This article presents comments on "Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a Search for Truth and the Discovery of Solutions" by John T. Cacioppo, Gun R. Semin and Gary G. Berntson. The appeal for the unification of psychology is in fashion and Cacioppo et al.'s term "symbiosis" connotes a cooperative and…

The paper opens by characterizing recent discourse about empirical educational research as the "new Babel"-critics, using different theoretical vocabularies and making different deep assumptions about the nature of social life, are failing to communicate with each other. After locating some of the critical positions on a left-right continuum, the…

Students need to be competent in science because of its impact on everyday decision-making, the rapid pace of change and the increasing interdependent global economy (Lawton, 2007; U.S. Department of Education, 2000; Lederman, 1998). According to the National Research Council, "Teachers of science should develop communities of science learners…

The following study describes a creative application of anatomical principles in the instruction of self-defense. Undergraduates at the University of Kentucky were invited to a special lecture that featured a series of self-defense moves introduced by a local police officer. Following a demonstration of each self-defense tactic, the students were…

Since the World Conference on Higher Education organized by UNESCO in 1998, higher educational institutions around the world have been called upon to produce educators (teachers) who are able to motivate their learners to: (1) develop an awareness about, and a valid understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS); and (2) relate such knowledge to the…

This study investigated the development in students' nature of science (NOS) views in the context of an explicit inquiry-oriented instructional approach. Participants were 18 seventh-grade students who were taught by a teacher with "appropriate" knowledge about NOS. The intervention spanned about 3 months. During this time, students were engaged…

Classroom discussion of the classic article by Walter B. Cannon in 1914, entitled "The emergency function of the adrenal medulla in pain and the major emotions," is an excellent tool to teach graduate students the interaction between stress, emotions, and cardiovascular function. Using this article, we are able to review important early research…

This paper presents the development and revision of a dual-response instrument entitled, "Student Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry" ("SUSSI"). Built on the most recent science education reform documents and existing literature on the nature of science, SUSSI blends Likert-type items and related open-ended questions to assess…

The objective of this work was to highlight the conceptions of force held by students aged 10-17 years old, in situations where animate and inanimate objects interact. In the proposed experimental situations, we varied parameters such as the motion and position of an object and the agent's effort. We asked questions about both inanimate and…

This investigation was part of a multi-lesson unit that gave students direct experience using increasingly sophisticated tools to make more detailed observations and measurements of light. Through these lessons, students experienced a key aspect of the nature of science (McComas 2004), namely how scientists constantly refine and modify theories as…

This study provides qualitative analysis of data that answers the following research question: how do college science faculty teach science and NOS and incorporate aspects of NOS and the history of science into their undergraduate courses? The study concentrates on four cases and more specifically on three introductory science classes and on four…

This paper serves to review previously reported studies on students' misunderstandings about the energy conservation principle (the first law of thermodynamics). Generally, studies in literature highlighted students' misunderstandings about the energy conservation principle stem from preliminaries about energy concept in daily life. Since prior…

Several papers have been published on the use of a CD as a grating for undergraduate laboratories and/or for high school and college class demonstrations. Four years ago "The Physics Teacher" had a spectacular cover picture showing emission spectrum as viewed through a CD with no coating. That picture gave the impetus to develop a system that can…

The motion of the planets in their orbits can be demonstrated to students by using planetarium software programs. These allow time to be sped up so that the relative motions are readily observed. However, it is also valuable to have the students understand the real speed of the planets in their orbits. This paper describes an exercise that gives…

The present analysis describes an analytically simple and systematic approximation procedure for modelling the free diffusive spreading of initially super-Gaussian profiles. The approach is based on a self-similar ansatz for the evolution of the diffusion profile, and the parameter functions involved in the modelling are determined by suitable…