As teachers and leaders move forward in implementing the Common Core State Standards within classrooms across 46 states, it is essential to consider the question of what knowledge is included in the English Language Arts Standards, and what knowledge is not present. The authors of the Common Core delineate an increasingly complex body of knowledge…

Most biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, and molecular biology classes have extensive prerequisite or co-requisite requirements, often including introductory chemistry, introductory biology, and organic chemistry coursework. But what is the function of these prerequisites? While it seems logical that a basic understanding of biological and…

Internet-enabled mobile devices have increased the accessibility of learning content for students. Given the ubiquitous nature of mobile computing technology, a thorough understanding of the acceptance factors that impact a learner's intention to use mobile technology as an augment to their studies is warranted. Student acceptance of mobile…

Communities, also called clusters or modules, are groups of nodes which probably share common properties and/or play similar roles within a graph. They widely exist in real networks such as biological, social, and information networks. Allowing users to interactively browse and explore the community structure, which is essential for understanding…

Many scientists have been fascinated by how the brain works, but much of what is known about the brain has been discovered within the last twenty years. In this article, the author explores how thinking and using one's mind are essential to understanding. She contends that children need to be in control of their learning; the adult's role is to…

The primary goal of the current study was to examine the ability of children with autism (ASD) and children with learning disabilities (LD) to improve their metaphoric competence by an intervention program using "thinking maps". Twenty ASD children, 20 LD, and 20 typically developed (TD) children were tested on metaphors and idioms…

Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) brings students into active and reflective engagement with significant life experiences at the nexus of academic and nonacademic cultures. When done successfully, PLA orients students to academic ways of thinking and writing while encouraging self-exploration. Often students feel a sense of empowerment and…

This paper reports on the relationship between the subject matter knowledge of two underqualified teachers and their topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (TSPCK) as they taught genetics at two community secondary schools in Malawi. The study was qualitative and used the multiple case study approach. The sample was purposefully chosen. Data…

The present study tested the "interference hypothesis"-that learning and using more advanced representations and strategies requires the inhibition of prior, less advanced ones. Specifically, it examined the relation between inhibitory control and number line estimation performance. Experiment 1 compared the accuracy of adults' (N = 53)…

Middle school students struggle to explain thermodynamics concepts. In this study, to help students succeed, we use a natural language processing program to analyze their essays explaining the aspects of thermodynamics and provide guidance based on the automated score. The 346 sixth-grade students were assigned to either the critique condition…

This paper aims to provide insight into various properties of live lectures from the perspective of sophomore engineering students. In an anonymous online survey conducted at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, we investigated students' opinions regarding lecture attendance, inherent disadvantages of live…

Effective mathematics teaching for Indigenous language speaking students needs to be based on fair expectations of both students and teachers. Concepts of "age-appropriate learning" and "school readiness" structure assessment expectations that entire cohorts of Indigenous language speaking students are unable to meet. This…

There is growing evidence that targeted instruction can improve diagram comprehension, yet one of the skills identified in the diagram comprehension literature--coordinating multiple representations--has rarely been directly taught to students and tested as a classroom intervention. We created a Coordinating Multiple Representation (CMR)…

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of changing a laboratory physiology course for undergraduate students from a traditional step-by-step guided structure to an inquiry-based approach. With this aim in mind, quantitative and qualitative evaluations of learning outcomes (individual subject-specific tests and group interviews)…

This article reports an investigation of trainee teachers' experience of reflection whilst undertaking a teaching qualification for the post-compulsory sector. The study used a sequential, mixed-methods design, employing a structured questionnaire and a semi-structured interview; 127 individuals completed the questionnaire about their experience…