Integrating agent-based models (ABMs) has been a popular approach for teaching emergent science concepts. However, students continue to find it difficult to explain the emergent process of natural selection. This study adopted an ontological framework--the Pattern, Agents, Interactions, Relations, and Causality (PAIR-C)--to guide the design of…

Chemistry is a difficult subject for many students. The content is challenging, and students often enter chemistry classes with preconceived ideas about chemical phenomena which may or may not align with scientific ideas (Gabel, 1999; Johnstone, 1991, 1993; Nakhleh, 1992). The purpose of this study was to understand high school students'…

Resonance is a fundamental chemistry concept first introduced to students in General Chemistry I, reintroduced in Organic Chemistry I, and then utilized throughout other higher-level chemistry courses. A molecule or ion can be said to exhibit resonance when it can be represented by two or more chemical structures (i.e., Lewis structures) that…

Belief in psychological misconceptions, especially those regarding brain function and learning (i.e., neuromyths), hinders students' decision-making and learning. This necessitates conceptual change. Using an experimental design, this dissertation examined whether a utility value instructional induction (UVII) facilitated conceptual change.…

Undergraduate engineering students usually face difficulties understanding electric circuit concepts. Some of those difficulties regard with misconceptions students bring into the classroom and develop during the learning process. Additionally, the increasing complexity of the topics along the fundamental electric circuit course constitutes…

Sixth-grade science students at Gauger-Cobbs Middle School in Newark, DE, had misconceptions about how heat energy moves in the hydrosphere through conduction, convection, and radiation. As a result, students struggled to develop and connect ideas that correctly and completely explained heat transfer in the hydrosphere at the end of the lesson…

Soft rot diseases cause crop losses all over the world. These losses can have large economic impacts and threaten international food security. Soft rot bacterial pathogens produce pectolytic enzymes that attack the pectin around plant cells resulting in smelly, wet, and mushy tissue maceration. Once symptoms are visible, the crop cannot be used or…

Teaching science concepts for conceptual understanding has its challenges. Promoting conceptual change in the science classroom can be difficult because most concepts are complicated and counter-intuitive. This dissertation research aimed to determine the effect of teaching for conceptual understanding models on pre-service teachers' conceptual…

Climate scientists agree that (a) human activity is a significant driver of recent climate change, and (b) climate change is a danger to humanity. However, the general public accepts the former point, but rejects the latter. Thus, climate experts and the general public diverge in their understanding of the relationship between humans and climate…

The study of conceptual change in science education, specifically in the realm of physics, is not new, however, there is still much that is not well understood. Continuing with the trend of including characteristics of the learner in models of conceptual change, this study seeks to explore the role confidence plays in helping or hindering…

This dissertation examines the thesis that implicit learning plays a role in learning about scientific phenomena, and subsequently, in conceptual change. Decades of research in learning science demonstrate that a primary challenge of science education is overcoming prior, naive knowledge of natural phenomena in order to gain scientific…

Recommended learning goals for students in introductory statistics courses include the ability to recognize and explain the key role of randomness in designing studies and in drawing conclusions from those studies involving generalizations to a population or causal claims (GAISE College Report ASA Revision Committee, 2016). The purpose of this…

The mathematical concept of function has been revisited and further developed with regularity since its introduction in ancient Babylonia (Kleiner, 1989). The difficulty of the concept of a function contributes to complications when students learn of functions and their graphs (Leinhardt, Zaslavsky, & Stein, 1990). To understand the concept of…

Many students enter high school with persistent algebraic misconceptions that limit their success in mathematics and, by extension, limit potential educational attainment and future earnings. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a warm conceptual change based intervention on remediating algebraic misconceptions held by…

This research investigates students' learning about the electron transport chain (ETC) process in photosynthesis by watching a video followed by playing a serious board game-Electron Chute- that models the ETC process. To accomplish this goal, several learning outcomes regarding the misconceptions students' hold about photosynthesis and the ETC…