This feature is designed to point "CBE-Life Sciences Education" readers to current articles of interest in life sciences education, as well as more general and noteworthy publications in education research. URLs are provided for the abstracts or full text of articles. This themed issue focuses on recent studies of concepts and…

Over the past years, a number of international initiatives that recognize the importance of sharing and reusing digital educational resources among educational communities through the use of Learning Object Repositories (LORs) have emerged. Typically, these initiatives focus on collecting digital educational resources that are offered by their…

A 2005 sabbatical study revealed 24 unique curriculum materials centers or collections (CMCs) in Michigan colleges or universities. The focus of the study was to investigate the number, characteristics, and quality of these centers and collections supporting education faculty and students. A follow up 2014 study asked how or if the Michigan…

Performance-based funding is a resource distribution strategy used in education to reward service providers for the outcomes they achieve. Institutions that produce above-average results earn additional financing, while those that fall short may face funding reductions and may be targeted for technical assistance to address their performance…

The Digital Resource Exchange About Music (DREAM) is an online tool for exchanging information about digital learning tools for music education. DREAM was designed by our team to encourage music teachers to learn about digital resources related to learning to play a musical instrument, both in classroom and independent music studio settings. In…

This study aimed at portraying the implementation of inquiry-based chemistry learning in the city of Jambi, Indonesia during the curriculum reformation era. The study included pre-existing supports for and situational beliefs towards the use of the strategy. The results of a questionnaire (n=99) revealed that inquiry had been minimally adopted in…

Many universities offer career exploration courses designed to assist students in making effective career choices; however, it remains unclear whether pre-existing resources have a significant influence on students' ability to benefit. The purpose of this study was (a) to measure the efficacy of a career exploration course at an Appalachian…

Saudi Arabia has expanded access to secondary schooling over the past generation, while also pushing to lift quality. This includes decentralising authority out to principals, equipping them to set higher performance expectations and deploy incentives to attract and retain strong teachers. We find wide variability in the extent to which principals…

Social networks have a significant presence in universities. More and more teachers are showing an interest in taking advantage of the possibilities they offer for university learning. An empirical study was carried out. The research hypothesis was: the pedagogical use of Twitter and Instagram improves students' motivation and learning. The sample…

Makerspaces provide a viable option for constructing and sharing knowledge in schools. Inherent in the designing, tinkering, and playing that learners engage in through making are competencies, such as the ability to create, problem solve, and innovate, decreed as critical by education policymakers. This paper summarizes results from a study in a…

The purposes of this qualitative case study were to describe the design and the development of a maker-centered learning environment and curriculum by an interdisciplinary team, and to explore how an after-school program that incorporated Maker education and scientific argumentation influenced middle school youths' attitudes toward science in the…

Mathematics instruction would be more effective if students were able to help each other and exchange information actively. This can effectively be done when students are engaged in cooperative learning. The study was intended to analyse the extent to which mathematics education is supplemented with cooperative learning in Grade 9 of Secondary…

The Great Recession was the most severe economic downturn in the United States since the Great Depression. Using data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), we describe the patterns of math and English language arts (ELA) achievement for students attending schools in communities differentially affected by recession-induced employment…

Mathematics educators are engaging in an online community referred to as the Math Twitter Blogosphere (MTBoS) to support their practices. Although studies indicate that educators who participate in professional online communities engage primarily in sharing and consuming resources, and in some cases also in building and maintaining professional…

The relationship between input and output is one of the leading topics in modern educational discourse. In the current study, we focus on the GEMS (Growth and Effectiveness Measures for Schools) exams in Israel, which constitute a measure of a school's scholastic achievements and its academic-social climate. The GEMS is the equivalent of exams…