For years scholars have attended to either generic or content-specific teaching practices attempting to understand instructional quality and its effects on student learning. Drawing on the TIMSS 2007 and 2011 databases, this exploratory study empirically tests the hypothesis that attending to both types of practices can help better explain student…

The subject of research methods is often unknown, foreboding, and unappealing to undergraduate communication majors. Thus, in the research methods course, two ways to overcome such issues and achieve learning are by: (1) making the unfamiliar more familiar and accessible; and (2) placing abstract knowledge in its useful real-world context. Making…

Guided-inquiry lab activities with bean beetles ("Callosobruchus maculatus") teach students how to develop hypotheses, design experiments, identify experimental variables, collect and interpret data, and formulate conclusions. These activities provide students with real hands-on experiences and skills that reinforce their understanding of the…

CREATE (Consider, Read, Elucidate the hypotheses, Analyze and interpret the data, and Think of the next Experiment) is an innovative pedagogy for teaching science through the intensive analysis of scientific literature. Initiated at the City College of New York, a minority-serving institution, and regionally expanded in the New York/New…

Scientific investigations play a vital role in teaching and learning the process of science. An investigative task that was developed for pre-university students is described here. The task involves extraction of an enzyme from a vegetable source and its detection by biochemical method. At the beginning of the experiment, a hypothesis is presented…

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of elementary school teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching as they participated in a Modeling Instruction environment that placed heavy emphasis on improving their subject-matter knowledge as a basis for affecting the development of their pedagogical content knowledge. We…

This study was based on the hypothesis that students' epistemological beliefs could become more expertlike with a combination of appropriate instructional activities: (i) preclass reading with metacognitive reflection, and (ii) in-class active learning that produces cognitive dissonance. This hypothesis was tested through a five-year study…

This article feeds into debate about the feasibility and usefulness of educational experiments by discussing methodological issues arising out of a study which sought causal links between teaching and learning of one aspect of French as a foreign language. The study involved two small-scale experiments which tested a hypothesis regarding the…

Both in Europe and the United States there is a growing interest in design research. One example is the design and validation of topic-oriented teaching-learning sequences. This research may be said to have two objectives. One is to design and test "useful products", such as teachers guides and study material for students, which may be…

This study examined the effects of organizational control strategies on the teacher's instructional role. It was hypothesized that the teacher's instructional role would be affected by his or her background such as sex, discipline, experience and tenure status as well. (Author/RK)

Problems involved in providing practical research experience in research methods courses are discussed. The two points in the research process where time is most critical are selecting measures and data collection. This paper suggests using a data base from previous research and having students conduct simulated studies based on randomly selected…

A proposed research project is described in which two university-based researchers and four elementary school teachers will investigate problematic features of "whole language instruction" in monthly reflexive conversations. One hypothesis is that problems with whole language practice are indicative of a more broadly based cultural…

A teaching aid appropriate for a beginning course on experimental design is presented. The aid is a numerical example which illustrates some of the theoretical interrelations among three competing design analysis strategies for estimating treatment effects in random assignment designs. The analysis strategies considered are analysis of variance…

In the spring of 1979, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate the possible effects on preservice teachers of Reflective Teaching, a new instructional alternative for teacher education that features peer teaching and evaluation. One of the hypotheses about Reflective Teaching stated that, as a result of engaging in Reflective Teaching,…

This research tested the hypothesis that students' erroneous mental models about groundwater will change towards more valid concepts if they are taught on the basis of a mental model-building strategy that focuses on the clarification of students' misconceptions. To examine the hypothesis a quasi-experimental research design was chosen. The…