With the growing popularity of Virtual Reality (VR), the integration of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework provides insights into its role in facilitating student learning in VR environments. VR offers immersive experiences and visualization of abstract concepts. However, the abundance of information in VR can be overwhelming without proper…

Much of the focus of international comparative studies of students' achievement has been on New Zealand students' falling standards. Using the most recent findings from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and, in particular, Year 9 New Zealand students' performance in specific items, this article suggests that there…

Ninth-grade students with learning difficulties typically underperform those without learning difficulties, particularly in an integrated geoscience course. Despite the growing demand for STEM careers, science remains challenging to understand and inaccessible to many, especially those with learning difficulties (Vavougios et al., 2016).…

Using transformative experience theory as a framework, we investigate the potential of utilizing mobile technology and social media to foster deep-level engagement in the form of connections between in-school and out-of-school experience. A ninth-grade Earth science teacher instructed students to take pictures with their mobile devices when they…

In this mixed method study, we analyse the effectiveness of two pedagogical approaches -- one model-based and another non-model-based -- for developing secondary students' understanding of the phenomenon of increase in Earth's average surface temperatures, a core dimension of global climate change (GCC). Building on past research on teaching and…

Fall 2020 presented myriad challenges for teachers trying to plan curricula to meet students' social-emotional and learning needs following an unprecedented spring and summer of isolation and loss due to the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (Rivera and Wallace 2020). The result of creative planning and adjusting of curricula for remote instruction…