Mairead Hourigan and Aisling Leavy describe a range of teaching and learning activities focusing on the identification and classification of 2-dimensional shapes. The activities described are useful in highlighting students' misconceptions regarding non-traditioanl and non-prototypical shapes.

This paper describes an interdisciplinary investigation of students' usage of ideas about energy from physics in the context of introductory chemistry. We focus on student understanding of the idea that potential energy is a function of distance between interacting objects, a concept relevant to understanding potential energy in both physical and…

This article traces the emergence of the world culture theory in comparative education using critical discourse analysis. By chronicling the emergence and expansion of world culture theory over the past four decades, we highlight the (unintended) limitations and exclusive regimes of thought that have resulted. We argue that the theory's…

Critical thinking pedagogy is misguided. Ostensibly a cure for narrowness of thought, by using the emotions appropriate to conflict, it names only one mode of relation to material among many others. Ostensibly a cure for fallacies, critical thinking tends to dishonesty in practice because it habitually leaps to premature ideas of what the object…

In this article, Bryan Goodwin delves into the reason behind addictive use of smartphones, tablets, netbooks, and e-readers, and considers whether introducing them into classrooms will help or hinder learning.

A didactic sequence is proposed for the teaching of chemical equilibrium law. In this approach, we have avoided the kinetic derivation and the thermodynamic justification of the equilibrium constant. The equilibrium constant expression is established empirically by a trial-and-error approach. Additionally, students learn to use the criterion of…

The article, "Using Animations in Identifying General Chemistry Students' Misconceptions and Evaluating Their Knowledge Transfer Relating to Particle Position in Physical Changes" (Smith and Villarreal, 2015), reports that a substantial proportion of undergraduate students expressed misconceived ideas regarding the motion of particles in…

During the last reform, Slovakia has reduced geometry in curriculum in primary mathematics education. Pre-school education schools devote more time to geometry in curriculum, but this is not mandatory for all the children. In the primary schools, teachers devote very little lessons time to this problem. These lessons are mainly focused on…

The religion of Islam is often portrayed with false and negative stereotypes. If we expect our students to understand and participate in the global world and to be informed and engaged citizens in a democratic America, then it is essential that they develop a basic and sound understanding of Islam. Furthermore, learning about Islam can facilitate…

Studies in chemistry education show that chemistry topics are considered as abstract, complicated and hard to understand by students. For this reason, it is important to develop new materials and use them in classes for better understanding of abstract concepts. Moving from this point, a student-centered research guided by a teacher was conducted…

Until now various quantitative studies have shown that adults and students in the Netherlands have low flood risk perceptions. In this study we interviewed fifty 15-year-old students in two different flood prone areas. In order to find out how they think and reason about the risk of flooding, the mental model approach was used. Flood risk turned…

Mobile learning (mLearning) in the open and distance learning landscape, holds promise and provides exciting new opportunities. In order to understand and embrace these opportunities within various contexts and circumstances it is imperative to understand the essence of the phenomenon. In this regard, we first need to understand the core…

Reflection has recently been emphasized as a constructive pedagogical activity. However, little attention has been given to the quality of reflections that students write. In this study, we explored the reflections that students make about their knowledge organization as part of a formative learning activity. More specifically, we assessed the…

A visual representation, such as a diagram, can be a powerful strategy for solving mathematical word problems. However, using a representation to solve mathematical word problems is not as simple as it seems! Many students with learning disabilities struggle to use a diagram effectively and efficiently. This article provides a framework for…

The topic of pressure and buoyancy is one that encompasses both invisible and abstract conceptions and about which students have misconceptions. The purpose of this research was to research the effectiveness of three different methods of teaching physics (conceptual change-based, real life context-based and traditional learning on upper-secondary…