In this study, we present the Pseudoscientific Belief Scale (PSEUDO; [alpha] = 0.90). The conceptual foundations of the scale include (a) a philosophically grounded and functional demarcation criterion between science and pseudoscience; (b) an analysis of the pseudoscientific status of science denialism, which is integrated into the scale; and (c)…

Representational competence is essential for the acquisition of conceptual understanding in physics. It enables the interpretation of diagrams, graphs, and mathematical equations, and relating these to one another as well as to observations and experimental outcomes. In this study, we present the initial validation of a newly developed…

The development of valid and reliable strategies to efficiently determine the knowledge landscape of introductory astronomy college students is an effort of great interest to the astronomy education community. This study examines individual item response rates from a widely used conceptual understanding survey, the Test Of Astronomy Standards…

Background: In the last few decades, researchers have turned their attention to students' understanding of scientific concepts at different school levels. The results indicate that the learners have different ideas, and most of them are inaccurate in terms of those generally accepted by the scientific community. Purpose: This study was undertaken…

Background: Misconceptions are major obstacles to learning physics, and the concepts of heat and temperature are some of the common misconceptions that are encountered in daily life. Therefore, it is important to develop valid and reliable tools to determine students' misconceptions about basic thermodynamics concepts. Three-tier tests are…

J. E. Helms's (1995b) White racial identity theory is said to resemble a pseudoscience in certain respects because its empirical support is based on the White Racial Identity Attitude Scale (J. E. Helms & R. T. Carter, 1990) in spite of consistent evidence that the instrument does not measure the constructs that the theory proposes.