There are many questions to be asked about the pedagogical practice of questioning. Questions provide insight into what students at any age or grade level already know about a topic, which provides a beginning point for teaching. Questions reveal misconceptions and misunderstandings that must be addressed for teachers to move student thinking…

Concept learning in science and mathematics had often times been taught based on assumptions of alternative concepts or even in some instances based on misconceptions. Some educational researchers favour a constructivist approach in teaching science and mathematics. The constructivist literature existing makes use of alternative conceptions as…

Purpose: With a philosophical stance in relation to education, this paper aims to discuss different understandings of participation in an information and communication technology (ICT)-supported distance-based teacher education program in Sweden. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on early results from two studies, both of which…

This study explores changes of the tenth-grade students' conceptions about acids and bases by using conceptual change text oriented instruction accompanied with analogies. Since conceptual change is viewed not only as a process of replacement of old concepts but also a process of learning to relate ideas to appropriate contexts, the instruction…

We designed an interrupted case study to teach aerobic cellular respiration to major and nonmajor biology students. The case is based loosely on a real-life incident of rotenone poisoning. It places students in the role of a coroner who must determine the cause of death of the victim. The case is presented to the students in four parts. Each part…

The myths and misconceptions surrounding the topic of sexuality and people with developmental disabilities were examined to better understand the detrimental effects they were having on the sexual health of individuals with developmental disabilities. Persons with developmental disabilities are often infantilised and viewed as asexual. This…

This study compares segregation levels in Milwaukee public schools and in private schools participating in the Milwaukee voucher program. Using a segregation index that measures the difference between the percent of students in a school who are white and the percentage of school-age children in the greater metro area who are white, it finds that…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the benefits of on-line learning for adult learners and to further demystify three common misconceptions concerning on-line learning: students certainly do receive support from their on-line professors, the professor is pro-active rather than passive, and students may be more motivated to learn than in…

Although most high school students want their biology classes to include evolution, most high school biology classes in Minnesota do not emphasize evolution. This lack of an emphasis on evolution defies state educational standards and is associated with most students (high school and college) having serious misconceptions about evolution. The…

Biology students in their first year at university have difficulty understanding the abstract concepts of photosynthesis. The traditional didactic lecture followed by practical exercises that show various macroscopic aspects of photosynthesis often do not help the students visualise or understand the submicroscopic (molecular-level) reactions that…

Some women have various misconceptions about technology careers. Some of them think that one has to be a geek in order to become a computer scientist. When the Women in Computing Group at Indiana University (WIC@IU) was looking for ideas on how to increase the number of women in computing majors at IU, the authors realized that women were turning…

Many students find the leap from arithmetic to algebra a difficult one to make, and current literature suggests that a number of the common misconceptions held by students arise as a result of the methods which teachers use to present algebra. The abstract nature of algebra makes it difficult for students to grasp; students also struggle with the…

This study examined awareness of equivalence and relational thinking exhibited by 30 preservice elementary teachers in order to assess their initial preparedness to engage students in these two important aspects of early algebraic reasoning. Findings indicated that preservice teachers collectively demonstrated an awareness of relational thinking…

This paper challenges some of the ill-informed and misleading assumptions made about Maori students and their whanau, and about Maori teachers and education professionals. In particular it examines four prominent assumptions that impact on Maori, namely: We are all New Zealanders; We know all about Maori students and praise; We know what whanau…

Scientific literacy is the ultimate goal in science education world-wide; especially in this modern society of science and technology. How to help individuals to make good judgments and promote their skills of argumentation becomes an important issue. Meanwhile, in the Information Age, visual image is an important medium for conveying information.…