Despite the demonstrated learning benefits of peer evaluation, fears of teachers about its low reliability may restrict its use. In this study, the validity of peer assessment, in terms of agreement with the ratings of the teacher, has been tested in an organic chemistry course. The students were organized into small groups and commissioned to…

Increasing the size and diversity of the scientific and technological workforce is a national priority. Investments in policy and programmatic efforts toward increasing the representation of women in science and engineering fields have resulted in significant advances; however, a gender gap remains among PhDs and faculty in these fields. This…

Background: STEM identity has been shown to have a powerful role in an individual's success in educational environments, as well as on their career goals and trajectories. Historically, however, STEM identity formation for underrepresented students has been hampered by the lack of representation of in STEM fields, which predominantly consist of…

Previous research on document selection has found that college-level readers are generally able to differentiate trustworthy from less trustworthy sources. Yet, a preference for selecting trustworthy sources may depend on features of the reading situation and readers' beliefs in science. In the current study, college students were tasked with…

Research suggests teacher professional learning and collaboration are essential to support student achievement. However, our Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) English Language Learners (ELL) have lower academic achievement and our teachers are limited with professional learning inquiry cycle opportunities. Research also suggests vocabulary…

Science capital consists of science-related cultural and social capital and science-related behaviours and practices. This study aims to clarify the core dimensions of science capital among Finnish parents through consideration of how parents' educational degree, profession, age and residential area are associated with their science capital. To…

Early STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education plays a pivotal role in shaping children's science and visual literacy skills. However, in South Africa, there are notable challenges such as delayed initiation of science education and inadequate emphasis on visual literacy. This study aims to investigate the influence of…

We explored the role of parental testimony in children's developing beliefs about the ontological status of typically unobservable phenomena. US parents and their 5- to 7-year-old children (N = 25 dyads) separately rated their confidence in the existence of scientific and religious unobservable entities (e.g., germs, angels), and were invited to…

This article closely examines (a) the "representational" connotation which is often implicit in many analyses of the scientific knowledge which children have (or have not) acquired when they are asked to say or show what they know and (b) the still common-place presumption that recollections are akin to the extraction of ideas from a…

The ability to efficiently optimize or re-optimize an algorithm for high performance on a particular processor architecture is crucial in a wide spectrum of engineering and scientific applications. To help bridge the gap between fully automated optimization, which does not reliably produce optimal code, and fully manual optimization, which is…

The current research addresses the question of the multidimensional relationship between visual abilities, visual cognitive style, and creativity (artistic and scientific) in Singaporean students of 13-14 years old. Three hundred seventy students (100 students in Study 1 and 270 students in Study 2) from two typical secondary schools in Singapore…

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideology has spread aggressively through institutions of higher education in the United States and throughout the Western world. Arising from within the humanities and social sciences, DEI has begun to influence the natural sciences, where it promises to do great intellectual and economic damage. This report…

In response to the issue of why and how the humanities--and more broadly the liberal arts and sciences--have historically dominated honors education and disregarded preprofessional fields, the author finds that the crux of the problem is not the nature or worth of the disciplines involved or why this or that subject area is de facto included or…

Created to foster inclusive excellence, Smith College's Achieving Excellence in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science (AEMES) Scholars program provides early faculty-mentored research opportunities and other programming as a way to foster success in academic outcomes for underrepresented women in science. Using academic record data, we compared…

In this article, Mark Colyvan argues that formal mathematical notation is more than just the language of mathematics. He gives examples of where notation plays a role in extending mathematical theory and in delivering explanations. He concludes that good mathematical notation, in both mathematics and empirical domains, helps us to think,…