A common misconception about dissolving is that heating and/or stirring are required for the dissolving process to occur. In this study, quantitative experimental evidence was collected and analyzed to demonstrate that neither heating nor stirring is required for dissolving. Educators can use the data and results in this study to address this…

Research-based assessment instruments (RBAIs) are ubiquitous throughout both physics instruction and physics education research. The vast majority of analyses involving student responses to RBAI questions have focused on whether or not a student selects correct answers and using correctness to measure growth. This approach often undervalues the…

In this article, we describe the main phases in the development and validation of a questionnaire measuring secondary students' teleology and essentialism conceptions in the context of genetics. The validation process involved 714 Swiss and French secondary school students from 14 different schools. The process included interviews, several pilot…

Students hold many alternative conceptions of thermal physics which are very resistant to change. A conceptual change strategy, the thinking frames approach, based on evidence from educational research was used to address commonly held naïve conceptions about heat in a series of thermal physics lessons. Students' gains in conceptual understanding…

Understanding resonance is essential to predict chemical reactivity and explain reaction mechanisms. Despite its importance in the organic curriculum, few studies have explored students' difficulties with this concept and faculty's instructional approaches to teaching it. The goals of this study are to address this gap in the literature by (1)…

This research aims to develop a falling chain experiment apparatus using kitchen scales and digital cameras (smartphones). Digital cameras were used to observe and record changes in the mass of falling chains measured using kitchen scales. Video recordings from observations of falling chain masses were analysed using Tracker 5.1.1 software. The…

In an effort to examine students' understanding about the structure of boundary conditions in upper-division courses, think-aloud interviews were conducted in the context of both quantum mechanics and electricity and magnetism. In the quantum mechanics task, students were presented with a standard potential step scenario. In the electricity and…

Anatomy and Physiology courses taught at community colleges tend to focus laboratory hours primarily on anatomy as opposed to physiology. However, research demonstrates that, when instructors utilize active learning approaches (such as in laboratory settings) where students participate in their own learning, students have improved outcomes, such…

The use of visual metaphors has received growing attention in recent years, but their widespread use is not without certain challenges. The most common critique of visual metaphors in teaching indicates that they can be misleading as the meaning attributed by the recipient can be far apart from the intended one. This can make learning less…

The purpose of this guide is to provide strategies and materials for developing and implementing lessons for students who need intensive instruction in the area of place value, numeracy, and counting. Resource room teachers, math interventionists, and others working with struggling students may find this guide helpful. Within college- and…

Purpose: This paper identifies two conceptualizations of teacher leadership -- constructivist leadership theory and sociocultural theory. Using aspects of the conceptualizations, this paper provides direction for future study into and implementation of teacher leadership. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws from both review and empirical…

The abstract nature of quantum mechanics makes it difficult to visualize. This is one of the reasons it is taught in the language of mathematics. Without an opportunity to directly observe or interact with quantum phenomena, students struggle to develop conceptual understandings of its theories and formulas. In this paper we present the process of…

This article demonstrates how removing algebraic representations and mathematical conventions, such as the vertical line test, and focusing on a real-world context can support students' development of essential understandings of the function concept. To do this, the authors present a lesson that engages students with a GeoGebra-based applet using…

The development, testing, and classroom implementation of a low-cost, reproducible, desktop sized, highly visual double-pipe heat exchanger are presented. Quantitative measurements with the module reveal its usefulness for demonstrating basic and advanced convective heat transfer theory while worksheet-guided inquiries promote student engagement.…

Probabilistic reasoning underpins much of middle school students' future work in data analysis and inferential statistics. Unfortunately for many middle school students, probabilistic reasoning is not intuitive. One specific area in which students seem to struggle is determining the probability of compound events (Moritz and Watson 2000). Research…