In the STEM fields, adequate proficiency in reading and interpreting graphs is widely held as a central element for scientific literacy given the importance of data visualizations to succinctly present complex information. Although prior research espouses methods to improve graphing proficiencies, there is little understanding about when and how…

This paper describes the importance of developing students' reasoning about samples and sampling variability as a foundation for statistical thinking. Research on expert-novice thinking as well as statistical thinking is reviewed and compared. A case is made that statistical thinking is a type of expert thinking, and as such, research…

Instructors' teaching styles in higher education are an issue of major importance because these interactions affect students' self-perceptions, involvement, and achievement. This study aimed to test a theoretical model of relations between perceived teaching styles (autonomy support, structure, and control) and competences, self-efficacy, and…

This study investigated the predictions of two approaches to second language acquisition. According to the usage-based approach, learner knowledge results from the strengths and weaknesses of input-driven statistical learning. According to the learner-varieties approach, pragmatic communication principles and language-internal constraints play…

As a newcomer, the philosophical basis of systems biology seems intuitive and appealing, the underlying philosophy being that the whole of a living system cannot be completely understood by the study of its individual parts. Yet answers to the questions "What is systems biology?" and "What constitutes a systems biology approach in…

The goals for this quantitative study were to examine principals' perceptions regarding supervision and evaluation within their own evaluations. Three research questions guided the inquiry: (1) What are the perceptions of principals' regarding their own supervision?; (2) What are the perceptions of principals' regarding their own evaluation?; and…

Formal training for faculty members who use Learning Management Systems (LMSs) plays an integral part in helping faculty members learn to use the LMS and its features, but unstructured interactions between faculty members with respect to the LMS have the potential to supplement formal LMS training (Buchanan et al., 2013; Samarawickrema &…

We explore how crowdworkers can be trained to tackle complex crowdsourcing tasks. We are particularly interested in training novice workers to perform well on solving tasks in situations where the space of strategies is large and workers need to discover and try different strategies to be successful. In a first experiment, we perform a comparison…

Design education exists to prepare students for design practice. Yet the goal state, design expertise, remains poorly defined. This paper presents a critical cross disciplinary literature synthesizing literature across design, engineering, expertise, creativity, and new evidence from a cognitive task analysis of expert designers to explore…

Background: Numerous studies have identified a gap between the writing skills of engineering program graduates and the demands of writing in the workplace; however, few studies have analyzed the writing of practitioners and students to better understand that gap and inform teaching materials. Purpose: This study sought to compare word-level,…

Rater scoring has an impact on writing test reliability and validity. Thus, there has been a continued call for researchers to investigate issues related to rating (Crusan, 2015). Investigating the scoring process and understanding how raters arrive at particular scores are critical "because the score is ultimately what will be used in making…

Purpose: This study followed a strengths-based approach to identify the pathway children follow as they develop from novice to skillful learners during a mastery-motivational physical education setting. Method: Eleven 4-year-old children (nine boys) participated in a motor activity program delivered twice weekly across 26 weeks. The teacher…

Purpose: This article presents a case study of Kelly, a third-grade teacher enrolled in a literacy leadership course within a Master of Reading program. In this course, practicing teachers completed an assignment in which they implemented a literacy coaching cycle with a colleague, video-recorded their interaction, and conducted critical discourse…

Effective consulting is a key skill for educational developers. Although most educational developers are new to the field, there is limited research about how new practitioners develop consulting skills. The key research question this study explores is: How do new graduate teaching consultants develop as practitioners? This study empirically…

In this article, a physiology instructor with primarily a cardiovascular (CV) background has wondered what approach to take, with both novice and senior learners, when it comes to delivering material on the pressure or flow generation of the heart. A debate surrounds the pressure propulsion versus flow generation theories, where some understand…