In all human cultures, people gesture iconically. However, the evolutionary basis of iconic gestures is unknown. In this study, chimpanzees and bonobos, and 2- and 3-year-old children, learned how to operate two apparatuses to get rewards. Then, at test, only a human adult had access to the apparatuses, and participants could instruct her about…

Darwinian evolution is difficult to understand because of conceptual barriers stemming from intuitive ideas. This study examined understanding of evolution in 52 students (M = 14.48 years, SD = 0.89) before and after a guided field trip to a natural history museum and in a comparison group of 18 students (M = 14.17 years, SD = 0.79) who did not…

Considerable anecdotal evidence indicates that some of the most difficult concepts that both high school and undergraduate elementary-education students struggle with are those surrounding evolutionary principles, especially speciation. It's no wonder that entry-level biology students are confused, when biologists have multiple definitions of…

Research Findings: Educational guidelines recommend a delayed, piecemeal approach to instruction on adaptation by natural selection. This approach is questionable given suggestions that older students' pervasive misunderstandings about adaptation are rooted in cognitive biases that develop early. In response to this, Kelemen et al. (2014) recently…

Science museums often introduce plays to liven up exhibits, attract visitors to specific exhibitions, and help visitors to "digest" difficult content. Most previous research has concentrated on viewers' learning outcomes. This study uses performance and spectator analyses from the field of theater studies to explore the link between…

The main objective of this research is to find out how the teacher candidates who graduated from the Faculty of Theology and study in pedagogical formation program perceive the theory of evolution. Having a descriptive characteristic, this research is conducted with 63 Faculty of Theology graduate teacher candidates of which 36 is women and 27 is…

Games have been used for a long time in teaching and learning. The increasing use of mobile phones makes it possible to link learning outside the classroom with augmented reality (AR). We tested how well the learning of conceptual models can be facilitated by AR games. We present a game designed for the in-service teacher-training workshop to…

Studies of rats and some primates show that rough-and-tumble play among juveniles improves social competence, cognition, and emotional regulation later in life. Most critically, such play makes animals better able to respond to unexpected situations. But not all animals engage in play, and not all animals that play appear to gain these benefits.…

As reported in an earlier article (Russell and McGuigan, 2014), with Nuffield Foundation support, the authors of this article have been exploring with a group of primary teachers the teaching and learning of evolution and inheritance, focusing on conceptual progression. The new National Curriculum for England requires learners to access knowledge…

This exploratory study outlines the perceptions of four Muslim graduate students regarding Islam and its influence on their approach to the teaching and learning of science. All of the four interviewees were enrolled in science related programmes at a Midwestern US university. The interview responses were evaluated both within the frame of the…

The modernization agendas of higher education systems and institutions around the world are littered with debate over definitions of what is a "quality higher education" often paralyzed by the parallax of multiple stakeholder perspectives. Over the last decade or so there has been a hitherto unprecedented appetite for attempting to…

The dissertation, with a collected papers approach, focused on evaluating the implementation of MI curriculum in high school Biology I classes in south Florida. The dissertation included the development and validation of the Biology Identity and Persistence Survey (BIPS), the connection of instructors' teaching practices with students' biology…

One major emphasis of reform initiatives in science education is the importance of extended inquiry experiences for students through authentic collaborations with scientists. As such, unique partnerships have started to emerge between science and education in an ongoing effort to capture the interest and imaginations of students as they make sense…

The present study explores the extent and precision of evolutionary explanations for antibiotic resistance in communication directed toward the Swedish public. Bacterial resistance develops through evolutionary mechanisms and knowledge of these helps to explain causes underlying the growing prevalence of resistant strains, as well as important…

We investigated the online and offline effects of learner and instructional characteristics on conceptual change of a robust misconception in science. Fifty-nine undergraduate university students with misconceptions about evolution were identified as espousing evaluativist or non-evaluativist epistemic beliefs in science. Participants were…