Motivating college students is challenging. Professors must be energetic, enthusiastic, and current in their field. Typically, once a college student selects a major, the motivation to be successful within that discipline is more intrinsic based on interest associated with the major. However, undecided majors who are enrolled in baccalaureate…

Recent experimental evidence indicates that the ability of adults to tolerate milk, cheese, and other lactose-containing dairy products is an autosomal dominant trait that co-evolved with dairy farming in Central Europe about 7,500 years ago. Among persons of European descent, this trait is strongly associated with a C to T substitution at a…

This study reports from a pre-service teacher's online learning and assessment activity on determining variability of two graphical artefacts. Using a critical-analytical perspective to data, the present study indicates that the prospective teachers surveyed showed awareness of relevant subject specific operators and methods; however, these seem…

This study investigates the effects of using interactive computer animations based on predict-observe-explain (POE) as a presentation tool on primary school students' understanding of the static electricity concepts. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test control group design was utilized in this study. The experiment group consisted of 30…

Dual-enrollment (DE) science courses offer a way to strengthen the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics pipeline between high school and college. These courses offer high school students the opportunity to experience college science in a more supported environment, allowing them to adjust to the different academic and social demands…

Constructivist approaches to education embrace students' prior learning experiences and preference for learning in social environments. However, many postsecondary classes continue to embrace lecture-styles of teaching. This study sought to understand first-year students' perceptions of the mistakes instructors make in large lecture classes.…

The transition to undergraduate study is often a challenging step for students as they progress from relatively smaller school/college classes with a high degree of contact time with familiar staff to a university department where one-on-one interaction with staff members is significantly reduced. The first year tutorials module offers one of the…

Personal response systems ("clickers") have become an important means for instructors to gauge student learning in large lecture classes. In addition to measuring students' performance on a particular question, requesting a measure of mental effort from students allows for richer data concerning student learning. This information can be…

Professor Carol Vincent gets the 2012 Professorial Lecture series underway with a thought provoking talk drawing on research projects conducted over the last twelve years. The lecture will explore factors identified in current policy, media, and other social and political forums as the risks and responsibilities of contemporary parenting, with a…

Promoting active learning among students may result in greater learning and more positive attitudes in university-level large lecture classes. One way of promoting active learning in large lecture classes is via the use of a think-pair-share instructional strategy, which combines student participation in class discussions via clicker technology…

Many teachers teach the way they were taught. If asked to explain why they lecture to their students, the response is often, "My teachers wrote on the board and I took notes. It worked for me." Brain research indicates that other techniques increase blood flow to parts of the brain associated with cognition. This presentation provides anecdotal…

A novel S[subscript N]1-S[subscript N]2 studio-based lab module that incorporates inquiry-based learning was designed and implemented. The studio module was taught in a newly renovated lab space designed with an integrated classroom. The students were divided into two groups for the lesson with one group conducting a studio-module lab and the…

In this article, the author discusses a teaching technique called "flipping" and describes how "flipping" the classroom can improve the traditional lecture. As its name suggests, flipping describes the inversion of expectations in the traditional college lecture. It takes many forms, including interactive engagement, just-in-time teaching (in…

Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, higher education was swept up in the theoretical phenomena of mastery learning, cooperative learning, and small-group learning. Professors, instructors, and teachers at the K-12 level became facilitators, guides, supervisors, counselors, and advocates for all things team and group. The thought of a…

Quiz-based and collaborative teaching strategies have previously been found to be efficient for the improving meaningful learning of physiology during lectures. These approaches have, however, not been investigated during laboratory exercises. In the present study, we compared the impact of solving quizzes individually and in groups with…