Classrooms with higher teaching quality were associated with higher learning outcomes in mathematics and science. Classrooms where teachers reported high degrees of limitations to teaching in the classroom--including disruptive students or students with language barriers--were associated with lower learning outcomes. These are two of the important…

Executive function (EF) predicts children's academic achievement; however, less is known about the relation between EF and the actual learning process. Furthermore, more research is needed to better understand how different aspects of the learning environment interact with EF to influence learning. The current dissertation includes two studies to…

Science students' study success rates in the first year of higher education (FYHE) are problematic. Although a considerable amount of previous research has been carried out to investigate the determinants of students' academic achievement in FYHE, there has been little discussion about the incremental value of non-cognitive factors over and above…

As the United States experiences greater income inequality, more and more students experience an early science achievement gap. This study tested several competing theoretical models of early science achievement with a longitudinal sample of 14,624 children who were followed from kindergarten entry to the end of 1st grade. To understand why and…

This study is aimed at investigating the relationships among students' relevant prior knowledge, meaningful learning orientation, reasoning ability, self-efficacy, locus of control, attitudes toward biology and achievement with the human circulatory system (HCS) using the learning cycle (LC) and the traditional classroom setting. The study was…

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school pre-service teachers' understanding of photosynthesis and to examine if a refutational text can support understanding of photosynthesis better than a non-refutational text. A total of 91 elementary school pre-service teachers read either a refutational or a non-refutational text…