Evolution is controversial among students and religiosity, religious affiliation, understanding of evolution, and demographics are predictors of evolution acceptance. However, quantitative research has not explored the unique impact of student perceived conflict between their religion and evolution as a major factor influencing evolution…

The authors outline a new approach to introductory political science courses limited exclusively to political science majors that focuses on democratic development and its intersection with conceptions of "res publica." The course is innovative in that it is for political science majors only, is team-taught, eschews traditional…

Contextualization involves weaving together an interpretation of a document that situates it within its historical context. This study explores how undergraduate students approached the complex cognitive task of contextualizing historical documents. As part of their professional preparation to teach secondary social studies, undergraduate teacher…

With the adoption of instructional laboratories that require students to make their own decisions, there is a need to better understand students' activities as they make sense of their data and decide how to proceed. In particular, understanding when students do not engage productively with unexpected data may provide insights into how to better…

Background: Reading comprehension and writing ability are critical to students' success in introductory psychology. However, these generally are not prerequisites. There is conflicting evidence with regard to the effectiveness of remedial reading and writing classes for students with low placement exam scores. Objectives: To explore whether…

In an undergraduate introductory biology laboratory course, we used a summative assessment to directly test the learning objective that students will be able to apply course material to increasingly novel and complex situations. Using a factorial framework, we developed multiple true-false questions to fall along axes of novelty and complexity,…

This study investigated the role of experiential learning and peer mentors in undergraduate biology at a community college. While the impact on all students was studied, special attention was paid to the effect interventions had on underrepresented minority students. Thirty-three sections of an introductory biology class were randomly assigned to…

The COVID-19 pandemic presented many challenges for educators. In Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), where students learn about the scientific process by working on novel research, few resources for remote learning were available. Here the impact of changes to course delivery format on student learning gains in a…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the stay-at-home order implemented by the New York State Governor, the introductory undergraduate biology courses were changed to an at-home remote learning modality. To provide conceptual learning and hands-on experience, the second semester introductory biology laboratory course utilised a multi-modal learning…

The Mathematics Department at Cornell University has recently secured a grant from the University to implement systemic change in how we teach courses that reach students at critical transition points in their mathematical development. In this article, we report on the changes made to our large multi-section first-semester calculus course in order…

When integrated into pre-service education programs, service learning has the potential to influence teacher candidates' pedagogy, professional dispositions, commitment to teaching, and sensitivity to student differences. Teacher candidates may make biased assumptions about an individual with a particular disability label based upon what they…

This experiment utilized advanced visualization technology for the delivery of an introductory remote sensing lesson in an undergraduate geography course. Given the numerous immersive visualization solutions available, it is now possible to leverage the capabilities of augmented, mixed, and virtual reality (AR, MR, and VR) technology in a…

"A college degree can be a ticket out of poverty." Yet, only 22% of the country's Black population and 15% of the Hispanic population have a minimum of a bachelor's degree, compared with over one-half of Asians and about one-third of whites. Strong academic success in foundation courses and courses that fulfill general education…

Creating opportunities for social justice and diversity discourse within the classroom is increasingly becoming a priority for universities, and especially within the business school. While a designated course requirement may be a useful way to introduce students to social justice and diversity in an in-depth manner, cognitive learning theory…

This study evaluated the impact of a change to the math placement policy at a suburban New York Community College on entering students' math grades. Before the policy change, the community college required new students to take the College Board ACCUPLACER exam and used those scores to place students into math courses. Under the new policy,…