The abrupt transition to remote learning through digital platforms may be compared to the volcanic eruptions taking place 1000 years ago in the American Southwest: while one altered a natural environment, changing golden deserts to blackened landscapes, our current pandemic has drastically altered the physical and social environment in which we…

Students often have misconceptions about terrestrial carbon flows and there is a lack of coherence in students' explanations regarding the different levels of biological organisation at which these processes occur. In this study, problem-based teaching materials on the topic of terrestrial carbon flows were developed and tested with 15 students…

The U.S. spends far more on education than any other country in the world (OECD, 2011); yet, continues to produce vastly inequitable outcomes, especially for English Learners (ELs). In this article we explore the reasons for, and consequences of, the U.S. system's continued failure to support ELs. The term, in itself, is part of the problem as it…

This ground-breaking book proves that Project Based Learning (PBL) does work in early childhood classrooms. Most common understandings of PBL in Pre-K through 2nd grade are rife with assumptions, misconceptions, and perceived barriers that have prevented its widespread implementation. "Implementing Project Based Learning in Early…

To improve the teaching and learning materials for a curriculum it is important to incorporate the findings from educational research. In light of this, we present creative exercises and experiments to elicit, confront and resolve misconceptions in geometrical optics. Since ray diagrams can be both the cause and the solution for many…

Educational neuromyths are commonly accepted, erroneous beliefs based on misunderstandings of neuroscience that contribute to pseudoscientific practice within education. We examined the beliefs and perspectives of special education pre-service teachers related to educational neuromyths and corresponding instructional practices using a…

The majority of teacher preparation programs do not address neuroscience in their curricula. This is curious, as learning occurs in the brain in context and teachers fundamentally foster and facilitate learning. On the one hand, merging neuroscience knowledge into teacher training programs is fraught with challenges, such as reconciling how…

In this paper we introduce a link between the Theory of Didactical Situations and the Documentational Approach to Didactics, in order to study teaching/learning phenomena at the beginning of university mathematics studies. Specifically, we investigate the didactic contract at three levels: institutional, mathematical subject, and specific…

For many non-native people, Native Americans are one large homogenous group. A fairly simple "group" to understand. Indigenous people are commonly presented and understood through long-enduring imagery via movies, advertising, product naming, and mascots. Through these processes, indigenous peoples are labeled, named, and historically…

In this paper, a learning progression for geometric transformations is developed based on research that demonstrates the importance of viewing transformations as functions of the plane. The 5 levels of the progression reflect a student's evolving understanding of transformations as functions and their evolving understanding of the domain of these…

Despite repeated discussions and practice, algebra students continue to make variable errors, in many ways, year after year. This same problem appeared thirty years ago in a list of common errors that math teachers today would immediately recognize, many involving exponents and distribution (Marquis 1988). Similar complaints even appeared in the…

There exists a disconnect between instruction about biological evolution and acceptance of evolution by students. This disconnect prevents students from applying the theory to their lives or to their understanding of the field of biology. We examine the literature for common barriers to the acceptance of evolution, correlates with acceptance of…

How to support students in programming learning has been a great research challenge in the last years. To address this challenge, prior works have mainly focused on proposing solutions based on syntactic analysis to provide students with personalized feedback about their grammatical programming errors and misconceptions. However, syntactic…

This paper was developed within the scope of a PhD thesis that intends to characterize the use of mobile applications by the students of the University of Aveiro during class time. The main purpose of this paper is to present the results of an initial pilot study that aimed to fine-tune data collection methods in order to gather data that…

Young children can engage in close reading, critical thinking, and historical thinking when age-appropriate texts are coupled with discipline-specific tasks. Prior knowledge is an impediment, though. Primary elementary learners simply do not have much of a historical schema. Because of primary elementary students' familiarity with Thanksgiving,…