Think-aloud interviews have been a valuable but underused tool in statistics education research. Think-alouds, in which students narrate their reasoning in real time while solving problems, differ in important ways from other types of cognitive interviews and related education research methods. Beyond the uses already found in the statistics…

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) publishes practice guides in education to bring the best available evidence and expertise to bear on current challenges in education. Authors of practice guides combine their expertise with the findings of rigorous research, when available, to develop specific recommendations for addressing these…

This paper presents an overview of research on physics problem solving using verbal protocols. It asserts that the understanding of physics problem solving strategies enables researchers to write computer programs, which can automatically solve physics problems without the users having to be experts in physics. This, in turn, can generate more…

Subcellular processes like meiosis are frequently problematic for learners because they are complex and, except for the extent that they can be observed under a light microscope, occur outside of our direct experience. More detailed characterization of what underlies various degrees of student understanding of a process is required to more fully…