This study aims to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers' understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS), epistemic beliefs (EB), and pseudoscientific beliefs (PSB), and whether there is a difference between pre-service teachers' understanding of NOS and pseudoscientific beliefs with sophisticated and naive epistemological beliefs.…

The Homeostasis Concept Inventory (HCI) is a validated instrument for measuring students' knowledge of homeostasis. It is comprised of 20 multiple-choice questions covering key components of the previously validated Homeostasis Conceptual Framework (HCF). In this paper, we present the first multi-institutional study of the impact of physiology…

This paper outlines the impact of phenomenography on higher education research and academic development. Interest in phenomenography as an educational research methodology continues to grow, but with interest growing faster than the number of experienced researchers, some misunderstandings of the approach have arisen and been circulating in…

Background: Furnham and Hughes (2014) previously reported that a sample of adults was only able to recognize 37% of 249 myths based on those presented in Lilienfeld et al.'s (2009) Great Myths of Popular Psychology. Objective: We sought to replicate these findings and to investigate predictors (e.g., education, cognitive ability, and personality)…

Background: Increasing students' ability to think critically allows them to engage more fully with psychology material. Objective: The current study used a critical thinking assignment called PsychBusters to examine critical thinking and interest in psychology in two sections of introductory psychology designated for first-year psychology majors.…

Engaging in the construction and interpretation of graphs is a complex process involving concerted activation of context-specific cognitive resources. As students engage in this process, they apply fine-grained, intuitive ideas to graphical patterns: graphical forms. Using data involving pairs of students constructing and interpreting graphs, we…

Background: Recognizing the relatively few studies that have explored university students' understanding and alternative conceptions in linear and circular motion as well as the relatively few studies that have used 2-dimensional multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in the science education literature, this study set out to contribute to these areas.…

This study aims to investigate the views of pre-service teachers who have taken the "Science Teaching" course in the undergraduate program of classroom teaching about the teaching of science concepts. In this study, the phenomenology study approach, one of the qualitative research designs, was used. The study group of this research…

This paper reports on five secondary school mathematics prospective teachers' conceptions of "extreme point." The analysis of the data addressed students' definitions, examples, and evaluation of given examples, with special attention to the related domain. Written assignments and individual interviews uncover salient, erroneous concept…

Purpose: This study aimed to describe the knowledge and alternative conceptions of climate change in a group of Chilean science and non-science teachers with different teaching experiences. Design/Approach/Methods: The study used a quantitative approach with an exploratory, descriptive, and transversal design, in which a Climate Change…

Previous research has shown that students employ intuitive thinking when understanding scientific concepts. Three types of intuitive thinking--essentialist, teleological, and anthropic thinking--are used in biology learning and can lead to misconceptions. However, it is unknown how commonly these types of intuitive thinking, or cognitive…

Student performance, disciplinary innovation and teaching methodology occupy the main concerns of educational research. Therefore, there is a greater interest in gamification strategies, where digital tools facilitate the development of competitive activities and strengthening of learning. One example of this idea is the use of video games created…

Boredom is a commonly experienced emotion that is detrimental to student performance. This study piloted Phase 2 of the Boredom Intervention Training (BIT) program which used cognitive restructuring to alter students' boredom misbeliefs. The sample consisted of 149 students from a midwestern Canadian University. We identified participants' boredom…

Dating violence and sexual assault are topics of concern on college campuses and although they are often viewed as separate issues, they are overlapping constructs within the construct of interpersonal violence. Research suggests that people perpetrate dating violence and sexual assault for the same reasons. However, campus programming frequently…

This study investigates alternative conceptions of chemistry concepts among Faculty of Science students at Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie. Students are found to have incorrect views about fundamental chemistry concepts. The study aims to identify these misconceptions, understand their origins, and their impact on students' comprehension.…