Improving education, particularly for the sciences, is an important and necessary endeavor which can lead to positive social change. Education reform tends to involve updating and aligning curriculum standards without considering methodologies or teaching strategies involved. Identifying evidence-based practices to improve achievement in science,…

Research on team-based learning (TBL) generally supports its effectiveness over "traditional" lecture. In practice, however, lecturing rarely consists of teachers exclusively talking at their students, as many incorporate a variety of strategies to encourage active processing. This study compared an interactive lecture style with TBL on…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, longitudinal study was to measure the effects of reflective practice coaching on 35 participants, as compared to participants who did not receive coaching. Data was collected over a period of eight weeks. A secondary purpose was to examine the effects of a standardized case conceptualization training lecture…

The methodological limitations education researchers face in the evaluation of reformed instruction have led to debates as to the evidence advancing evidence-based practices. To conduct more effective research, methodological pluralism in the evaluation of educational reforms can be used to complement the strengths and limitations of a corpus of…

This thesis explores impact of evidence-based active-engagement courses (EBAE) on student achievement and gender gap in introductory physics. The first study is about the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of the physics teaching assistants (TAs) at identifying introductory students' difficulties using the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and…

In order to promote sustained and impactful educational transformation, it is essential for change agents to understand more about faculty perceptions associated with either adopting or not adopting a research-based instructional strategy (RBIS). In this paper, we use interviews with 35 physics faculty to examine barriers and affordances to the…

This study investigated students' attitudes, engagement, satisfaction, and performance in Introduction to Environmental Science after it was transformed from a typical large lecture to a student-centered learning environment. The instructors of the course collaborated with the Office of Teaching, Learning & Technology and radically redesigned…