This article consists of two sections: in the first one, I discuss one of the most prevalent lay myths in the Western world with respect to communication and understanding, namely, the view that meaning resides in words and that it is transmitted from one language user to another in a conduit, as it were. In the second section, I refer to my own…

Chemical reaction kinetics and equilibrium are essential core concepts of chemistry but are challenging topics for many students, both at the high school and undergraduate university level. Visualization at the molecular level is valuable to aid understanding of reaction kinetics and equilibrium. This activity provides a discovery-based method to…

Novice medical students usually hold initial conceptions concerning medical domains, such as the cardiovascular system, which may contradict scientific explanations and thus hinder learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate which kinds of biomedical representations medical students constructed of the central cardiovascular system in…

This article presents an interview with Susan Mandel Glazer, past president of both the International Reading Association and the College Reading Association. Dr. Glazer received her doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania and her master of arts from New York University. Her most recent books are "Beyond the Looking Glass:…

Black, Wilson, and Yao (this issue) commendably attempt to put descriptive theory at the center of pedagogy, assessment, and curriculum. The thrust of their article is that only through theories of learning will student progression be properly understood. Casting a critical eye over the faddish distinction between "formative" and "summative"…

In this paper I discuss the possibility of the idea of emancipation within an educational philosophy that does not accept schooling as its first premise. The first part of the paper will take Sweden as an example of an educational state defined through educational policies such as life long learning, accountability and evidence-based research, and…

Increasingly, Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is internationally recognised as the scientific basis for teaching and treatment in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Yet, many governments and professionals across Europe promote an eclectic model as more child-centred and pragmatic. This paper addresses the issues of eclecticism and ABA by exploring how…

In this article, the authors present a rejoinder to Drs. Boscardin, Mainzer, and Kealy's response to their article "Preparing Special Education Administrators for Inclusion in Diverse, Standards-Based Contexts: Beyond the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium" (ISLLC; Voltz & Collins, 2010).…

In this conceptual article, I use five questions that were posed in 1936 about immigration and the education of immigrant children as a lens to examine contemporary perspectives on immigration and the education of immigrant children. Dispelling myths about immigrant students and English learners has been a consistent concern in our country. These…

When young readers encounter texts that contain too many unfamiliar words, their comprehension suffers. Reading becomes slow, laborious, and frustrating, impeding their learning. That's why vocabulary knowledge is a key element in reading comprehension. To comprehend fully and learn well, all students need regular vocabulary exploration.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which sustained teacher professional development in science education affects the classroom instruction of elementary school teachers in third through sixth grade over a 3-year period. The teachers in the study were all elementary endorsed and prepared to be generalists in the content areas.…

This paper was written to clarify misconceptions that East Asian students are somehow less autonomous than learners from other cultural backgrounds. Specifically, based on motivational levels, it examines Japanese university students' perceptions of their responsibility and ability of autonomous English learning and what they can do inside and…

The roles of conceptual change and model building in science education are very important and have a profound and wide effect on teaching science. This study examines the change in children's position concepts after instruction, based on different conceptual change theories. Three classes were chosen and divided into three groups, including a…

To address the issue of pre-service teachers being under-prepared for work in multicultural and impoverished environments in America's urban schools, teacher education programs have taken steps to improve diversity-oriented curricula and provide relevant fieldwork experience. However, research indicates that a large proportion of teacher…

This study examines students' understanding of the normative connections between key concepts of cell division, including both mitosis and meiosis, and underlying biological principles that are critical for an in-depth understanding of genetic inheritance. Using a structural equation modeling method, we examine middle school students'…