The purpose of this quantitative retrospective study was to understand the impact of prior exposure to sexual health education on middle and high school students' sexual health knowledge, self-efficacy, and intentions. The study analyzed a secondary dataset that included pre- and posttest results collected for program evaluation purposes by a…

Seeds of Algebraic Thinking comes from the Knowledge in Pieces (KiP) perspective of learning. KiP is a systems approach to learning that stems from the constructivist idea that people learn by building on prior knowledge. As people experience the world, they acquire small, sub-conceptual knowledge elements. When people engage in a particular…

This dissertation study investigated secondary mathematics teachers' designing and enacting lessons to draw on students' multiple mathematical knowledge bases. The ultimate objective of incorporating open spaces in mathematics lessons is to support students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in developing mathematical…

This study explores learning vector addition and demonstrating the understanding of vector addition. Vector addition is a key skill in mathematics and science education, but there is a limited amount of research that focuses on this topic. My study investigates how an instructional design framework "concreteness fading" can be used for…

We applied latent class analysis and the rule space model to verify the cumulative characteristic of conceptual change by developing a learning progression for buoyancy. For this study, we first abstracted seven attributes of buoyancy and then developed a hypothesized learning progression for buoyancy. A 14-item buoyancy instrument was…

Background: Adaptive expertise is a highly valued outcome of mathematics curricula. One aspect of adaptive expertise with rational numbers is adaptive rational number knowledge, which refers to the ability to integrate knowledge of numerical characteristics and relations in solving novel tasks. Even among students with strong conceptual and…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate students' perceptions of their own Funds of Knowledge (FOK) and the impact that these funds have as students prepare for careers. This purpose was achieved through an embedded mixed methods design with qualitative data collection and analysis embedded within the quantitative research…

This study explored the effects of modality, redundancy, and signaling principles in multimedia learning with abstract and concrete representations of an animation on learning in real middle school settings. Based on these principles of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, ten types of treatment conditions were tested with a pre-test and…

Even highly urban environments are settings for outdoor learning of local biodiversity, for they contain easily accessible street tree diversity that students walk pass daily. This study uses pre/post assessments and a tree observation curriculum grounded in scientific observation practice to understand the everyday and scientific tree observation…

This paper presents an analysis of fractions errors displayed by learners due to deficient mastery of prerequisite concepts. Fractions continue to pose a critical challenge for learners. Fractions can be a tricky concept for learners although they often use the concept of sharing in their daily lives. 30 purposefully sampled learners participated…

The current study examined the effectiveness of self-explanation prompts, visual signaling cues, and a combination of the two features on middle school students' (N = 202) algebra learning. Also explored were the differential effects of features for students with faulty conceptual knowledge (evidenced by a higher prevalence of making errors during…

This study aims at evaluating the environmental education (EE) and communication intervention for the valorization of migratory fish resources in an estuary of northern Portugal. The EE component intervention was implemented among Middle School pupils of that region. Students' knowledge was quantitatively evaluated with an experimental approach of…

Formative assessment is a teaching method that helps to determine the prior knowledge of students, schedule the course plan accordingly, give it the final shape based on the feedback received from students, and encourage conceptual learning. The aim of this study is to introduce the "annotated student drawings" as one of the common…

Extending studies on emotional design in multimedia learning beyond college samples and further considering individual differences, we examined the effects of emotional design on middle school students' learning and whether this relationship is moderated by learners' prior knowledge, using a computer-based lesson covering the topic "the…

Functioning in a world beyond school requires more sophisticated understanding of both content knowledge and knowledge production across the disciplines (Lee & Spratley, 2010; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008), as well as how to access, interpret, and share information in print and online environments (Afflerbach & Cho, 2009; Coiro &…