Although current reform movements have stressed the importance of developing prospective middle school mathematics teachers' subject matter knowledge and understandings, there is a dearth of research studies with regard to prospective middle school teachers' confidence and knowledge with respect to quadratic functions. This study was intended to…

Nakheel, a Dubai World Company has created the world's largest themed mall based on the narrative of Ibn Battuta, a 14th century Muslim explorer whose world travels are well documented. The Ibn Battuta Mall is located in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and utilizes a communication strategy called edutainment: a neologistic…

Background/Context: This article explores the experiences of one Mexican American family as they make a key curriculum choice for their 9-year-old son. Relatively little attention has been paid to parents' beliefs, attitudes, and, in particular, experiences as they actively engage in--and sometimes affect--their children's schooling. Parents'…

This article describes the methods and impact of a student-teacher-scientist research partnership on student attitudes. The partnership objective was to teach students about the diverse roles of sharks in the marine environment while personally connecting students with scientific study. Students (N = 229) participated in lessons about shark…

The purpose of this article is to identify tobacco and cannabis co-consumptions and consumers' perceptions of each substance. A qualitative research including 22 youths (14 males) aged 15-21 years in seven individual interviews and five focus groups. Discussions were recorded, transcribed verbatim and transferred to Atlas.ti software for narrative…

The word "gifted," when used to describe children's intellectual abilities, evokes varied opinions in teachers, caregivers, and families of young children. Some attitudes are positive, others negative, while still others are built upon misconceptions about individuals who are gifted. Giftedness occurs in people from infancy through adulthood.…

This study describes the conceptual understanding for a series of fundamental organic concepts by fourth year chemistry students from a midsize, southeastern, state university. Student volunteers (n = 19) participated in semi-structured interviews using a think aloud protocol. The interview questions were eleven multiple choice questions selected…

Energy is a critical concept in physics problem-solving, but is often a major source of confusion for students if the presentation is not carefully crafted by the instructor or the textbook. Confusion can be caused by the careless use of language in energy discussions. Students consciously or unconsciously imitate a teacher in their use of…

Children's trade books about science may be playing an increasing role in science instruction; however, the potential effects on student learning are unknown. To investigate whether a subset of books would be appropriate for classroom instruction about a specific science topic (plant reproduction), a selection of children's books about plants was…

Since Widodo, Duit and Muller (2002) addressed that there is a gap between teacher's theoretical knowledge and their practical classroom constructivist behavior, we presented a sample teaching activity about Endothermic-Exothermic Reactions for teacher usage. Therein, the aim of this study is to design a 5E model to include students' alternative…

Concept cartoons are cognitive drawings or "visual disagreements" that use a cartoon-style design to present mathematical conversations inside speech bubbles. The viewpoints portrayed are all different and it is this difference that acts as a catalyst for further conversations, as learners talk together to discuss their thinking. They make…

Given the commonness of pets in communities throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia, among other countries, pet stewardship should be a natural topic of study for the integration of science, mathematics, and technology. Therefore, the term "stewardship" will be examined by applying observation and research to shape our…

Within the broad background of English language education in Brazil, this paper intends to discuss two questions. Firstly, where and why a common misconception about ESP being identified as the teaching of reading only originated, and secondly, given the social role of English in the Brazilian context, whether an ESP approach can be seen as more…

As policy makers and educators respond to legislation promoting the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms, there is sometimes confusion about why this is being done and how it can be accomplished effectively. In this article, two categories of fallacies, or misunderstandings, are identified. The first fallacy is…

The derivative is not only an important subject for mathematics but also is an important subject for engineering, physics, economy, chemistry, and statistics. Especially, mathematics depends on strongly preceding learning and the subject of derivative will be used in university education by all students. Therefore, it is one of the most important…