Based on a three year action research project, this study examines one strand of that research, namely the impact that "purpose", "i.e." exploring the range of rationales for studying a subject, has in helping white trainee teachers embrace cultural and ethnic diversity within their teaching. Through "purpose"…

Just as elementary students enter the science classroom with prior knowledge and experiences, so do preservice elementary teachers who enter the science methods classroom. Elementary science methods instructors recognize the challenges associated with preparing teachers for the science classroom. Two of these challenges include overcoming limited…

Drawing on an evaluation experience of a teacher education preparation project in a rural area of South Africa, this paper attempts to explore the possibility of using Communities of Practice (CoP) in teacher preparation. The paper concludes that the concept of CoP is powerful in providing spaces for self-reflection to pre-service teachers and…

Educational researchers and teachers are well aware that misconceptions--erroneous ideas that differ from the scientifically accepted ones--are very common amongst students. Daily experiences, creative and perceptive thinking and science textbooks give rise to students' misconceptions which lead them to draw erroneous conclusions that become…

The purpose of this study is to explore students' understanding levels and misconceptions about temperature and factors affecting it. The concept of the study was chosen from Geography National Curriculum. In this study, a questionnaire was developed after a pilot study with an aim to ascertain the students' understanding levels of temperature and…

The aftermath of September 11, 2001 complicated how students of Middle Eastern heritages are perceived, treated, and constructed in U.S. institutions of higher education. However, research and scholarship has ignored how students of Middle Eastern heritages experience higher education in the current socio-political United States context. Borrowing…

Numerous flash or java applet based simulations have been developed to improve students' comprehension of Science concepts, particularly the more complex or "dry" ones. Simulations have been reported to be effective as instructional aids in scaffolding scientific learning by students since simulations support the explication of implicit…

"Conceptions of Islamic Education: Pedagogical Framings" argues that "madaris" (Muslim schools) cannot exclusively be held responsible for the cultivation of extremism. Islamic education can most appropriately be framed according to three interrelated concepts: "tarbiyyah" (rearing or nurturing), "ta'lim"…

Understanding of NOS (nature of science) appears as a prerequisite of a scientifically literate person. Promoting adequate understanding of NOS in pre-service physics teachers is, therefore, an important task of science educators. Before doing that, science educators must have information concerning their pre-service teachers' conceptions of NOS.…

Pundits, politicians, and business leaders continually make claims for what standardized tests can do, and those claims go largely unchallenged because they are in line with popular assumptions about what these tests can do, what the scores mean, and the psychology of human motivation. But what most of what these opinion leaders say--and the…

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of teaching based on conceptual change overcome misconceptions of 9th grade high school students about the subject of air pressure. The sampling of the study was formed with two classes of 9th grade students from a general high school in the city-center of Trabzon. A quasi-experimental…

Along with inquiry-based teaching, exploring the elements of art can guide students to view and represent objects realistically. Understanding line, shape, color, value, form, space, and texture helps bridge the gap between what students actually observe and what their preconceived ideas about the object may be. This type of explicit instruction…

Identities are not only shaped by self-perception, but are influenced by others' perceptions of self as well. More pointedly, one's physicality or bodily self can be perceived differently depending upon the viewer. To that end, Turner (2002) notes, "faculty women of color experience multiple marginality, characterized by lived contradiction…

Current evidence is equivocal as to whether adolescent's perception of weight status is linked to both healthy and risky behaviors. This study examined the association between accurate and inaccurate perception of weight and self-reported health and risk behaviors among a diverse sample of obese, urban adolescents. Data were analyzed from 1,180…

Testing strategies centered around open-ended assessments are generally thought to result in deeper learning compared with close-ended questioning. However, the time requirements involved in grading open-ended assessments on exams often limit the feasibility of using such assessments. This article presents an index card questioning strategy…