This paper discusses teachers' interpretations of physics diagrammes. The study based on 55 science and non-science teachers, where a qualitative approach was adopted. First, 12 fundamental physics diagrammes were revealed to the teachers, who were asked to think aloud about them. Science teachers and non-science teachers gave similar answers. It…

The purposes of this study were (a) to test the efficacy of whole-class equal-sign instruction, (b) to contrast the effects of symbolic and nonsymbolic instructional representation, (c) to determine whether visual representation compensated for language deficits, and (d) to evaluate maintenance of intervention. We randomly assigned 195 children…

This Instructional Resource focuses on the photographic work of Mississippi artist Eudora Welty (1909-2001). Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for "The Optimist's Daughter," Welty lived most of her life in Jackson, Mississippi. She used photography as a way to create visual "snapshots" that fueled her successful writing career of…

Many students are actively involved with social networking sites; they follow friends in virtual worlds and post personal information and photographs online daily. Although they may not realize it, students are publicly "documenting" their private lives on social media to allow others to learn about them. Understanding documentation as a…

This study investigated (1) the extent to which presentations of measurement error in score reports influence teachers' decisions and (2) teachers' preferences in relation to these presentations. Three presentation formats of measurement error (blur, colour value and error bar) were compared to a presentation format that omitted measurement error.…

This paper contributes a definition of "mobile literacy." This is worthwhile because although mobile, internet-enabled devices are increasingly prevalent in many people's lives, mobile literacy appears to be under-theorised and lacking definition. After giving an overview of the scale and nature of mobile device use, the paper develops…

This article describes how a homework task on climate change is being developed as part of a larger project on sustainability issues -- Urban Science. The ultimate aim of this European project is to improve the teaching of scientific enquiry so that students develop the competences to actively contribute to creating sustainable cities, to…

Students' ability to explain phenomena were compared when they were provided a model versus asked to draw their own model. As part of a pilot test, 1,405 students in the fourth through twelfth grades from across the United States responded to one of three different modeling tasks. Each task presented students with a phenomenon related to energy…

State and school report cards provide a powerful avenue for states to reach families and the broader public as essential partners in improving student outcomes. The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and many state legislatures require states to publish an array of education data including measures at the state, district, and school levels.…

Example use in undergraduate mathematics has been extensively studied. However, little is known about undergraduates' example use in the context of introductory point-set topology. We present a case study of one undergraduate and describe her example use when constructing proofs in the context of introductory topology. We describe her use of a…

Picturebooks aid children's developing social understanding because they are dialogic, relational contexts where child readers have opportunities to engage vicariously with a wide range of imagined others. We use research by literacy and literature scholars, including our own past work, to showcase a series of visual and linguistic elements in…

Statistical literacy involves engagement with the data one encounters. New forms of data and new ways to engage with data--notably via interactive data visualisations--are emerging. Some of the skills required to work effectively with these new visualisation tools are described. We argue that interactive data visualisations will have as profound…

How do diagrams and illustrations affect mathematical problem solving? Past research suggests that diagrams should promote correct performance. However, illustrations may provide a supportive context for problem solving, or they may distract students with seductive details. Moreover, effects may not be uniform across student subgroups. This study…

This paper applied a social semiotic lens toward investigating the metonymic representations repeatedly displayed on the Instagram official account and the Instagram blog. The main source of data were 90 photos gathered from ten "Weekend Hashtag Projects" (WHPs), a weekly photo challenge organized by the Instagram team. The multimodal…

Successful mathematical problem-solving relies on choices about how best to represent and solve problems. In this article, a range of methods and strategies are presented for solving a single mathematical problem, including novel methods posed by in-service teachers at one Australian university. The variety of problem-solving strategies rely on…