The study described in this article incorporates qualitative research through in-depth, individual, structured interviews with 12 biology faculty from two Midwestern universities to explore perceptions about how they have learned to teach and how they work to improve their skills.

There is wide consensus among educators that participation in authentic research is valuable for undergraduate science students, and incorporating research into large-enrollment courses is one way to provide that opportunity to many students. There is substantial variation in the documented impacts, however, particularly between males and females.…

In this study, we used a case study approach to obtain an in-depth understanding of the change process of two university instructors who were involved with redesigning a biology course. Given the hesitancy of many biology instructors to adopt evidence-based, learner-centered teaching methods, there is a critical need to understand how biology…

This study of achievement differences, as reflected by course grades, on a third-semester electromagnetism course at a Swedish research university was motivated by instructor concerns about gender inequalities. Quantitative analysis showed a gender gap in course grades between female and male students for the period of fall 2007 to spring 2013.…

Concept inventories (CIs) are valuable tools for educators that assess student achievement and identify misconceptions held by students. Results of student responses can be used to adjust or develop new instructional methods for a given topic. The regulation of gene expression in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes is an important concept in genetics…

It is not uncommon for students to view laboratory instruments as black boxes. Unfortunately, this can often result in poor experimental results and interpretation. To tackle this issue, a laboratory course was designed to enable students not only to critically think about operating principles of the instrument but also to improve interpretation…

A new graduate chemistry course was introduced in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Alabama. The new course, CH584-Literature and Communication in Graduate Chemistry, replaced a second year graduate student literature seminar requirement. Course topics included chemical information resources, critical analysis, scientific writing,…

Undergraduate students are increasingly being used to support course transformations that incorporate research-based instructional strategies. While such students are typically selected based on strong content knowledge and possible interest in teaching, they often do not have previous pedagogical training. The current training models make use of…

While haptics (simulated touch) represents a potential breakthrough technology for science teaching and learning, there is relatively little research into its differential impact in the context of teaching and learning. This paper describes the testing of a haptically enhanced simulation (HES) for learning about buoyancy. Despite a lifetime of…

Increasing the number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) university graduates is considered a key element for long-term productivity and competitiveness in the global economy. Still, little is known about what actually drives and shapes students' choices. This paper focusses on secondary school students at the very top of the…

Research is not clear on how to address the difficulty students have conceptualizing geologic processes and phenomena. This study investigated how animations coupled with seductive details effect learners' situational interest and emotions. A quantitative quasi-experimental study employing an independent-measures factorial design was used. The…

People with disabilities are chronically underrepresented in many geoscience departments across the country. There are a number of proposed reasons why this under-representation persists, one of which is lack of instructor training in designing accessible curriculum and making high-quality accommodations. This not only puts students with…

The primary measure used to determine relative effectiveness of in-class activities has been student performance on pre/posttests. However, in today's active-learning classrooms, learning is a social activity, requiring students to interact and learn from their peers. To develop effective active-learning exercises that engage students, it is…

Throughout countries such as Ireland, the U.K., and Australia, graduate students who fulfill teaching roles in the undergraduate laboratory are often referred to as "laboratory demonstrators". The laboratory demonstrator (LD) model of graduate teaching is similar to the more commonly known graduate teaching assistant (GTA) model that is…

In decades Peer Instruction (PI) has been confirmed that it can improve students' conceptual understanding. Anyway the main problem for using PI is an audience responding system which is required for gathering students' answer, to enhance the learning process of PI instead of using Clickers which cost about 40 USD per item. In this work we decided…