Laboratory skills assignments were developed as a novel approach to providing students with the opportunity to engage in hands-on laboratory skills development outside of the lab during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, the assignments were implemented within a second-year forensic chemistry course of 48 students and redesigned and modified to be…

The writing-to-learn (WTL) literature is varied in how assignments are structured and implemented in the classroom, making it difficult for instructors to identify how to incorporate writing effectively. Drawing on the WTL literature, the MWrite program was established to work with STEM faculty to design, implement, and assess evidence-based WTL…

Critical thinking is essential in academia and the workforce. Although writing can be used as a pedagogical tool for fostering deeper subject matter understanding, increased retention, and critical thinking, relatively few science courses are writing based. This writing-based introductory science course provided an opportunity for students to…

Epistemic beliefs are one's assumptions about knowledge and knowing. Given the research in educational psychology that established epistemic beliefs as reliable predictors of student success, we devised a pedagogical intervention to improve students' epistemic beliefs. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of the reflective writing task as…

This experimental field study (pre-post-follow-up design) with 184 student teachers examined the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce misconceptions about psychology within an introductory psychology course. For this purpose, over the course's one-semester duration, all students attended six lectures and, in addition, worked individually on…

The paper investigates the potential of utilizing artistic creation as an alternative task for assessing students in a non-artistic course within higher education. Eighteen postgraduate students of the Department of Pedagogy and Primary Education of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, after attending a six-hour course in…

As science and technology create an ecosystem that is becoming increasingly more knowledge-intensive, complex, and interconnected, the next generation science standards include systems thinking and systems modeling among 21st skills that should be fostered. We examined the effect of an online cross-disciplinary learning process on the development…

Resonance is a fundamental concept that is necessary for students' successful learning in organic chemistry. However, there is a need to know more about both (1) what students find important when describing resonance and (2) students' conceptual understanding. This research seeks to address this discrepancy by examining second-semester organic…

Dealing with students' conceptions is one of the central elements of student-oriented teaching. To be able to organize learning processes efficiently, it is necessary to look at the learners in a differentiated way and to approach their conceptions individually. The first necessary step is the individual diagnosis of each student's conceptions.…

Student misconceptions are an obstacle in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses and unless remediated may continue causing difficulties in learning as students advance in their studies. Writing-to-learn assignments (WTL) are characterized by their ability to promote in-depth conceptual learning by allowing students to explore…

Current studies on group work illustrate the importance of student collaboration for enhancing conceptual understanding and participation in science. Research also documents the roles students adopt within group work, with some studies illustrating the underlying power relations. This study sought to expand on prior research literature to…

Environmental content is becoming increasingly important in schools, but teachers may have difficulty grasping accurate knowledge. This study investigated how student teachers construct a conceptual understanding of biodiversity loss in an online environment. Sixty-five first-semester primary student teachers at a Finnish university were given the…

This is an exploratory study considering instructional methods in mathematics education. The study examined misconceptions arising from selected assignments undertaken by sixty-five students. The students were attending a calculus mathematical course unit on limits of functions, in different academic areas offered at selected tertiary institutions…

This report evaluates the use of active, open-ended research problems taken from the instructor's laboratory and assigned as mid-semester projects in Transport Phenomena. Projects are structured in a POGIL [process oriented guided inquiry learning] format and designed to engage students by providing them the opportunity to impact real research…

Research suggests that by allowing English Learner (EL) students to use their home languages in science class, they can better express their thinking and build content knowledge through underlying crosslinguistic awareness between languages. However, EL students' educational backgrounds and home languages are incredibly varied. In this case study,…