For researchers seeking to improve education, a common goal is to identify teaching practices that have causal benefits in classroom settings. To test whether an instructional practice exerts a causal influence on an outcome measure, the most straightforward and compelling method is to conduct an experiment. While experimentation is common in…

The primary goals of this research were to investigate the development of computational thinking (CT) skills among elementary students and to identify areas for improvement in their CT practices. Empirical investigations, accomplished in a learner-centered, problem-based learning curriculum for sixth-graders, sought to examine student proficiency…

Children often learn abstract mathematics concepts with concrete manipulatives. The current study compared different ways of using specific manipulatives -- base-ten blocks -- to support children's place value knowledge. Children (N = 112, M age = 6.88 years) engaged in place value learning activities in one of four randomly assigned conditions in…

Recruiting tomorrow's information technology students is getting to be a challenging job even though there are a variety of many good-paying jobs in the field when they graduate. This is not just an issue for our department, Computer and Information Technology (CIT). According to experts, with declining birthrates, students determining there are…

League of VetaHumanz uses a nationwide network of university-community partnerships to provide veterinary STEM learning experiences for children who are more likely to lack access to enriching, supplemental educational opportunities due to systemic barriers based on their race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. To include participation beyond…

Today's college classrooms are often comprised of many generations. Millennials, the newest generation to enter higher education, are enrolling in college in larger numbers than other generations. Growth within nontraditional programs, coupled with the increase of millennial students, underscores the need for understanding the learning preferences…

In introductory computer programming courses, students experience a range of emotions. Students often experience anxiety and frustration when they encounter difficulties in writing programs. Continued frustration can discourage students from pursuing engineering and computing careers. Although prior research has shown how emotions affect students'…

Students who actively engage with learning materials, for example by completing more practice activities, show better learning outcomes. A straightforward step to stimulate this desirable behavior is to require students to complete activities and downplay the role of reading materials. However, this approach might have undesirable consequences,…

We investigated practices and emerging themes in a Finnish-as-a-foreign-language course virtual chat that took place between two Finnish language classes in two North American universities. Because of the unforeseen 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in spring 2020, both universities were suddenly required to move all instruction online…

The dramatic spread of COVID-19 has given rise to widespread "mis"information and "dis"information. Even seasoned journalists have to work hard to avoid misinformation, a term for, among other things, inadvertent mistakes made in the reporting process. More troubling are the numerous examples of deliberate fabrications, or…

This case study focuses on our efforts to engage students in one asynchronous, online undergraduate legal "pipeline" course, and the substantive revisions made to the course over 3 years to increase student engagement, self-reflection, self-regulation, and metacognition. A pipeline program is designed to identify, support, and guide…

Students used a compass trail to show how they could perform service to their school. When students performed service learning, they completed a real task that was needed for a grateful audience conjoined with academic content in the lesson. Students worked on the school grounds and used content from their regular curriculum while looking for…

Today's college graduates compete in a global market fueled by rapid innovation and constant technological advances. In order to be able to contribute to and advance in these highly demanding careers, workers not only require advanced scientific and technological knowledge but they also need to possess versatility, collaborative problem-solving…

Early childhood provides a time of crucial growth in all developmental domains. Prekindergarten is an optimal time for young children to use objects of play as a medium to explore new cognitive concepts, including mathematical structure. Mathematical structure plays an important role in providing students a means to reason about mathematics,…

Academic literature and extensive studies indicate that a small fraction of incoming first-year college or university students have a foundational understanding or appreciation of entrepreneurship. Even fewer have the disposition or inclination to pursue an entrepreneurial path. The purpose of this proposed study is to measure the level of…