Traditionally, women and minorities have not been fully represented in science and engineering. Numerous studies have attributed these differences to gaps in science achievement as measured by various standardized tests. Rather than describe mean group differences in science achievement across multiple cultures, this study focused on an in-depth…

Using a novel variant of dichotic selective listening, we examined the control of auditory selective attention. In our task, subjects had to respond selectively to one of two simultaneously presented auditory stimuli (number words), always spoken by a female and a male speaker, by performing a numerical size categorization. The gender of the…

In this article, the author introduces a social studies lesson that allows students to learn history and practice reading skills, critical thinking, and writing. The activity is called History Scene Investigation or HSI, which derives its name from the popular television series based on crime scene investigations (CSI). HSI uses discovery learning…

In this study, we investigated the link between the orthographic transparency of a language and the ease or difficulty of acquiring spelling proficiency in that language. The two languages compared are English, with a highly irregular sound-to-print correspondence, and Estonian, a Finno-Ugric language that has one of the most highly regular…

Recent "math wars" have drawn attention to how well various high school mathematics curricula prepare students for college-level mathematics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the high school mathematics curricula and students' post-secondary mathematics placement recommendation, specifically how…

The effect of cognitive load (CL) on speech recognition has received little attention despite the prevalence of CL in everyday life, e.g., dual-tasking. To assess the effect of CL on the interaction between lexically-mediated and acoustically-mediated processes, we measured the magnitude of the "Ganong effect" (i.e., lexical bias on phoneme…

In 2005, the ACS Examinations Institute released an exam for first-term general chemistry in which items are intentionally paired with one conceptual and one traditional item. A second-term, paired-questions exam was released in 2007. This paper presents an empirical study of student performances on these two exams based on national samples of…

For over 50 years, "seven plus or minus two" has been a commonly used guideline for gauging how many chunks of new information should be presented at one time in learning and performance situations. Often cited as the limit of working memory, this guideline was created as a result of misinterpreting an article by Miller (1956). More recent studies…

Tables are a presentation format that is commonly used to organize information, and they are widely present in many scenarios of our students' everyday activities; however, there is a scarcity of studies devoted to their analysis. Some of these studies point out that the organization of data into a double-entry table presents difficulties for…

This paper argues that pedagogic efficacy of multimedia packages (interactive multimedia presentations) cannot be achieved by experimental research in the absence of a detailed pedagogical screenwriting framework. Following a summary of relevant literature, such a framework is offered, consisting of micro-level design guidelines. The guidelines…

This study investigates the effects of extensive reading of e-books on tertiary level EFL students' English reading attitude, reading comprehension and vocabulary. Eighty-nine participants were assigned in two groups, with 46 students in the experimental group and the other 43 students in the control group. In addition to a traditional curriculum…

This paper deals with the nature and the level of difficulty of teaching and learning physics in the first year of undergraduate engineering schools in France. Our case study is based on a survey regarding a classic and basic question in applied physics, and which was conducted with a group of second-year students in a post-baccalaureate 1…

In this article the author shares examples of reading conferences with 10 English learners over the course of a semester. The reading conferences are conducted by four monolingual, European-American teachers at a primary school in the Southeastern United States. Sociocultural and identity theories are used as a theoretical frame for the research…

Some educators see the Common Core State Standards as reason for stress, most recognize the positive possibilities associated with them and are willing to make the professional commitment to implementing them so that academic rigor for all students will increase. But business leaders, parents, and the authors of the Common Core are not the only…

In the fall of 2009, the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) initiated a series of research programs designed to support the high school reform program, "Excellence for All," based on more than 20 years of research on the school reform programs of the countries with the most successful education programs worldwide. A…