Developing a deeper understanding of scientific concepts is one of the primary goals of science education. To improve students' conceptual understanding, it is necessary to explore the major characteristics of their learning process. Informed by previous work on conceptual understanding, this study focuses on the concept of evaporation, exploring…

During a two-year span, a cohort of K-8 science teachers undertook the task of creating formative assessments aligned with the Next-Generation Science Standards for their individual classrooms. Practice-based professional development was utilized to support teachers in a cyclical manner as they cooperatively developed, administered, and reflected…

Students with strong metacognitive skills are positioned to learn and achieve more than peers who are still developing their metacognition. Yet, many students come to college without well-developed metacognitive skills. As part of a longitudinal study on metacognitive development, we asked when, why, and how first-year life science majors use…

Explicit-reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction has demonstrated a positive impact on student learning. Although explicit-reflective NOS instruction often consists of questions that draw students' attention to NOS ideas, there are few recommendations in the science education literature about how the form of these questions might inform NOS…

Many undergraduate chemistry students hold alternate conceptions related to resonance--an important and fundamental topic of organic chemistry. To help address these alternate conceptions, an organic chemistry instructor could administer the resonance concept inventory (RCI), which is a multiple-choice assessment that was designed to identify…

International large-scale assessments (ILSA) are an important source of information for education policymakers across the globe. Despite sponsors' warnings, when results are published, media attention focuses on country rankings and changes in scores. Score changes are evaluated using a two-sided z-statistic, with statistical significance declared…

Students and educators often face time constraints, making it essential to develop interventions that are both easy to implement and have a substantial impact on learning and performance. One promising strategy is retrieval practice, particularly in the context of physics education, where many students struggle with basic knowledge. Prior research…

Sound waves are one of the important topics studied in physics. However, students' graph representation is still low, leading to their low concept understanding of physics learning. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the learning process to improve students' graph representation by providing a valid and reliable graph representation test…

Student attrition in online courses remains a significant concern, particularly in STEM disciplines. Common pedagogical practices in STEM, such as timed, high-stakes "traditional" exams, may contribute to attrition by adversely affecting cognitive development, student attitudes toward their discipline, and various aspects of motivation.…

Traditional written examinations in higher education face challenges of authenticity and integrity. This study evaluated interactive oral assessments (IOA) as an alternative to traditional written examinations in bioscience education. Using a mixed-methods approach, data from 722 students across multiple offerings of the course (2009-2023) were…

For STEM faculty to approach teaching as a scientist, they must develop tools for data collection and analysis of student learning outcomes. Here, we report a methodology for the development of a learning outcomes assessment instrument and statistical analysis of that instrument that can be undertaken in a short amount of time by a few faculty…

Molecular genetics is often one of the most challenging subjects for students in biology courses. Identifying misconceptions on this subject will help teachers improve teaching and increase student success. Based on this thought, this study aimed to determine students' misconceptions about molecular genetics using a four-tier test. The researcher…

Prior research has demonstrated that students' performance on physics test items can be accurately predicted using machine learning algorithms based on their gaze behavior. These gaze data are typically recorded during item completion and capture students' visual attention to both the verbal item stem and accompanying visual representations, such…

Since its launch in November 2022, chatbot ChatGPT has gained significant popularity worldwide. It performs the task of a search engine, analyzes the information, and generates the required output. ChatGPT is already recognized as a useful tool for educational purposes, but it also comes with some limitations and potential risks. In this case…

This study provides a solid validity inferential network to guide the development, interpretation, and use of machine learning-based next-generation science assessments (NGSAs). Given that machine learning (ML) has been broadly implemented in the automatic scoring of constructed responses, essays, simulations, educational games, and…