problem-based learning method on the basis of the Integrated Curriculum Model and applied in the blended learning environment on the scientific reasoning and scientific process skills of gifted students. The study was carried out with 9 gifted 5th…

Peer Instruction (PI), a student-centred teaching method, engages students during class through structured, frequent questioning, facilitated by classroom response systems. The central feature of PI is the ConcepTest, a question designed to help resolve student misconceptions around the subject content. Within our coordination chemistry PI…

The non-major's two-semester organic chemistry course at UPR-RP aims at developing a more integrated and meaningful understanding of the fundamentals of Organic Chemistry. To achieve this goal, we have implemented a novel instructional design that focuses on nine terminal objectives. The nine terminal objectives describe what students should be…

Research on problem-solving strategies has been conducted since the 1940s. Experts and novices use different strategies in problem solving; the main difference is in the familiarity with which they face new problems. For multiple-choice problems, an analysis of distractors can provide possible clues about the resolution processes developed by…

This paper extends prior work establishing an operationalized framework of mathematical sense making (MSM) in physics. The framework differentiates between the object being understood (either physical or mathematical) and various tools (physical or mathematical) used to mediate the sense-making process. This results in four modes of MSM that can…