This study is intended to review some of the selected researches carried out on students' understandings of enthalpy and spontaneity. The review puts together the important findings of the researches, summarises the misunderstandings identified so far and the possible sources of these misunderstandings. Therefore, this study would be beneficial…

The most recent attempt by educators to emulate the "sound principles" and methods of business and science is to become data-driven. The leaders in a data-driven school are able to demonstrate how some number, preferably scores on standardized tests, has moved upward as a result of some program they have initiated. Data-driven schools also possess…

Before the author started teaching, he expected his classroom experiences to be similar to what he had seen in teaching movies like "Dangerous Minds." For instance, the first day of school in movie is always portrayed as horrible, while the rest of the year is fairly easy. In reality, the first day is fairly easy, while the rest of the year is…

In an exercise designed to assess the accuracy of the impressions we form of people in online settings, students in a Psychology of the Internet course were asked to interact with two people in two different Internet settings. First, students were asked to interact with "Tom" (a college student) in an asynchronous discussion board setting over the…

Self-injury is intentionally injuring one's body without suicidal intent. However, self-injury is often confused with a suicide attempt. Drawing on her experience as a clinical coordinator at an in-patient program for youth who self-injure, the author provides a background on self-injury, then explores how self-injury differs from suicide and why…

The misconceptions that students bring with them, or that arise during instruction, are a critical barrier to learning. Implicit-confidence tests, a simple modification of the multiple-choice test, can be used as a strategy for recognizing student misconceptions. An important issue, however, is whether such tests are gender-neutral. We analyzed…

Scholars disagree about the relative importance of racism and economic inequality, but there's a consensus that both are significant and worthy of study. And much work is devoted to the question of when race matters and when it does not. Michaels recognizes that most poor kids, given their lack of resources, are not adequately prepared to succeed…

An important aspect of developing science literacy for all students is developing science-literate teachers. With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, many middle school teachers found themselves in a position where they were no longer qualified to teach middle school science. This study was designed to help science teachers…

In this article, the Greek primary school teachers' understanding of three current environmental issues (acid rain, the ozone layer depletion, and the greenhouse effect) as well as the emerging images of nature were examined. The study revealed that teachers held several environmental knowledge gaps and misconceptions about the three phenomena.…

Effective instruction requires continual assessment of student understanding to identify and redirect misconceptions. This is particularly important when dealing with topics that seem straightforward to the teacher but may go beyond the personal experience of many students, such as the life cycle of flowering plants. Life cycles are a core topic…

Despite recent talk about the worsening condition of the U.S. workforce, more highly skilled workers are still needed to help America maintain its competitive edge. But that insight doesn't exactly constitute a "Eureka!" moment for community college leaders. In reality, community colleges have been working with industry executives and…

This project explores the experiences of women who mother children with ADHD. The authors use the metaphor of the text and the margin. The text is the "motherhood myth" that describes a particular sort of "good" mothering. The margin is the space beyond that text. This marginal space is inhabited by some or all of the mothers they spoke with, some…

In this article, the authors explore the question, "Does the Moon spin?", and show how the question is investigated. They emphasise the importance of the process by which people work out what they know, by "learning from the inside out." They stress that those involved in science education have to challenge current conceptions and ideas, making…

For ten days in August 2006, Pluto was rarely out of the news as members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) deliberated on its planetary status. For the members of the "News in Science Education" group, based at Queen's University, Belfast, this offered a great opportunity for educators to explore a number of interesting and…

In this work, our goal is to examine the attitude of the Greek scientific community towards Quantum Mechanics and establish the history of teaching of this theory in Greece. We have examined Physics textbooks written by professors of the University of Athens, as well as records of public speeches, university yearbooks from 1923 to 1970, articles…