A scientific conceptual understanding of photosynthesis and respiration provides an important basis for understanding nature and the regulations of life. Photosynthesis and respiration are complex processes, and learning about them requires a proper understanding of their various aspects, from molecular biology to the ecosystem level. This study…

The present study aims to investigate university students' conceptions of liquids with the help of the scientific story writing technique, which is one of the alternative assessment techniques. The study group comprised students studying science (n=50) and biology teaching departments (n=20) in Turkey. Thus, the study carries within two groups. In…

Science and engineering practices (SEPs) and crosscutting concepts (CCs) constitute a significant part of "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012). As teachers, the role of the authors is to highlight the pivotal role that both scientific knowledge and the practices used to generate knowledge play in learning. This article…

Assessing students' conceptions related to independence of events and determining probabilities from a sample space has been the focus of research in probability education for over 40 years. While we know a lot from past studies about predictable ways students may reason with well-known tasks, developing a diagnostic assessment that can be used by…

At present, environmental issues are of concern to all countries, especially for developing countries, and education on waste sorting is urgent. However, it remains a challenge to improve students' learning achievement and engagement in environmental education. Researchers have pointed out the potential of digital games for promoting students'…

Light has the most interesting phenomena among physics concepts. We designed the light phenomena conceptual assessment (LPCA) to help teachers measure their students' conceptual understanding of light phenomena. We expected to measure increases in student understanding of light phenomena after learning about the wave and particle nature of light…

Student learning in simple electric circuits has been extensively studied, which has revealed a large number of persistent misunderstandings. This study applies the conceptual framework model to investigate student difficulties in the knowledge integration perspective. The results are used to guide the design of a concept test that targets the…

Undergraduate biology students' molecular-level understanding of stochastic (also referred to as random or noisy) processes found in biological systems is often limited to those examples discussed in class. Therefore, students frequently display little ability to accurately transfer their knowledge to other contexts. Furthermore, elaborate tools…

In this article, the author asserts that asking and responding to diagnostic questions is the single most important part of teaching secondary school mathematics. He notes the importance of formative assessment and recommends a formative assessment strategy that requires students to be public about their answers to questions, displaying their…

Concept inventories (CIs) are assessment instruments designed to measure students' conceptual understanding of fundamental concepts in particular fields. CIs utilise multiple-choice questions (MCQs), and specifically designed response selections, to help identify misconceptions. One shortcoming of this assessment instrument is that it fails to…

In biology education research, it has been common to model cognition in terms of relatively stable knowledge structures (e.g., mental models, alternative frameworks, deeply held misconceptions). For example, John D. Coley and Kimberley D. Tanner recently proposed that many student difficulties in biology stem from underlying cognitive frameworks…

Background: Concept inventories (CIs) are commonly used in engineering disciplines to assess students' conceptual understanding and to evaluate instruction, but educators often use CIs without sufficient evidence that a structured approach has been applied to validate inferences about student thinking. Purpose: We propose an analytic framework for…

Concept Inventories (CIs) are assessments designed to measure student learning of core concepts. CIs have become well known for their major impact on pedagogical techniques in other sciences, especially physics. Presently, there are no widely used, validated CIs for computer science. However, considerable groundwork has been performed in the form…

There are various types of instructional media related to Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) but there is a lack of diversity of resources devoted to assessment. This research presents an assessment and comparison of students' understanding of VSEPR theory before and after tuition involving the use of the foam molecule model (FMM) and…

Assumptive Learning Theory values the active process of linking concepts to promote meaningful over rote learning. To promote meaningful learning, assessment practices that encourage the linking of concepts need to be developed and utilized. Creative Exercises (CEs) have the potential to encourage such links. CEs are an open-ended assessment…