The primary purpose of this study was to compare academic variables from students participating in mixed teaching methods/course revitalization biology courses to those in traditional courses at two community colleges in Tennessee. A two-group comparison design using archived data was used, which evaluated differences in final grades, exam scores,…

The American school system is funded, operated, and evaluated based on student academic achievement data that is generated by various assessment tools and grading practices. The most traditional grading practice, norm-referenced grading, assesses student academic achievement on a 100-point scale that is further broken into categorical levels (A-F)…

Organic chemistry is a class well known to be difficult and necessary for many careers in the sciences, and as a result, has garnered interest in researching ways to improve student learning and comprehension. One potential way involves using eye tracking techniques to understand how students visually examine questions. Organic chemistry involves…

Superfund Sites and other harmful environmental conditions disproportionately affect urban America and Black communities. Historically, many affected citizens were unaware of these conditions until the environmental justice movement. Due to insufficient opportunities to develop scientific literacy, many members of the community remain unaware of…

Case-based learning (CBL) is an approach that uses clinical case activities in the classroom to engage students and encourage a deeper understanding of scientific concepts. Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) is a course that many students take as a prerequisite for admission to professional health schools. This study investigated the effect of CBL…

Humans are continuously making sense of the world. One way we do this is with intuitive frameworks, which are ad-hoc, informal patterns of thinking about natural and social phenomena. However, there is mixed evidence about the utility of intuitive frameworks in formal learning settings, especially in science education. Some research has shown that…

Having the ability to make informed decisions about health, financial investments, and even the weather are all important to our everyday lives. However, most people receive no formal education on how to read and understand data presented in formats such as data tables and graphs. Research within the field of statistical reasoning demonstrates a…

Mathematics courses should prepare students to use mathematics in a range of contexts, including science. However, students often struggle in applying mathematics in physics courses, even when they understand the mathematical content (Rebello et al., 2007). Often the root of this struggle is attributed to the "student" or the…

Instructional explanations are an ubiquitous component of classroom instruction, but are relatively neglected in science education when compared to other facets of teaching and learning. The ubiquity of instructional explanations and their potential to stimulate learning in students suggests that they should garner more attention from science…

Having discussions and working together in groups with other learners is the indicator of the collaboration aspect of engagement. Collaborative engagement can be fostered through active learning approaches, since they provide more opportunities for interaction among learners. In Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) classrooms, small…

I conducted a set of four studies to catalogue and examine course elements, including active learning strategies and evidence-based teaching practices, and their influence on student experiences and performance in college biology classes. In the first study, I defined the term "active learning" and catalogued the 300[plus] strategies…

This mixed methods study investigated how professional learning communities could support reformed teaching practices in the secondary science classroom. To assist preservice teachers with implementing these practices in the classroom, teachers must have a space for metacognitive reflection on their teaching practices (Darling-Hammond, 2006).…

The aim of this research is to determine what differences may exist in students' structural knowledge while using a variety of concept mapping assessments. A concept map can be used as an assessment which connects concepts in a knowledge domain. A single assessment may not be powerful enough to establish how students' new knowledge relates to…

Developmental education is the starting point for many 1st-year college students, especially from underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation populations. One such 1st-year program linked block-scheduled academic skill-development courses with a required interdisciplinary general education science course where instruction was provided…

An online curriculum intervention focusing on electronic interactions structure and percent composition was developed using a modified Knowledge Integration design framework. A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the design and student perceptions of their experiences. A sample of 58 students enrolled in an introductory chemistry…