This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Prime Factors Chart (PFC) as an alternative teaching material, which was developed for teaching the concepts within the "factors and multiples" unit in the middle school mathematics curriculum. Twelve middle school mathematics teachers used the PFC to teach concepts, such as prime…

Have you ever noticed trash collecting in streams or waterways? How does trash influence our environment, and what can be done to enact change? These are questions middle school students explored as the authors launched the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) task. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch activity involves an urgent environmental issue that…

R and Python are commonly used software languages for data analytics. Using these languages as the course software for the introductory course gives students practical skills for applying statistical concepts to data analysis. However, the reliance upon the command line is perceived by the typical nontechnical introductory student as sufficiently…

We propose a novel model for learning environments to target the characteristics of digital natives and to improve informal learning practices, i.e. the exploration, discovery and self-monitoring of learning content and the reflection on learning activities. The Mobile Playful Learning Environment (MPLE) model is defined as consisting of seven…

Young adolescents build notions of figures through experiences. When young adolescents begin middle school mathematics, they already have prior assumptions and conceptualizations about shapes (Herbst, Fujita, Halverscheid, & Weiss, 2017). Over years of experiences, interactions, and exposures with a particular concept, these students develop…

Research was reviewed that focussed on the reading comprehension abilities of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Although single-case experimental design (SCD) is an accepted and widely used way in which to evaluate an evidence-based practice, very few studies met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards for evidence-based SCD…

This dissertation sought to understand the evolution of four elementary teachers' (grades 1-3) teaching of science with representations over the course of one year of participation in a multi-structured professional development (PD) project referred to as RepTaL. The notion of learning to teach science using a range of representations is a…

This article draws attention to the discrepancy between how math is taught in special education and general education classrooms, the consequences of this discrepancy, and how teachers can teach higher order math concepts to a wide range of learners, including students with moderate special needs, using empowerment math principles. Students…

Children with intellectual disabilities experience well-documented challenges in the development of problem-solving, particularly related to mathematical word-problem solving. Such challenges are related to both linguistic and conceptual skills. While interventions to assist children in developing conceptual skills are well reported, linguistic…

The Fluid Earth (FE) is an interactive data visualization initially developed for learning about Earth's atmosphere in informal educational settings. In this study, we tested FE in middle school classes to assess student engagement in a formal educational setting. Using a quasi-experimental design, students were assigned to interact with the data…

In recent decades, universities have put considerable emphasis on their 'Third Mission' and have thus expanded their portfolio of core activities to include activities related to university-industry collaboration and science commercialisation. An important mechanism to implement the university's third mission is the creation of academic spinoffs…

This study presents the views of stakeholders in Sub-Saharan Africa SSA on the present status of practical physics teaching in the secondary schools of the region and the obstacles to improvement. Their views have been analysed to establish critical factors that govern practice and have guided the formulation of a system description of the…

The aim of this study is to design, develop, implement and evaluate an accessible mass open learning platform for visually impaired individuals. The study group consists of experts in the field who want to contribute to the study voluntarily with the snowball sampling method and have not used the platform before, with or without visual impairment.…

This article exemplifies the advantages that researchers have if they apply visual methods and in particular photo-elicitation to qualitative research. The research context is post-compulsory education with the field of study being a new vocational degree programme, and the theoretical content of the article draws on the work of Goffman, alongside…

Causal inference regarding a hypothesized mediation mechanism relies on the assumptions that there are no omitted pretreatment confounders (i.e., confounders preceding the treatment) of the treatment-mediator, treatment-outcome, and mediator-outcome relationships, and there are no posttreatment confounders (i.e., confounders affected by the…