Overall, science teaching at the university level has remained in a relatively static state. There is much research and debate among university faculty regarding the most effective methods of teaching science. But it remains largely rhetoric. The traditional lecture model in STEM higher education is limping along in its march toward inclusion and…

To address the needs of the high population of students with learning disabilities at their school, the author and a colleague created an inclusion science class that focuses on active, hands-on science. The course prepares students of various learning abilities for the state-mandated end-of-course biology assessment. Many of their students have…

In the Winter, 2015, issue of the "College Quarterly," Donovan McFarlane provided some guidelines for the use of case studies in college teaching based in part on his own experience and in part on the published literature. This was not the first time that case-based teaching was the focus of work in the "College Quarterly."…

Context: Electronic audience response systems (ARSs) are a technological teaching tool currently being used with widespread success within various disciplines of higher education. Researcher support for its application in athletic training education remains sparse, however. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine whether use of an ARS in a…

Teaching methods are constantly being changed, new ones are developed and old methods have undergone a renaissance. Two main approaches to teaching prevail: a) lecture-based and project-based and b) an argumentative approach to known knowledge or learning by exploration. Today, there is a balance between these two approaches, and they are more…

Khan Academy, the free Web-based tutorial program, landed on the education landscape in about 2011, when it was featured on the popular weekly news show "60 Minutes." The program is now used worldwide by more than 10 million learners each month and is used in more than 29,000 classrooms in 216 countries. Are classroom teachers using the…

Children, especially in the preschool years, learn a tremendous amount through play. Research on guided play demonstrates how schools can couple a curriculum-centered preschool program with a developmentally appropriate pedagogical approach to classroom teaching. However, to fully test this claim, we need a clear definition of the term…

Science educators have noted the unique characteristics of science literacy in terms of text structure, vocabulary demands, and reliance on abstract concepts (Cervetti, Pearson, Bravo, & Barber, 2006; Fang & Schleppegrell, 2008; Pytash, 2013). Furthermore, other scholars have defined scientific thinking processes as inextricable from the…

"Making and Tinkering" links science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning (STEM) to the do-it-yourself "maker" movement, where people of all ages "create and share things in both the digital and physical world" (Resnick & Rosenbaum, 2013). This paper examines designing what Resnick and Rosenbaum…

Background: Team-based learning (TBL) has become a more commonly recognized and implemented pedagogical approach in curricula of numerous disciplines. The desire to place more autonomy on the student and spend less in-class time delivering content has resulted in complete or partial adoption of this style of learning in many educational settings.…

Argument mapping (AM) is a method of visually diagramming arguments to allow for easy comprehension of core statements and relations. A series of three experiments compared argument map reading and construction with hierarchical outlining, text summarisation, and text reading as learning methods by examining subsequent memory and comprehension…

In Iraqi Kurdistan, the educational system is going through significant changes. The educational system influences the students' attitudes, and one wants the educational system to support the young democracy. In this study, student-centred learning (SCL) is seen as a first step to learning, but also to participation and engagement as a citizen.…

Single photon experiments involving a Mach-Zehnder interferometer can illustrate the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, e.g., the wave-particle duality of a single photon, single photon interference, and the probabilistic nature of quantum measurement involving single photons. These experiments explicitly make the connection between the…

The use of humour in teaching and learning can be contentious, with some authors suggesting that the efficacy of humorous materials is mediated by the culture of the student. Nevertheless, humour represents a potential vehicle for the introduction of active learning in a classroom setting, as judicious use of humour may lead to a more relaxed…

A study of a discipline-specific teacher development project designed to prepare teachers to implement a series of core instructional practices for pre-collegiate history teaching is described as a model that can be applied to any content discipline. Teachers were surveyed concerning the success of the project in achieving the goals it set,…