Gross participation and throughput rates in higher education institutions in South Africa indicate an inequitable and poorly functioning system. This interpretive study argues for an approach that enhances epistemological and ontological access and examines how an intervention that includes an overt approach in dealing with the nature of science,…

One proven strategy to help students make sense of abstract concepts is to sequence instruction so students have exploratory opportunities to investigate science before being introduced to new science explanations (Abraham and Renner 1986; Renner, Abraham, and Birnie 1988). To help physical science teachers make sense of how to effectively…

The purpose of this study was to compare different conceptual change methods within a topic on "sound propagation". The study was conducted with 80 grade 5 students (aged 11-12 year old) drawn from four cohort classes in an elementary school on the north coast of Black Sea Region in Turkey. While one class was assigned as a control…

In the Slovenian National Mathematics Curriculum the probability contents are first mentioned in the ninth grade of elementary school (at the age of 14), yet they are introduced informally, only in some first triad textbook sets. The researchers disagree as to the age of children at which they are able to deal with certain probability contents. In…

In this study, the effect of animation enhanced conceptual change texts (CCT-CA) on grade 6 students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter (PNM) and transformation during the phase changes was investigated. A quasi-experimental design and one control group (CG, N = 25) and one experimental group (EG, N = 26) were used. While the…

Good evaluation requires that evaluation efforts themselves be evaluated. Many things can and often do go wrong in evaluation work. Accordingly, it is necessary to check evaluations for problems such as bias, technical error, administrative difficulties, and misuse. Such checks are needed both to improve ongoing evaluation activities and to assess…

The purpose of this study was to measure the difference in achievement between those students enrolled in a beginning-level, university Algebra course in southeastern Idaho university the spring semester of 2012 who received an Algebra Exponents and Polynomials instructional unit in a traditional face-to-face setting and those students who…

The study of teaching and learning during the period of translating ideals of reform into classroom practice enables us to understand student-teacher-researcher symbiotic learning. In line with this assumption, the purpose of this study is threefold:(1) observe effects of the "Common Knowledge Construction Model" (CKCM), a conceptual…

We set out to understand how different instantiations of inquiry emerged in two different years of one elementary teacher's classroom. Longitudinal observations from Mrs. Charles' 5th grade science classroom forced us to carefully and deliberately consider who exactly was responsible for the change in the class activities and norms. We provide…

This article explores the deployment of triangulation in the service of uncovering subjugated knowledge and promoting social change for women and other oppressed groups. Feminist approaches to mixed methods praxis create a tight link between the research problem and the research design. An analysis of selected case studies of feminist praxis…

In 2 related studies framed by social constructivism theory, the authors explored a fine-grained analysis of adolescents' civic conceptual knowledge and skills and investigated them in relation to factors such as teachers' qualifications and students' classroom experiences. In Study 1 (with about 2,800 U.S. students), the authors identified 4…

The theoretical framework of conceptual change has gained growing influence for analysing learning difficulties. The article pleads for combining conceptual change approaches in the learning sciences with established categories from mathematics education research, such as "Grundvorstellungen" and epistemological obstacles. These didactic…

Evocation of motor representations during sentence comprehension was examined by training subjects to make a hand action in response to a visual cue while listening to a sentence. Sentences referred to manipulable objects that were either related or unrelated to the cued action. Related actions pertained either to the function of the object or to…

Building on the papers in this special issue as well as on our own experience and research, we try to shed light on the construct of "example spaces" and on how it can inform research and practice in the teaching and learning of mathematical concepts. Consistent with our way of working, we delay definition until after appropriate reader experience…

There are some fundamental--i.e., "essential"--differences between conceptual change theory and a rigorously applied discourse approach to the question of what and how people know. In this rejoinder, I suggest that the differences are paradigmatic because, among others, the units of analysis used and the data constructed are irreconcilably…