The purpose of this study was to gain insight into 30, first year calculus students' understanding of the relationship between the concept of vertex of a quadratic function and the concept of the derivative. APOS (action-process-object-schema) theory was applied as a guiding framework of analysis on student written work, think-aloud and follow up…

In this article, attempts were made to examine students' thinking about the concepts of infinity and their ideas about transiting from finite to infinite states through the concept of limits of sequences. The participants included 78 senior high-school students ranging in age between 17 and 19 years old. The data were collected through a…

Misunderstandings are social in nature, always having two sides. Yet the misunderstandings experienced by people with Asperger's syndrome are usually studied in terms of the individual with a diagnosis, with less emphasis on social relations. We use a two-sided methodology to map out misunderstandings within 22 dyads (n = 44) consisting of people…

The purpose of this study was to assess preservice teachers' views of Nature of Science (NOS), identify aspects that were challenging for conceptual change, and explore reasons why. This study particularly focused on why and how some concepts of NOS may be more easily altered than others. Fourteen preservice science teachers enrolled in a NOS and…

This study aimed at investigating two main issues related to counterexample construction: the appropriateness of counterexamples and the types of arguments that are often used when refuting a false conjecture. Twelve pre-service elementary teachers who demonstrated a wide range of reasoning skills participated in this study. The data revealed…

Misconceptions are one the biggest troubles for both teachers and students. In order to have scientifically valid knowledge, students should have meaningful conceptual understanding. Researchers have been designing studies based on different teaching methods so as to reach beneficial outcomes to handle with misconceptions. In this study, the main…

The transition between school and university can be problematic for students. Understanding students' expectations about the system they are entering is crucial in effecting a smooth transition. The school system involves small classes, often with teachers who know their students well. In contrast, university involves large class sizes and a…

This study explored how students visualise the states and classifications of matter with the use of scientific models. Misconceptions of students in using scientific models were also identified to formulate a teaching framework. To elicit data in the study, a Visual Conception Questionnaire was administered to thirty-four (34), firstyear, general…

The purpose of this study is to explore K-12 teachers' awareness of open educational resources (OER) as well as their perceptions of its potential opportunities and challenges for teaching practices. Data were gathered from 99 online survey respondents and six interviewees in this study. Findings showed that teachers are aware of OER to a certain…

This article reports on a study that investigated the extent to which 57 Grade 6 students at a particular school have misconceptions regarding equality, with the equal sign as focus. It also investigated this school's three Grade 5 and 6 teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching regarding equality, again focusing on the equal sign. The…

Recent curriculum introductions and revisions on a global scale have highlighted the importance of primary teachers' content knowledge in geography and the lack of research in this area (Catling, 2014). This has become a particular focus in Australia with the introduction of the "Australian Curriculum: Geography" in 2013 and the…

This study describes primary school students' knowledge about rainfall, clouds and rainbow formation together with teachers' predictions about students' performance. In our study, primary school students' (N = 177) knowledge about rainfall and rainbow formation was examined using structured interviews with open-ended questions. Primary school…

In this paper the experience of learners during the first phase of the PIPLEP project is explored. PIPLEP is aimed at promoting digital literacy and independent learning with the creation of personal learning environments (PLEs) as the final product. The participants were a group of 17 students enrolled in year 5 of primary school, and the main…

This article describes the design of a misconception diagnostic test about fire-related phenomena. It proposes a new test format in which a certainty-measuring tier has been integrated into each of the true/false response choices. This format is argued to be easier for teachers to use than the increasingly popular three-tier format. First, we…

This article describes the design of a misconception diagnostic test about fire-related phenomena. It proposes a new test format in which a certainty-measuring tier has been integrated into each of the true/false response choices. This format is argued to be easier for teachers to use than the increasingly popular three-tier format. First, we…