Given growing interest in K-12 data and data science education, new approaches are needed to help students develop robust understandings of and familiarity with data. The model of the "quantified self"--in which data about one's own activities are collected and made into objects of study--provides inspiration for one such approach. By…

Although history standards generally aim at developing historical consciousness among secondary school students, there is not much research-based knowledge to support making connections between the past, the present, and the future in history teaching. This study examines the effects of teaching analogous cases of an enduring human issue in 2…

While many studies have considered the association between teachers' and students' conceptions of teaching and learning and classroom practices, few studies have researched the influence of teachers' conceptions on students' conceptions. Our objective was to analyze the influence of music teachers' conceptions on student…

How can children's natural perceptuo-motor skills be harnessed for teaching and learning mathematical structure? We address this question in the case of the integers. Existing research suggests that adult mental representations of integers recruit perceptuo-motor functionalities involving symmetry. Building on these findings, we designed a…

In this study, we explore how cross-linguistic differences can contribute to children's scientific thinking. We compared first and third grade Chinese students' pre-instructional ideas of the earth expressed in clinical interviews with that of their English-speaking and Greek-speaking counterparts (as recorded in the literature). Inspired by a…

We examined science learning and motivation outcomes as a function of children's participation in the classroom and classroom-plus-home components of the Scientific Literacy Project (SLP). The sample was comprised of kindergarten children in 4 low income, neighboring schools. Children in Schools 1 and 2 (n = 120) participated in the SLP science…

This study examined the temporal and dynamic nature of students' self-regulatory processes while learning about the circulatory system with hypermedia. A total of 74 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: independent learning or externally assisted learning. Participants in the independent learning condition used a…

The Teaching for Transformative Experiences in Science (TTES) model is designed to foster transformative experiences (e.g., experiences with science content involving the application of that content in ways that expand perception and value in everyday experience). This study presents a case study of a high school biology teacher learning to…

The effects of computer animations and mental animation on people's mental models of a mechanical system are examined. In 3 experiments, students learned how a mechanical system works from various instructional treatments including viewing a static diagram of the machine, predicting motion from static diagrams, viewing computer animations, and…

This study explored impact of teaching high schoolers coordinated or uncoordinated models of static electricity. Posttest results showed that students who were taught the uncoordinated models outperformed those in that control group; however, the coordinated model group did not outperform its control group. Process data suggest that the…

Compared Introductory Physical Science (IPS) and Modified approaches to teaching physics concepts. Found that students' preinstruction ideas of matter and density were organized in commonsense theories that constrained understanding of density. Both curricula promoted quantitative understanding of mass, volume, and density, but the Modified…

Employed the actor network theory to examine the transformation of a grade-four classroom community as new resources and practices became available. Found that the diffusion and enculturation metaphors are insufficient to model important aspects of learning in a student-centered classroom. (MOK)

Compared two types of case-based hypermedia for teachers' professional development: one in which cases are episodes of classroom teaching and learning, the other in which cases are narratives that structure the episodes. Comparison showed that while both types helped teachers learn the material, access to narrative cases afforded greater…

Examined the influence of college students' expertise on use of multiple documents about a historical controversy. Found that strategies did not differ significantly across the groups of expert and non-expert students. However, evaluation of usefulness varied as a function of document type and students' expertise. Furthermore, novices and experts…

This interview study gathered information about the prior knowledge and thinking of kindergarten to third- graders regarding the supply of water, heat, and light to modern homes. Findings indicated that students possessed only limited and spotty knowledge about utilities in modern homes. Within general trends, there was evidence of growth in…