This article presents a review of the literature on multimedia learning in science. It is no small matter that teachers value using technology, more specifically multimedia, in teaching. But this interest falls far short when it comes to application. Why is it so? This article tries to find the reasons behind this dichotomy. Then, research from…

Science laboratory activities within secondary science have traditionally followed prescriptive outlines both in the structure and reporting of the activity. Building on current understandings of writing to learn science strategies, a Science Writing Heuristic has been developed that encourages students to examine laboratory activities much more…

The basis of this paper concerns a one-and-a-half year in-service training program ("In-service Training for Physics Teachers"; 40 ECTS credits) for physics teachers (Grades 7-12, n = 98) designed to enhance both their subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. The role of laboratory experiments in physics education in particular was…

The ascendant view in the current debate about education science -- experimentism -- is a reassertion of the randomized experiment as the methodological gold standard. Advocates of this view have ignored, not answered, long-standing criticisms of the randomized experiment: its frequent impracticality, its lack of external validity, its confinement…

Managing local environmental resources with moderately enforced government regulations can often be counterproductive, whereas nonbinding communications can be remarkably effective. The authors describe a classroom experiment that illustrates these points. The experiment is rich in its institutional settings and highlights the challenges that…

Investigates the effects of interactive computer-based simulations presented prior to inquiry-based laboratory experiments on students' conceptual understanding of mechanics, waves/optics, and thermal physics. Uses conceptual tests to assess conceptual understandings of each topic. Indicates that the use of the simulations improved students'…

The present paper describes an educational experiment dealing with teaching the theory of formal languages and automata as well as their application concepts. It presents a practical application of an educational experiment and initial results based on comparative instruction of two samples of students (n = 56). The application concept should…

Leaves of higher terrestrial plants have small pores--stomata--responsible for gas exchange. The opening of each stoma results from the osmotic uptake of water by two specialised cells--the guard cells. Because of the involvement in this mechanism of ATPase-proton pumps and active transport of ions across membranes, we have designed an Exploring…

Fully opened leaves of potted plants of "Oxalis corymbosa" DC. closed completely by folding their leaflets downward after being kept in the dark for two hours. The folded leaflets, then moved upward gradually after exposure to light. We developed a simple method to measure the leaf movement. A paper protractor folded every 10[degrees] was devised…

In this article the effect of light quality on the size of the photosystem II (PSII) light harvesting complex (LHCII) is studied by measuring the chlorophyll fluorescence emitted by leaf sections of oat ("Avena sativa," var. Prevision) plants previously treated with either white light or with light filtered through blue, green, red or farred…

The McGurk effect is usually presented as an example of fast, automatic, multisensory integration. We report a series of experiments designed to directly assess these claims. We used a syllabic version of the "speeded classification" paradigm, whereby response latencies to the first (target) syllable of spoken word-like stimuli are slowed down…

To set an optimal decision criterion on a test of recognition, a subject must estimate the degree to which they can discriminate previously studied from unstudied stimuli. To do so accurately, the subject must assess not only their mastery of the material but also the extent to which the distractors yield mnemonic evidence that makes them…

In 3 experiments, young and older adults studied lists of unrelated word pairs and were given confidence-rated item and associative recognition tests. Several different models of recognition were fit to the confidence-rating data using techniques described by S. Macho (2002, 2004). Concordant with previous findings, item recognition data were best…

Two experiments examined possible negative transfer in nonexperts from the use of pictorial examples in a laboratory design problem-solving situation. In Experiment 1, 89 participants were instructed to "think aloud" and were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) control (standard instructions), (b) fixation (inclusion of a problematic…

This paper describes systems dynamics, reviews the literature of uses of systems concepts in distance education (DE), presents a preliminary model, and ends in a call to researchers to contribute to the building of a standard model of DE. (Contains 4 figures.)