This review brings together the literature that pertains to the role of relational reasoning, or the ability to discern meaningful patterns within any stream of information, in the mental work of scientists, medical doctors, and engineers. Existing studies that measure four forms of relational reasoning--analogy, anomaly, antinomy, and…

Earth wires and fuses work together in UK mains circuits to keep users safe from electric shocks and are taught in many school contexts. The subject can be quite abstract and difficult for pupils to grasp, and a simple but visually clear and direct demonstration is described which would be easy for most physics departments to build and which can…

The author was invited to write this opinion piece following a presentation at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) conference on Methods in Education Chemistry Research related to translating creative teaching ideas and innovations into chemistry education research outputs. With a keen interest in learning and teaching and a solid training in…

Appropriately designed laboratory and classroom facilities are essential for facilitating high-quality original research experiences for undergraduate students. Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL)--an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that involved leaders of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR)--engaged faculty,…

This research sought to ascertain through a phenomenological approach whether and how collaboration occurs in writing center administration. The reflections and perceptions of former writing center gWPAs provided insight into a variety of institutional contexts and experiences present in writing center collaboration. The participants perceived…

We designed a physics laboratory exercise around pulse oximetry, a noninvasive medical technique used to assess a patient's blood oxygen saturation. An alternative to a traditional optics and light lab, this exercise teaches the principles of light absorption, spectroscopy, and the properties of light, while simultaneously studying a common…

This paper describes the construction and development of YouTestTube.com, a YouTube clone website to facilitate video-sharing, social networking, and reflections of chemistry laboratory classes for year one students within the School of Biomedical Sciences at Ulster University. The practice was first introduced in the 2008/09 academic year and has…

We have developed a process-oriented chemistry laboratory curriculum for non-science majors. The purpose of this study is both to explore university students' understanding of chemistry processes and to evaluate the quality of evidence students use to support their claims regarding chemistry processes in a process-oriented chemistry laboratory…

This article analyzes masculinity and experimental practices within three different physics communities. This work is premised on the understanding that the discipline of physics is not only dominated by men, but also is laden with masculine connotations on a symbolical level, and that this limited and limiting construction of physics has made it…

The connective approach is developed by Sir Peter Strawson, emeritus professor of philosophy at Oxford University, as an effective way to understand the fundamental structure of human thinking in the field of analytical philosophy. This article provides insights for extending the work of Strawson, Tay, and Tay et al. to education, in particular,…

Hybrid courses with a focus on practice-orientated education and self-guided learning phases are on the rise on the higher education sector. Disciplines in Life Sciences implicate a high degree of practical laboratory expertise. The University of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Vienna, Austria, has thus been endeavoured offering students a high…

Women are underrepresented at multiple levels of physics education. One avenue for understanding the classroom experiences that perpetuate underrepresentation is physics identity, defined using the three dimensions of recognition, performance, and competence. Existing literature suggests that women tend to have a much weaker physics identity than…

Laboratory activity is closely related and yet is essential in the process of science teaching-learning. The hands-on laboratory experiment is the one normally used in school. Particularly with the state of online schooling, it is quite challenging to perform a hands-on laboratory activity. The combination of inquiry-based learning with virtual…

In early 2020, the COVID-19 crisis forced medical institutions worldwide to convert quickly to online platforms for content delivery. Although many components of medical education were adaptable to that format, anatomical dissection laboratory lost substantial content in that conversion, including features of active student participation,…

There is an expected increase in the need to provide adequate string-specific training for non-string specialists in the future and for preservice music teachers to develop the requisite pedagogical content knowledge to teach a variety of instruments. A multiyear instrumental lab ensemble university course was designed to help preservice music…