Medical myth-busting is a common health education strategy during which a health educator highlights common misconceptions about health and then presents evidence to refute those misconceptions. Whereas this strategy can be an effective way to correct faulty health beliefs held by young adults, research from the field of cognitive psychology…

This study examined the implementation of a scripted phonics program taught by paraprofessionals in kindergarten classrooms in a local school district. Two research questions were investigated: (a) Can paraprofessionals with no prior training in phonics effectively implement a scripted phonics program for struggling kindergartners? and (b) Did…

This study explores middle and high school students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter after they were taught the concept. A total of 87 students (41 high school and 46 middle school) participated in the study. Findings suggest that students held misconceptions about the law of conservation of matter, chemical composition of matter…

Using qualitative data collection and analyses techniques, we examined mathematical representations used by sixteen (N=16) teachers while teaching the concepts of converting among fractions, decimals, and percents. We also studied representational choices by their students (N=581). In addition to using geometric figures and manipulatives, teachers…

The global immigration of people has increased the call by governments for multicultural education. Across the globe, in country after country, multicultural education have come to represent the theory and practice to teach majority and minority citizens and immigrants and to explore issues of policy and practice as it relates to: ethnicity,…

Dual-process theories have been proposed to explain normative and heuristic responses to reasoning and decision-making problems. Standard unitary and dual-process theories predict that normative responses should increase with age. However, research has focused recently on exceptions to this standard pattern, including developmental increases in…

Conceptual change requires learners to restructure parts of their conceptual knowledge base. Prior research has identified the fragmentation and the integration of knowledge as 2 important component processes of knowledge restructuring but remains unclear as to their relative importance and the time of their occurrence during development. Previous…

We report on the development of an item test bank and associated instruments based on the National Research Council (NRC) K-8 life sciences content standards. Utilizing hundreds of studies in the science education research literature on student misconceptions, we constructed 476 unique multiple-choice items that measure the degree to which test…

The purpose of this study is to reveal the metaphors of primary school students (n = 362) relating to the concept of global warming. Data collected by completing the expression of "global warming is like..., because..." of the students were analysed by use of qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. According to findings of…

Despite the endangered status of the orangutan, very little research has sought to understand what people know about this species or the conservation challenges they face. As zoos are well placed to influence such understandings, the present study sought to explore knowledge following a visit to orangutan exhibits at three Australian zoos…

Web-based collaborative annotation tools can facilitate communication among students and their instructors through online reading and communication. Collaborative reading fosters peer interaction and is an innovative way to facilitate discussion and participation in larger enrollment courses. It can be especially powerful as it creates an…

During the first decade of the twenty-first century there have been increasing numbers of bilingual children entering early years settings, many of whom are new to English. Twelve percent of school children in the UK are identified as having a mother tongue other than English and this number rises to 50% in urban areas such as inner London. In…

Most research into prospective secondary mathematics teachers' attitudes towards statistics indicates generally positive attitudes but a perception that statistics is difficult to learn. These perceptions of statistics as a difficult subject to learn may impact the approaches of prospective teachers to teaching statistics and in turn their…

The purpose for this research was to determine the accuracy of the perceptions of school administrators and community leaders regarding education finance information. School administrators and community leaders in this research project included members of three groups: public school administrators, other public school leaders, and leaders in the…

The objective of this study was to design and evaluate a household-level arsenic education and well water arsenic testing intervention to increase arsenic awareness in Bangladesh. The authors randomly selected 1,000 study respondents located in 20 villages in Singair, Bangladesh. The main outcome was the change in knowledge of arsenic from…