Previous studies have shown that students often ignore molecular mechanisms when describing genetic phenomena. Specifically, students tend to directly link genes to their encoded traits, ignoring the role of proteins as mediators in this process. We tested the ability of 10th grade students to connect genes to traits through proteins, using…

After spending a year working on the development of a new online Master's programme in higher education, members of the development team were interviewed to reveal their thoughts about the nature of the programme. The dialogue of each interview was summarised as a concept map. Analysis of the resulting maps included a modified Bernsteinian…

This study aimed at exploring the quality of teaching materials developed by prospective mathematics teachers and their viewpoints on developing teaching materials. It was carried out with 170 prospective teachers from 4 classes in the Fall Semester of 2014-2015 Academic Year. During the first 8 weeks of the 14-week-long study, the theoretical…

Institutional effectiveness (IE) is required for colleges and universities by the six regional accrediting agencies for education in the United States, but the creation of cyclical, systemic, ongoing IE plans has proven to be a challenge for institutions, and especially for community colleges. The literature indicates faculty resist IE work when…

This study used situational grounded theory to explore the potential impact of systemic design on 21st century education. Situational analysis grounded theory (Clarke, 2005) was selected over three other established grounded theory methods because it provided a suitable foundation to chart the complexities of systemic design and contemporary…

In this study, concept map activities were used to trigger group discussions about inclusive education, with a focus on learners with disabilities. The participants were 226 Tanzanian student teachers. This article reports and discusses how the maps were analysed and what they indicate about the students' thinking about certain aspects of…

In 2014, we published a concept mapping study on the social exclusion of children with learning and intellectual disabilities at school. Our study had two goals: to provide insight into why social exclusion was happening and to determine whether children could be participants in a concept mapping study. Concept mapping is a six-step mixed-methods…

Concept mapping is a research method often used to assess participants' knowledge of a topic. Our project studied how preservice teachers' knowledge of challenging behaviour changes (or not) during their final professional teaching experience. We asked the participants to make a concept map before and after their final professional teaching…

The WAEC Chief Examiner's report of 2013 pointed out that mass failure in geography had badly affected students who have the desire to study science related subjects in our Universities. The poor image of geography among students was attributed partly to its wide content and partly to the old fashioned approach to its teaching. This study…

Among policy makers, there is an ongoing discussion about the need to improve undergraduate education in science and engineering. With many undergraduate students being taught by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), it is important to explore the development of STEM knowledge for teaching by GTAs. This study follows ten GTAs as they participated…

The research assessed secondary school students' conceptions of acid-base strengths by using the conceptual change instruction accompanied with concept maps and analogies. These teaching strategies were employed to help them make unfamiliar events familiar. Within a quasi-experimental design, the sample of the study consisted of 73 secondary…

This research article is part of a periodic study conducted to understand, model, map and to develop an integrated approach for effective and interactive self-learning phases of Thai International Hospitality and Tourism higher education students. Questionnaire containing both qualitative and quantitative questions was distributed at the beginning…

There is growing interest in the adoption of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP) in a variety of contexts. Continuing professional development (CPD) among practitioners in the effective adoption of OER and OEP is critical in this scenario. Massive open online courses (MOOCs), which also grew as part of the open…

Despite widespread agreement among ELT researchers that vocabulary lies at the heart of communicative competence, currently no consensus exists as to how learning of previously presented lexical items can be guaranteed. Given the inconclusiveness of findings, the present study attempted to delve into the differences in the learning of target…

The nature and relevance of race and racism make it a critical topic to explore. We assert that social studies classrooms are appropriate places to engage in that exploration. However, although there are myriad resources to support teaching about racism, many teachers largely avoid the topic. To address this challenge, we used a classroom-based…