While circulating the room during a classroom activity where preservice teachers are required to teach a mini-lesson to their classmates, Jane Metty's ear was drawn to one particular group where a student asked, "What color is blood?"--and heard the student teacher confidently answer, "Blue." She then began to wonder where…

For more than 20 years school choice programs have provided parents opportunities to send their children to public or private schools more suited to their needs. Choice and competition in education benefits students. Today, 21 states and Washington, D.C., have school choice programs serving more than one million students. Impressively, nine out of…

The Center for American Progress released a proposal in February to expand access to preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. The Obama administration released a plan in the fiscal year 2014 budget to invest $75 billion over the next 10 years to provide all low- and moderate-income 4-year-olds with access to high-quality preschool programs through a…

The study was designed to probe students' thinking about which numerical values can be assigned to algebraic letters. The data from students in Year 7 (n = 533), Year 8 (n = 377) and Year 9 (n = 172) was analysed using response patterns. The data confirmed that each year contained students with two misconceptions; "Different Letter means…

A wide range of cultural studies research have explored the impact of deeply held cultural stereotypes on stakeholders' attitudes and dispositions towards race, gender and class, which has resulted in the development of culturally responsive teaching frameworks designed to address educational inequity for diverse groups of students. Research…

Teaching economics to elementary aged children can be a challenge for classroom teachers. Using popular children's literature is an engaging and fun way to involve students in learning important economic lessons while integrating the content with language arts standards. This article will describe how to use children's books to teach economic…

This paper provides information about noncredit instruction in the California Community Colleges and updates the 2009 paper "Noncredit Instruction: Opportunity and Challenge" to incorporate subsequent changes from the last decade. Since the passage of SB 361 (Scott, 2006), noncredit instruction has seen significant changes, including the…

This commentary paper focuses upon the loss of respect for Earth Sciences on the part of many school districts across the United States. Too many Earth Science teachers are uncertified to teach Earth Science, or hold certificates to teach the subject merely because they took a test. The Earth Sciences have faced this problem for many years…

Research on statistical cognition and application suggests that statistical inference concepts are commonly misunderstood by students and even misinterpreted by researchers. Although some research has been done on students' misunderstanding or misconceptions of confidence intervals (CIs), few studies explore either students' or mathematics…

As children develop misconceptions about animals they believe are dangerous, they also adopt attitudes that are difficult to change. Changing these attitudes is challenging for teachers. One animal that is easy to find but difficult for children to understand is a spider. As with most wild animals, they are difficult to teach about because…

Colleges and universities are at the forefront of efforts to preserve the earth's resources for future generations. Carbon neutrality, renewable energy sources, green building strategies, and related initiatives require informed and courageous leaders at all levels of higher education. James Martin and James E. Samels have worked closely with…

This study involved the development and application of a two-tier diagnostic test for measuring students' understanding of cell division and reproduction. The instrument development procedure had three general steps: defining the content boundaries of the test, collecting information on students' misconceptions, and instrument development.…

Two studies investigated the effects of information related to rape myths on Spanish college students' perceptions of sexual assault. In Study 1, 92 participants read a vignette about a nonconsensual sexual encounter and rated whether it was a sexual assault and how much the woman was to blame. In the scenario, the man either used physical force…

A major source of difficulties in promoting students' understanding of genetics lies in the presentation of gene concepts and models in an inconsistent and largely ahistorical manner, merely amalgamated in hybrid views, as if they constituted linear developments, instead of being built for different purposes and employed in specific contexts. In…

Objective: Describe beliefs about what makes foods healthful among low-income African American women. Methods: In one-on-one interviews, 28 low-income African American mothers viewed 30 pairs of familiar foods and explained which food in the pair was more healthful and why. Responses were grouped into codes describing concepts of food…