Through an account of how his own students analyzed Ira Sher's short story "The Man in the Well," the author calls for teachers of literature to value and attend to their classes' misreadings rather than replace them with corrective interpretations. He argues that probing these misreadings enables one to see the limits imposed by any single…

Early-formed preconceptions can be explained by one of the intuitive rules identified by Stavy and Tirosh (2000) called "More A-More B". By starting with students' preconceptions, revealed through the use of a formative assessment probe, teachers can scaffold inquiry-based experiences that will confront children with their misconceptions and guide…

This lesson uses characters from the Harry Potter series of novels as a "hook" to stimulate students' interest in introductory forensic science. Students are guided through RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) analysis using inexpensive materials and asked to interpret data from a mock crime scene. Importantly, the lesson provides an…

This document presents a review of evidence commissioned by the Education Endowment Foundation to inform the guidance document "Improving Mathematics in Key Stages Two and Three" (Education Endowment Foundation, 2017). The review draws on a substantial parallel study by the same research team, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which…

The study explores the civic identities of Romanian youth. Children born after 1989 have no memory of the communism; yet, they are the children and students of those who were educated under communism. Data sources were small group interviews with 21 youth and results indicate that participants believe "civic engagement is possible and…

This research aims to investigate the influence of conceptual change texts on students' understanding and misconceptions related to the subject of alkenes. For this, nine conceptual change texts were developed by considering students' misconceptions and learning difficulties regarding alkenes. The participants of this study consist of 63 second…

Affirmative action is perceived as a corrective policy intended to promote social equity (Crosby, Iyer, & Sincharoen, 2006; Curry & West, 1996; Kaplin & Lee, 2007; Oppenheimer, 1996). Indeed, affirmative action as a policy has been used to address minority underrepresentation (Ball, 2000), remedying the effects of past/current…

The paper is based on the challenges encountered by the researcher while conducting a study titled "Design, Development and Testing of an Indigenous Knowledge Management System Using Mobile Device Video Capture and Web 2.0 Protocols." During the conduct of the study the researcher observed a marked reluctance from organized indigenous…

Funding agencies and the science education community at large have pursued strategies for increasing K-12 outreach by scientists and for improving instructional practices in higher education classrooms. However, the simultaneous achievement of both goals is generally not a target for single projects or even single programs. A 4-year project…

This study was conducted to determine whether a lesson, in which context-based learning approach and scientific stories were used, changed students' (aged 11-12) stereotypical images of science and scientists. Data was collected from two separate sources: Interviews conducted with six students and Draw a Scientist Test (DAST) document that was…

Mike Shaughnessy is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics at Portland State University in Oregon. He served as co-chair for the Board for the Special Interest Group for Research in Mathematics Education of the American Educational Research Association from 2005-2007. A member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of Teachers…

Although research indicates that adoption of flood preparations among Europeans is low, only a few studies have attempted to explain citizens' preparedness behavior. This article applies the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) to explain flood preparedness intentions in the Netherlands. Survey data ("N" = 1,115) showed that…

Background: This study identified relationships among subjective social status (SSS), weight perception, weight control behaviors, and weight status in Korean adolescents using nationally representative data collected from the 2009 Korea Youth Risk Behaviors Web-Based Survey. Methods: Data from 67,185 students aged 12-18 years were analyzed.…

In this paper, it is aimed to investigate the persistence of misconceptions in the topic of the human blood circulatory system among students in different grade levels. For this reason, after discussions with biology educators, two tests consisting of open-ended questions were developed by the researcher and administered to students in four…

We study the misconceptions about colour that most people hold, determining the general phenomenological laws that govern them. Concept mapping was used to combat the misconceptions which were found in the application of a test specifically designed to determine these misconceptions, while avoiding the possible misleading inductions that could…