Small group interactions and interactions with near-peer instructors such as learning assistants serve as fertile opportunities for student learning in undergraduate active learning classrooms. To understand what students take away from these interactions, we need to understand how and what they learn during the moment of their interaction. This…

This study aimed to investigate whether the presence (when using physical manipulatives [PMs]) or absence (when using virtual manipulatives [VMs]) of haptic sensory feedback (i.e., open-ended haptic manipulation of physical materials with the use of the hands) during experimentation can impact preschoolers' conceptual understanding of concepts…

As a hallmark of authentic science practices, students need to enact epistemic agency to shape/reshape the key aspects of their inquiry work as a collaborative community. This study elaborates an emergent temporal mechanism for engaging students' epistemic agency: "reflective structuration" by which members of a classroom community…

The growing popularity of mobile technologies in educational settings, from grade schools through college, has prompted science educators to prepare preservice teachers to successfully integrate technology into science teaching. This mixed-methods study explores the effectiveness of a mobile technology-based physics curriculum, Exploring Physics,…

Inquiry provides opportunities to engage students in authentic science. Although inquiry's underlying principles can motivate students to learn, the challenges that students encounter may hamper their motivation. Thus, the teacher's role in providing motivational support is crucial. This research examines how the interplay among the inquiry's…

This paper reports on a case study of the teacher's role as facilitator in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) settings in science. In naturalistic classroom settings, the teacher most often acts as an important resource and provides various forms of guidance during students' learning activities. Few studies, however, have focused on…

Embodied learning tools (ELTs), such as building and manipulating models, bolster students' learning of spatially demanding science content, such as stereochemistry. However, studies comparing the effectiveness of virtual to physical ELTs on student learning are limited. This study compares online instruction using a virtual ELT, virtual models,…

The "Framework for K-12 Science Education" (National Research Council, 2012) outlines eight practices to represent the diverse ways scientists construct and evaluate knowledge. Engaging students in these practices is a key instructional target in the science classroom. This target, however, creates particular challenges for online…

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for integrating knowledge and practice in learning experiences in K-12 science education. "PlantingScience" (PS), an ideal curriculum for use as an NGSS model, is a computer-mediated collaborative learning environment intertwining scientific inquiry, classroom instruction, and online…