A large body of literature has established the benefits of undergraduate research experiences via the traditional apprenticeship model. More recently, several studies have shown that many of these benefits can be recapitulated in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) that are more scalable and easier for students to participate…

Two generative approaches to reaction mechanism instruction for novice students were compared to lecture instruction. In both approaches, students were coached to propose selected reaction mechanisms based on prior knowledge. New instructional methods were correlated with increased skill in representations of electron movements and other gains.…

Educational video games can engage students in authentic STEM practices, which often involve visual representations. Specifically, because most interactions within video games are mediated through visual representations, video games provide opportunities for students to experience disciplinary practices with visuals. However, prior research has…

A scaffolding-based mind tool was designed to allow teachers to easily create lesson plans for in-class gamified activities and to embed various scaffoldings in the lesson plan design. The purpose of this study was to investigate the learning outcomes of a scaffolding-based mind tool integrated with gamified learning activities applied to a…

A goal of introductory physics for life sciences (IPLS) curricula is to prepare students to effectively use physical models and quantitative reasoning in biological and medical settings. To assess whether this goal is being met, we conducted a longitudinal study of the impact of IPLS on student work in later biology and chemistry courses. We…

Past research has suggested that there may be benefits in learning from expository science text when students study with the expectation that they will need to teach another student. The present experiments were designed to extend prior work by testing whether an effect would be seen on both immediate tests (similar to those used in most prior…

Past research has suggested that there may be benefits in learning from expository science text when students study with the expectation that they will need to teach another student. The present experiments were designed to extend prior work by testing if an effect would be seen on both immediate tests (similar to those used in most prior studies)…

Virtual reality (VR) has a high potential to facilitate education. However, the design of many VR learning applications was criticized for lacking the guidance of explicit and appropriate learning theories. To advance the use of VR in effective instruction, this study proposed a model that extended the cognitive-affective theory of learning with…

Many studies investigating inquiry learning in science domains have appeared over the years. Throughout this period, inquiry learning has been regularly criticized by scholars who favor direct instruction over inquiry learning. In this vein, Zhang, Kirschner, Cobern, and Sweller (2022) recently asserted that direct instruction is overall superior…

In Australia, a significant number of students enrol in first-year university biology without the benefit of high school biology. In order to help students support each other, the authors of this paper (a central unit academic developer and a biology coordinator of first-year biology) created a classroom activity that facilitated the distribution…

Analogies have been widely used as tools for teaching difficult science concepts. The purposeful use of appropriate analogies can facilitate analogical thinking and help students develop the necessary transfer skills required for lifelong learning. Analogical thinking facilitates the development of higher order thinking skills among students. In…

This dissertation examines the thesis that implicit learning plays a role in learning about scientific phenomena, and subsequently, in conceptual change. Decades of research in learning science demonstrate that a primary challenge of science education is overcoming prior, naive knowledge of natural phenomena in order to gain scientific…

This study examined how background knowledge, scientific reasoning ability, and various scaffolding forms influenced students' science knowledge and scientific inquiry achievements. The students participated in an online scientific inquiry program involving such activities as generating scientific questions and drawing evidence-based conclusions,…

This study examined how background knowledge, scientific reasoning ability, and various scaffolding forms influenced students' science knowledge and scientific inquiry achievements. The students participated in an online scientific inquiry program involving such activities as generating scientific questions and drawing evidence-based conclusions,…

The venerable aphorism "an old dog cannot learn new tricks" implies that the elderly rarely learn anything new--in particular, scientific knowledge. On the basis of "learning by doing," the present study emphasized knowledge application (KA) as elderly subjects collaborated on the design of a toy flying saucer (UFO). Three…