It's easy for overweight children to feel singled out and shamed about their body size, at home and at school. Experts say children can easily interpret even the well-intentioned "war on childhood obesity," meant to promote health, to mean a war on their bodies and on them. Size-based stigma stems in large part from the myth that being fat is a…

We present a diagnostic question cluster (DQC) that assesses undergraduates' thinking about photosynthesis. This assessment tool is not designed to identify individual misconceptions. Rather, it is focused on students' abilities to apply basic concepts about photosynthesis by reasoning with a coordinated set of practices based on a few scientific…

Medical students often have initial understanding concerning medical domains, such as the central cardiovascular system (CCVS), when they enter the study programme. These notions may to some extent be in conflict with scientific understanding, which can be seen as a challenge for medical teaching. Hence, the purpose of this study was to analyse…

Widely thought to be something worth encouraging in young learners, creativity has popularly been associated more with music and art than with other areas of the curriculum. There have been many studies of creativity but few that focus explicitly on what counts as creative thinking in specific subject areas. The aim of the research reported here…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore secondary science teachers' beliefs about multiculturalism and its implementation in their classrooms. Participants included nine secondary science teachers, with experience ranging from 1 to 15 years of teaching. Data were collected through interviews, using a semi-structured interview protocol…

The primary goal of education is to provide meaningful instruction to all students while fostering generalization throughout the curriculum and beyond. As such, educators continuously seek out instructional methods and techniques to appropriately meet individual student needs while choosing "what" and "how" to teach. The current work provides an…

Although it is possible to cite general trends about the concerns of beginning teachers, each beginner will have specific needs and questions. Clearly, mentoring matters, and mentors are especially helpful when they recognize and attend to the beginners' specific needs. Here, Erinn Bentley describes a "Wish List" she developed as a…

To capture students' excitement and engage their interest in rocketships and visiting planets in the solar system, the author designed lessons that give students the opportunity to experience the joys and challenges of developing straw rockets, and then observing which design can travel the longest distance. The lessons are appropriate for…

One-day professional development workshops for graduate students and postdocs were held at top National Research Council--ranked chemistry research departments. Attendees intend to pursue academic careers, yet their experience and knowledge about teaching and learning were small. Postsurveys indicated that despite the short duration, the workshop…

The purpose of the study was to determine whether undergraduate students receiving web-based instruction based on traditional, key character, or classification instruction differed in their performance of insect identification tasks. All groups showed a significant improvement in insect identifications on pre- and post-two-dimensional picture…

As has been shown by previous research, students may possess various misconceptions in the area of thermal physics. In order to help them overcome misconceptions observed prior to instruction, we implemented a one-hour lecture-based intervention in their introductory thermal physics course. The intervention was held after the conventional lectures…

A recent international study of pre-service teachers identified that proportional reasoning was problematic for pre-service teachers. Proportional reasoning is an important topic in the middle years of schooling and therefore it is critical that teachers understand this topic and can rely on their Mathematical Content Knowledge (MCK) when…

This essay examines areas where literacy researchers in secondary and postsecondary contexts have explored the use of classroom discussion for extending critical thinking and content comprehension among students. It provides an argument for the use of strategic conversations in postsecondary classrooms and outlines specific methods for planning…

Over the past decade the "neuro"marketing of educational products has become increasingly common. Researchers have however expressed concern about the misapplication of neuroscience to education marketing, fearing that consumers may be deceived into investing in apparently "brain-based" products under the misapprehension that…

Teacher education programs are designed to provide teacher candidates with the knowledge and the skills for effective classroom learning and teaching. This includes providing relevant opportunities for student teachers to develop personal philosophies that will promote environments supportive of the participation and achievement of all learners,…