Students at the junior high school (JHS) level often cannot use their knowledge of physics for explaining and predicting phenomena. We claim that this difficulty stems from the fact that explanations are multi-step reasoning tasks, and students often lack the qualitative problem-solving strategies needed to guide them. This article describes a new…

This study was undertaken in order to better understand prospective elementary school teachers' motivations for working with fractions before and after taking a course designed to deepen their understanding of mathematics, as well as what instructional practices might be related to any changes detected in their motivations. Eighty-five education…

Effective instruction requires continual assessment of student understanding to identify and redirect misconceptions. This is particularly important when dealing with topics that seem straightforward to the teacher but may go beyond the personal experience of many students, such as the life cycle of flowering plants. Life cycles are a core topic…

This document consists of course materials for adult participants in a graduate-level course in "Survey of Human Resource Development." Following an introductory section on training materials, including a course pretest, and an introduction to graduate study, the course covers the following topics: (1) history of training; (2) behavioral sciences…

Introduction: In recent decades there has been a well warranted interest in the topic of self-regulated learning, or more recently, in developing the competency "learning how to learn". Research has shown substantial differences between those students and teachers who work along these lines, as compared to others who do not. This paper studies the…

This document contains both an instructor's guide and a student guide for a city planning learning activity for technology education classes. The instructor's guide provides the following: an overview of technology education, a summary of activities and supplies needed for students to complete the learning activity, a supplies and materials…

The methods and findings from a program evaluation of a forestry field visit for second grade students are detailed in this article. A pretest, posttest methodology was used to determine changes in students' (n = 133) attitudes and knowledge before and after the field experience(s). Interviews and surveys were conducted with students, teachers (n…

Increasingly, national stakeholders express concern that U.S. college graduates cannot adequately solve problems and think critically. As a set of cognitive abilities, critical thinking skills provide students with tangible academic, personal, and professional benefits that may ultimately address these concerns. As an instructional method, writing…

This packet of materials for a class on medical terminology consists of a collection of stories with highlighted vocabulary, teacher's guide, and student's guide. The materials teach medical terms in a series of stories about a woman named Mary Consola. Each story begins with a list of word parts that will be learned; after the story, new word…

This student manual contains the following six units for classroom and laboratory experiences in high school industrial electronics: (1) introduction and review of DC and AC circuits; (2) semiconductors; (3) integrated circuits; (4) digital basics; (5) complex digital circuits; and (6) computer circuits. The units include unit objectives, specific…