The South African Physical Sciences Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) requires learners to develop science inquiry skills, including Integrated Science Inquiry Skills (ISIS). However, the performance of learners in assessment tasks related to ISIS has been consistently poor over several years. The use of ineffective pedagogical…

Globalization is a powerful force with far reaching impacts on education and education policy. The growth of large scale international surveys of student achievement and the increasing role played by intergovernmental agencies in education means that the influence that globalization exerts on education is likely to increase even further in the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between science curricular treatment and achievement in middle school. A repeated-measures ANOVA applied to standardized test score data from students, n = 3,135, determined relative growth from 5th to 8th grade. Findings show achievement scores from schools offering a choice of advanced…

The potential benefits of increased access to private school choice programs in the United States remain a hot topic in educational policy. According to economic theory, private schooling should improve student achievement by increasing competitive pressures on educators to provide high-quality educational experiences. In addition, since children…

The use of technologies in and outside classrooms has attracted young adolescents who must be prepared to embrace the opportunities and face new challenges in the 21st century. Educational systems across the US continue to gravitate toward new technologies such as digital cameras, interactive-boards, and software that have been shown to enhance…

Technology-enhanced learning has attracted increasing attention of educational community focused on improvement of traditional classroom learning. Augmented immersive reality (AIR) technologies enhance users' perception of reality by augmenting it with computer-generated components such as audio, video, 2/3-D graphics, GPS data, etc. The AIR…

This study examined the associations between school entry skills and science achievement at both the student and school levels among fourth-grade students in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Chinese Taipei, and Hong Kong. Data of the five Asian regions in the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) were analysed. Variables…

This research aims at comparing the changes in factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge of heat transfer in learning science using YouTube videos accompanied by discovery learning among fifth graders. A pre-and post-test experimental design was conducted by two different groups. One of the groups was randomly assigned to conduct discovery…

This study aimed to investigate the effect of critical reading (CR) practices in science courses on academic achievement, science performance level, and problem-solving skills. The experimental method and factorial design were used. The study was conducted with 102 seventh-grade students from a public school in Turkey during the 2014-2015 academic…

In an effort to improve student conceptual understanding and help students better connect pre-existing knowledge to new ideas, a concept map assignment was implemented in a first-year college level general chemistry course. This implementation included a quasi-experiment that was carried out in discussion group recitation sections within a…

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study that measures trends in mathematics and science achievement at the 4th and 8th grades every 4 years. TIMSS is designed to align broadly with mathematics and science curricula in the participating education systems and, therefore, to reflect…

The Houston Independent School District offers two different English as a Second Language (ESL) programs for language minority students. One of these is a Content-Based ESL (CBESL) program where ESL methodology is used to deliver English instruction across a variety of subject areas. The second is a Pullout ESL program (PO-ESL) where students…

In this laboratory, students perform a synthetic reaction in two ways: (i) by traditional bulk-phase reaction and (ii) in the course of reactive paper spray ionization. Mass spectrometry (MS) is used both as an analytical method and a means of accelerating organic syntheses. The main focus of this laboratory exercise is that the same ionization…

In spite of modest gains in the past four decades, the United States has not been able to substantially improve on the pervasive underrepresentation of minorities in postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways. We suggest a way to guide a national effort to double the persistence of underrepresented minorities…

In this undergraduate analytical chemistry experiment, students quantitatively assess the antibacterial activity of essential oils found in thyme leaves ("Thymus vulgaris") in an authentic, research-like environment. This multi-week experiment aims to instill green chemistry principles as intrinsic to chemical problem solving. Students…