My thesis work is focused on conceptual and epistemic learning and characterizing the environments in which this learning takes place. Earlier studies conducted by the Stowe group explored how instructional practices, instructional emphasis, and assessment emphasis relate to student outcomes in general and organic chemistry courses. Student…

Recent advances and applications of artificial intelligence (AI) have increased the opportunities for students to interact with AI in their learning tasks. Although various fields of scholarly research have investigated human-AI collaboration, the underlying processes of how students collaborate with AI in a student-AI teaming scenario have been…

As part of a two-semester advanced research methodology course, five PhD students completed three sketches--beginning, middle, and end of course--to represent how they were thinking and feeling about themselves as doctoral students as they progressed through their first year. They also wrote reflections to complement the sketches and shared their…

Schools, globally, have experienced an influx of culturally and linguistically diverse students, due to voluntary migration and forced displacement. To respond to the needs of these students, particularly those from refugee backgrounds, schools must understand how these students navigate their pathways to membership and belonging within their new…

This study sought to explore the power of self-generated drawing to improve reading comprehension of English language learners in a university setting. Fourteen undergraduate students, divided into control and experimental groups, read a chapter from a graded reader. The experimental group was instructed to construct self-generated drawings as…

Drawing is a teaching tool that provides numerous benefits to student learning, including enhanced knowledge retention, improved observation skills, and increased engagement with course content. However, these exercises also place high cognitive demands on students and require a considerable time commitment. To acknowledge and celebrate the effort…

Educational institutions around the world have been integrating AI into their educational practices. Many studies and reports highlight both the advantages and disadvantages of this integration. This paper focuses on the positive aspects of AI in education, specifically through the lens of a high school geometry project at a technology-focused…

We design a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based pencil drawing learning system for art education on large image datasets to help students study how to draw pencil drawings for images and scenes. The system generates a pencil drawing result for a natural image based on GAN. The GAN network is trained on pencil drawing big datasets containing…

The objective of this research was to determine if and to what extent students' learning of geographic concepts can be improved through incorporation of hands-on play with Play-Doh® and LEGO® and geospatial technologies, specifically drones. The project team conducted six months of biweekly, collaborative instruction at Comstock Middle School in…

Understanding mechanisms underpinning formation of convection currents is pivotal for developing explanations of plate tectonics when teaching Geoscience topics. While student generated diagrams explaining convection currents may be used to evaluate student conceptual understanding and alternative conceptions in this topic, students may need…

Chile is a multi-ethnic Republic; a situation which contradicts itself when one looks at the relationship between the State and its ethnic groups, such as the Aymara in the North. One example of this is the implementation of a state-centric educational model which seems to be homogenizing. Taking a Children's Geographies approach, the following…

Classroom dynamics including interactions among peers and with teachers is a key component of students' STEM experiences, strongly influencing students' motivation to engage in the learning activities. Classroom dynamics and dialogue have been predominantly studied through longitudinal ethnographic observations of the classroom while the…

The aim of this study was to develop a science experimental guidebook for the mainstreamed students with learning disabilities and investigate its effect on their conceptual understanding of physical events. Through case study research methodology, the sample of the study consisted of 12 mainstreamed students with learning disabilities. To collect…

Worksheets are common in science classrooms with an aim to support pupils' meaning-making, e.g., for guiding them in performing hands-on activities and documenting their experiences of such activities. Yet, there have been few systematic studies of pupils' disciplinary representations in worksheets. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics, we…

The aim of the study was to explore the ways in which a Series of Creative Structured Activities (SCSA) involving humor elements, affected the type and quantity of visual and verbal productions of two preschoolers. Researchers agree on the incongruity element of humor (Theory of the Absurd) and violation of expectations (Empowerment Theory). Also,…