Archimedes' principle has been and still is a complicated concept to understand by introductory students, especially as typically stated in physics textbooks. Take for example its statement by Bierman: "When a body is fully or partially submerged in a fluid, a buoyant force from the surrounding fluid acts on the body. The force is directed…

From the beginning of the September 2020 school year, in an effort to engage children in school life again after a lengthy absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rebecca Towner-Yates' school has adopted a 'quest' approach to learning. The concept has its roots firmly embedded in Dorothy Heathcote's 'Mantle of the Expert' (MoE) (Heathcote and…

This study explored how to effectively apply gamification design principles to improve the quantity and quality of online discussions. Based on a game design framework: Playing Experience of Needs Satisfaction (PENS), two specific gamification design principles: (1) aligning gamification awards with specific performance expectations; and (2)…

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) as combines a teacher's knowledge of teaching and content so that the specific content is easy for students to understand. This study aimed to investigate the teacher's PCK in teaching decimals after mentoring by the research center of the Indonesian Realistic Mathematics Education (PRP-PMRI) team. This…

Are you frustrated when students focus on "getting the right answer" without understanding why the physics works that way, or even why their own brains came to that conclusion? If so, this might be less about the student and more about the pedagogy--you might be stuck on the "One True Path," a way of thinking "that assumes…

The aim of this paper is to show how an innovative technique can be used to introduce a method for uncovering intrinsic mechanisms that motivate changes in students' mental models. The theoretical framework used to develop the method is based on the ONEPSY (ONtology, EPistemology and PSYchology) model. The ONEPSY model is rooted in the theoretical…

Contemporary education policy--which fixates on "the impact agenda" and tailors academic pursuits to narrow utilitarian (read "economic" and "employment") aims--emphasizes measurable results starting as early as kindergarten. Whether the education experience fosters anything approximating a love of learning seems to…

The aim of this article is to propose a didactical approach to establish appropriate relations between different kinds of chemical knowledge and explanations at the macro and the submicro level. Incorrectly moving between these two levels is regarded as the cause of many misconceptions in school chemistry, and several theoretical frameworks have…

The topic of Bayesian updating is explored using standard and non-standard dice as an intuitive and motivating model. Details of calculating posterior probabilities for a discrete distribution are provided, offering a different view to P-values. This article also includes the stars and bars counting technique, a powerful method of counting that is…

Have you ever taught "head on the table" physics students and wondered how to increase engagement? If so, I have two stories for you! Davon and Cynthia--both case study students--struggled with traditional physics but showed great promise with developing personalized physics problems.

Multifactorial models of dyslexia have expanded how we consider heterogeneity within the population of children with dyslexia. These models are predicated on the idea that cognitive/linguistic risk factors are not deterministic but instead probabilistic, with the likelihood of difficulties involving an interaction between risk and protective…

Many proofs of the arithmetic mean harmonic mean inequality have been proposed based on the rich connections between mathematics and physics. Sometimes the Arithmetic Mean Harmonic Mean inequality is proved by using electric networks. In this note, we use a simple set of two springs, instead of four springs which would be the equivalent set to…

The authors look back on their participation in three successful multiyear research studies focused on multifaceted vocabulary instruction and distill four overarching lessons that provide practical guidance to schools and teachers interested in implementing effective comprehensive vocabulary instruction. Specifically, they elaborate on the value…

In this theoretical article, the qualities of the artist for peacebuilding and peace education are explored. Peacebuilding and peace education are not only based on skills and knowledge, but also on art, a creative process that originates in our imagination. The question guiding this paper is: How can we, as peacebuilders and educators, imagine,…

One of the topics within the course of Essential Concepts in School Mathematics (ECSM) for prospective mathematics teachers concerns maximum and minimum problems. This type of problems requires mathematization, i.e., the activity of transforming a problem into a symbolic mathematics problem and of reorganizing within the mathematical system, in…