The authors describe a Modeling Instruction program that places an emphasis on the construction and application of conceptual models of physical phenomena as a central aspect of learning and doing science. (Contains 1 table.)

Social and anecdotal reports suggest a predilection for visual media among individuals on the autism spectrum, yet no formal investigation has explored the extent of that use. Using a distributed questionnaire design, parents and caregivers report on time allotted toward media, including observable behaviors and communicative responses. More time…

To date there has been very little work on the machine understanding of imprecise diagrams, such as diagrams drawn by students in response to assessment questions. Imprecise diagrams exhibit faults such as missing, extraneous and incorrectly formed elements. The semantics of imprecise diagrams are difficult to determine. While there have been…

Having students show their skills in three dimensions, known as performance-based assessment, dates back at least to Socrates. Individual schools such as Barrington High School--located just outside of Providence--have been requiring students to actively demonstrate their knowledge for years. The Rhode Island's high school graduating class became…

Google's first foray onto the web made search simple and results relevant. With its Co-op platform, Google has taken another step toward dramatically increasing the relevancy of search results, further adapting the World Wide Web to local needs. Google Custom Search Engine, a tool on the Co-op platform, puts one in control of his or her own search…

Two studies were conducted in which two different indicators of metacognitive monitoring were investigated in a complex everyday memory task. In the first phase of each experiment, 8- and 10-year-olds as well as adults were shown a short event (video) and gave judgments of learning, that is, rated their certainty that they would later be able to…

This paper refers to a graph called "grapharti" which I have developed. "Grapharti" is designed to organise and display large amounts of data obtained from surveys, opinion polls, course/teacher evaluations, sports and the stock market. The data are retrieved from a database and displayed on a web page. The purpose of this…

We examined the effect of studying a causal diagram on comprehension of causal relationships from an expository science text. A causal diagram is a type of visual display that explicitly represents cause-effect relationships. In Experiment 1, readers between conditions did not differ with respect to memory for main ideas, but the readers who…

This document presents the proceedings of the 19th Annual Research Forum held June 26, 2014, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 17 action research papers: (1) Using Voices to Change Minds: Oral Performance and Poetry in the English Classroom (Erika Bunpermkoon), (2) Imagining Audiences: The Use…

This article explores the case of a Vietnamese teacher whose conception of teaching changed greatly following a short but intensive series of lessons based on the Japanese experiences with atomic bombs. The following three issues are considered: 1) what types of efforts teachers should make to increase the depth of their lessons, on the basis of…

We investigated whether and how student performance on three types of spatial cognition tasks differs when worked with two-dimensional or stereoscopic representations. We recruited nineteen middle school students visiting a planetarium in a large Midwestern American city and analyzed their performance on a series of spatial cognition tasks in…

Research indicates that when interactive whiteboards are used well they can increase student engagement and learning (Glover, Miller, Averis & Door, 2007; Schuck & Kearney, 2007, 2008). This means it is important to educate future teachers in how to use interactive whiteboards and how to incorporate them successfully into their teaching.…

This article traces the trajectory of one particular scene in the work of three media students writing and filmmaking. The analysis scrutinizes the role of semiotic tools, such as synopsis and storyboard, in students' filmmaking practice. Moreover, the use of interactional data combined with textual data allows for a rich recording of the…

This article provides an innovative meta-framework comprising strategies designed to guide qualitative data collection in the 21st century. We present a meta-framework comprising strategies for collecting data from interviews, focus groups, observations, and documents/material culture. We present a template for collecting nonverbal data during…

The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of reading racetrack and flashcards when teaching phonics, sight words, and addition facts. The participants for the sight word and phonics portion of this study were two seven-year-old boys in the second grade. Both participants were diagnosed with a learning disability. The third participant…