This article describes the implementation of alternative grading (AG) strategies in an upper-division kinesiology and functional human anatomy course. Traditional point-based grading systems can negatively impact student mental health, decrease intrinsic motivation, and hinder learning. To address these issues, a proficiency-based grading approach…

This study seeks to determine whether giving an explicit incentive to students in an upper-division first-semester electromagnetism course (EM1), in the form of partial credit for reworking unit exam problems, will improve their problem-solving skills as measured by performance on identical problems on the final exam. Three problems--a primarily…

Enrollment in high school physics across the United States of America is notably lower than in other scientific disciplines. Given that physics serves as a prerequisite for admission into many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degree programs, the lack of completion of this course at the high school level can significantly…

This research explores the effect of mental model-based learning on understanding school chemistry. The learning activity included group discussion, presentation and class discussion. Pre-service chemistry teachers (PCT) analyzed school chemistry topics in relation to essential underlying concepts. The development of mental models was monitored…

We investigate a personal response system (PRS) pedagogy for lecture halls that encourages active engagement yet lowers barriers for implementation by eliminating the need to address student requests to make up questions because students must answer (not necessarily correctly) only more than half (greater than or equal 50%) of PRS questions to…

We conducted two studies to investigate the extent to which brief, spaced, mastery practice on skills relevant to introductory physics affects student performance. The first study investigated the effect of practice of "specific" physics skills, each one relevant to only one or a few items on the course exam. This study employed a…

Electricity and magnetism are fundamental areas of physics and are integral to science curricula at various educational levels. However, this area has been reported to contain several concepts that students find challenging, leading to perspectives that diverge from scientifically accepted views. This study examines the errors made by physics…

Feedback best practices support timely, high-quality feedback with application opportunity. Multiple attempts on assessments support learning gains. A learning management system can be used to automatically provide feedback for application on a future assessment attempt. Current research has not thoroughly investigated the student impacts or…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of individual and school average achievement on students' self-concept in science. The data of the last four Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) cycles were used, and a two-stage individual data meta-analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between…

Science student development of creative thinking ability is not sufficiently promoted and can even be inadvertently discouraged by current methods of instruction. Aimed at addressing this issue, the present study examined an undergraduate biology course in which scientific content instruction and creative drawing were integrated through use of…

The purpose of this research is to determine the scientific literacy levels of students in 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades of high school by using the scientific literacy research test. In the study, it was investigated whether there is a significant difference in scientific literacy among students studying at different levels in secondary…

Lack of proper laboratories and inadequate facilities have become some of the factors affecting chemistry practical in Nigeria which therefore affects students' performance. While there were many studies conducted on the effectiveness of mobile learning, literature remains very scarce in the Nigerian context. In order to tackle this problem, using…

So far, instruments to measure genetic literacy that encompass global genetic issues are limited. In addition, instruments that assess practical knowledge and comprehensively evaluate genetic literacy skills have yet to be developed. Therefore, this research aimed to develop, validate, and improve an instrument based on a new conceptual framework…

Achieving deeper and permanent learning has always been the focus of teaching force. This purpose is independent of the teaching level or subject matter. Pre-service teachers' lack of interest and inability to connect learning levels are partly cited for their inability to develop this deeper and permanent learning of science concepts. In this…

Examination of my students' individual gains on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) over the course of several semesters led to the realization that student pretest knowledge on certain key questions appeared to be correlated to enhanced gain during the class. Acting under the hypothesis that early intervention aimed at helping the class perform…