Successful completion of organic chemistry is a prerequisite for many graduate and professional programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, yet the failure rate for this sequence of courses is notoriously high. To date, few studies have examined why some students succeed while others have difficulty in organic chemistry. This…

This research explored the contribution of social goal orientation, specifically, development (improving social skills and relationships), demonstration-approach (gaining positive judgments), and demonstration-avoidance (minimizing negative judgments). Children (N = 373; M age = 7.97, SD = 0.34) were followed from 2nd to 3rd grades. Validity of…

This study examined the prospects and challenges of online guidance and counselling services at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. It considered students' views on the nature of and preferences for online services, and the problems that might potentially be presented in that context. It also surveyed staff in regard to assessing the…

The purpose of this article is to present two very active applied modeling projects that were successfully implemented in a first semester calculus course at Hollins University. The first project uses a logistic equation to model the spread of a new disease such as swine flu. The second project is a human take on the popular article "Do Dogs Know…

The ability to categorize problems based upon underlying principles, rather than surface features or contexts, is considered one of several proxy predictors of expertise in problem solving. With inspiration from the classic study by Chi, Feltovich, and Glaser, we assess the distribution of expertise among introductory physics students by asking…

As educators, the authors believe in guiding students towards the life skills, knowledge, and expertise they need to succeed in life and in the workforce of the 21st century. With that in mind, they have created a project in which students drive their own learning through creativity and collaborative work to develop an efficient product. Through…

Despite the current press to improve school leadership, little scholarly attention focuses on building problem-solving skills in university leadership preparation programmes. This paper reports on two qualitative case studies that examined educational leadership students' probing of school problems through the arts. Fieldwork was used to derive…

Professional doctorates were introduced in the 1990s for practitioners to research "real-world" problems relevant to their respective workplace communities and contexts. An array of difficulties faces professional doctoral students as they transition from professionals to practitioner researchers. This study sought to understand the…

In this article we report the influence of contextual factors on mathematics and science teachers' reasoning in risk-based decision-making. We examine previous research that presents judgments of risk as being subjectively influenced by contextual factors and other research that explores the role of context in mathematical problem-solving. Our own…

Computation instruction continues to be one of the most important aspects of the mathematics curricula. Students who fail to understand and master the foundational components of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are likely to experience mathematics difficulties in both their school and post-school lives. A balanced instructional…

Being told procedures and concepts before problem solving can inadvertently undermine the learning of deep structures in physics. If students do not learn the underlying structure of physical phenomena, they will exhibit poor transfer. Two studies on teaching physics to adolescents compared the effects of "telling" students before and after…

The study's goal was to identify the beginning of 1st grade quantitative competencies that predict mathematics achievement start point and growth through 5th grade. Measures of number, counting, and arithmetic competencies were administered in early 1st grade and used to predict mathematics achievement through 5th (n = 177), while controlling for…

Trash is having a global impact not only on land, but at sea--making its way into the ocean and creating large islands of floating debris. One such island is The Great Pacific Trash Patch, which is located in the North Pacific and is made up of floating trash and debris that is spread out in an area as much as one and a half times the size of the…

This study investigated the effects of cognitive strategy instruction on the mathematical problem solving of three adolescents with spina bifida. Conditions of the multiple-baseline across-individuals design included baseline, two levels of treatment, posttesting, and maintenance. Treatment 1 focused on one-step math problems, and Treatment 2…

To improve students' retention rates in general chemistry, online homework was introduced into our curriculum. Replacing quizzes directly by online homework significantly improved (p less than 0.0005) success rates in second-term general chemistry. Attitudinal Likert survey results indicate that the majority of students completed the online…