Research-based assessments (RBAs) measure how well a course achieves discipline-specific outcomes. Educators can use outcomes from RBAs to guide instructional choices and to request resources to implement and sustain instructional transformations. One challenge for using RBAs, however, is a lack of comparative data, particularly given the skew in…

During the course of international curriculum reform, decision making about socioscientific issues (SSI)--open-ended controversial issues with connections to science, technology, and society--has been labeled a critical tool for achieving scientific literacy. Therefore, enhancing students' socioscientific decision making as part of science…

In the ever-changing landscape of educational practice and policy, educators oftentimes find it difficult to obtain adequate training and resources. This places a unique burden on education researchers to develop both content materials as well as professional development programs. The adoption and implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind…

We report the combined use of Wikispaces (wikis) and collaborative group problem solving (CGPS) sessions conducted in introductory-level calculus-based physics classes. As a part of this new teaching tool, some essay-type problems were posted on the wiki page on a weekly basis and students were encouraged to participate in problem solving without…