The purpose of this article is to provide an example of using real world issues as tools for science teaching and learning. Using real world issues provides students with experiences in learning in problem-based environments and encourages them to apply their content knowledge to solving current and local problems.

At large research universities, physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are often responsible for grading in courses at all levels. However, few studies have focused on TAs' grading practices in introductory and advanced physics courses. This study was designed to investigate whether physics graduate TAs grade students in introductory physics…

The use of dynamic geometry software (DGS) is becoming increasingly familiar among teachers, but letting students conduct inquiries using computers is still not a welcome idea. In addition to logistics and discipline concerns, many teachers believe that mathematics at the lower secondary level can be learned efficiently through practice alone.…

Many principal supervisors in the United States work in relative isolation and experience no professional development designed to support them. Over the past four years, the role of principal supervisor in Long Beach Unified School District in California has shifted from compliance and at-a-distance supervision practices to a deeply rooted…

Research has demonstrated that providing labels helps children notice key features of examples. Much less is known about how different labels impact children's ability to make inferences about the structure underlying mathematical notation. We tested the impact of labeling decimals such as 0.34 using formal place-value labels ("3 tenths and 4…

Metaphors are regularly used by mathematics teachers to relate difficult or complex concepts in classrooms. A complex topic of concern in mathematics education, and most STEM-based education classes, is problem solving. This study identified how students and teachers contextualize mathematical problem solving through their choice of metaphors.…

We discuss some aspects of a pilot e-learning technical writing course addressed to 11th grade vocational high school students in Greece. The application of this alternative teaching intervention stemmed from the researcher-instructor's reflections relating to the integration of a problem based e-pedagogy that aims not just to familiarize students…

As part of the design and development of an informal learning environment meant to increase urban middle school students' interest in technology-focused STEM careers, and to support their twenty-first century skill development, researchers developed and administered the ICT/Twenty-First Century Skills Questionnaire. Both STEM-ICT professionals and…

With the release of the Next Generation Science Standards and the adoption of the standards by many states, teachers are encouraged to use the engineering design process (EDP) as an instructional approach to teaching science. However, teachers have limited time to teach science and will often neglect science in favor of mathematics and literacy…

Background: Student affect plays a considerable role in mathematical problem solving performance, yet is rarely formally assessed. In this manuscript, an instrument and its properties are discussed to enable educational psychologists the opportunity to assess student affect. Aims: The study was conducted to norm the CAIMPS (instrument) with gifted…

Many graduate programs for professionals (public policy, public administration, business, international affairs, and others) use client-based experiential learning projects, often termed "capstones," in which students combine theory and practice to benefit an outside client. Increasingly, undergraduate programs use client-based capstones…

In this paper, we document the results of the implementation of a series of activities related to an optimisation problem. The objective is describing how the construction of mathematical meanings is promoted when the students face the problem through different representations. The activities, addressed towards 15 year old students, surge from a…

The relationship between the characteristics of 33 mathematical problem-solving questions answered by 16-year-old students in England and the quality of problem-solving elicited was investigated in two studies. The first study used comparative judgement (CJ) to estimate the quality of the problem-solving elicited by each question, involving 33…

This article overviews the theoretical and applied works of the psychologist and pedagogue Leonid Zankov. Zankov's model of teaching is based on Vygotsky's theory that appropriate teaching methods stimulate cognitive development, whose core notion is the Zone of Proximal Development. This educational psychology research was verified by large scale…

Snowflakes falling in Brisbane, Australia would likely make news headlines during any season of a given year, even during winter. Year 8 students at Ormiston College which is located in Brisbane, have made their own snowflakes--of a kind. Using the programming language Scratch, all Year 8 Mathematics students wrote code to construct Swedish…