Drawing on cognitive theories, this study intends to investigate the effects of explicit visual cues which have been proposed as a critical factor in facilitating understanding of biological images. Three diagrams from Taiwanese textbooks with implicit visual cues, involving the concepts of biological classification systems, fish taxonomy, and…

Nature experiences are essential for fostering pro-environmental behavior. In this study, a wildlife observation toolbox was provided to students to encourage participation in nature observation clubs. A total of 340 adolescents joined the clubs. We identified the determinants of participation intentions with a mixed approach combing…

This study adopted a quasi-experimental design with follow-up interview to develop a computer-based two-tier assessment (CBA) regarding the science topic of electric circuits and to evaluate the diagnostic power of the assessment. Three assessment formats (i.e., paper-and-pencil, static computer-based, and dynamic computer-based tests) using…

The aim of this study is to apply the jigsaw technique in Social Sciences teaching and to unroll the effects of this technique on learning. The unit "Science within Time" in the secondary 7th grade Social Sciences text book was chosen for the research. It is aimed to compare the jigsaw technique with the traditional teaching method in…

In the US, many federal, state and local school improvement policies rely on teacher professional development (PD) to foster classroom change. Past research suggests PD that has a content focus is the most effective, but that even content-focused PD varies in its effectiveness. Through in-depth interviews of teachers participating in a middle…

Previous work on seductive details has demonstrated that interesting but irrelevant messages hinder students' text learning. Considering that there is little evidence suggesting the relationship between seductive details and prior knowledge, the present study examined how seductive details affect learning in terms of prior knowledge to address the…

The aim of this study is to investigate middle school students' views of scientific inquiry. A total of 489 middle school students (238 from the United States, and 251 from Turkey) participated in the study. The Views of Scientific Inquiry-Elementary (VOSI-E) was used to assess participants' scientific inquiry views. The instrument covered four…

Many studies have shown that students at different age levels come into classrooms with a variety of alternative conceptions. Commonly held alternative conceptions are the main source of the difficulties that students and teachers face in learning and teaching. The aim of this study was to compare the conceptual understanding of students who were…

Background/Context: In response to a shortage of highly qualified teachers, states and school districts have enacted a number of policy innovations over the last two decades. While researchers have evaluated many of these reforms, little is known about the initial effectiveness of individuals with prior teaching assistant experience. We review…

This study was conducted to investigate the academic achievement and perceived peer support levels of 4th-8th grade Turkish elementary and middle school students at low socio-economic status. Factorial design analyses were used to test the statistical effects of gender and preschool education variables on the dependent variables. The findings…

This study explored the differential contribution of cognitive and motivational factors on the comprehension of an expository text in secondary school students. One hundred and fifty-five 7th and 8th grade students were assessed in prior knowledge, inferences, metacognition, reading motivation, topic interest, and reading comprehension of history…

The study followed students in their 10th year of schooling that entered a new secondary education school in order to examine their perceptions of their previous schools' work and of its relationship with the difficulties they experience when in the transition. The analysis of 155 completed questionnaires of previous students of nine basic…

Parental involvement research has greatly expanded over the past decade, but findings are mixed, reflecting in part the conceptual and methodological limitations of many studies. On the basis of longitudinal questionnaire data from 1,685 sixth-grade students, the authors studied parental help with homework because it is the most common and most…

This study investigates the capacity of children to develop map-based skills in spatial orientation in an urban environment unknown to them. In this quantitative study, a total of 328 pupils of grades 3-5 had to achieve specific skills with regard to map-based skills in spatial orientation (such as turning-off skills, transformation from map to…

This study examined the effects of professional development in the form of a teacher study group and a particular discussion approach, Collaborative Reasoning (CR) (Anderson, et al., 2001) upon teachers' questioning and students' levels of thinking during discussion of text. The study explored how five middle school teachers achieved a deeper…