There is an increasing awareness of out-of-school program value in enhancing student interest and understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study examined the impact of an out-of-school STEM education program on student attitudes toward STEM disciplines and STEM careers. A STEM education program implemented at…

This study investigated the enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety of elementary school students and the relations of these emotions with achievement in two domains. Seven-hundred-and-sixty-seven second- and fourth-graders completed an adaptation of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Elementary School (AEQ-ES: Lichtenfeld, Pekrun, Stupnisky, Reiss,…

Tackling environmental and sustainability issues has grown in popularity in writing courses. Yet, for teachers designing professional and technical writing classes, what are the benefits and drawbacks in asking students to interact with place-based discourses in their digital compositions, including blogs? How does implementing an ecocomposition…

Professional identity, or the connection between individuals and their professional community of practice, begins forming as early as deciding a major for university studies. Development is supported or hindered by situated practices and experiences throughout undergraduate studies and across the transition from university to the workplace. To…

As a result of the importance given to English which is the world's most common communication language in science and trade , English courses have taken place in the curriculum as elective or compulsory courses. Personal traits of the individuals are among the items which must be taken into consideration while designing curriculum.The purpose of…

Teachers' beliefs and attitudes are important for understanding and improving teacher effectiveness. This study focuses on the extent to which teachers hold constructivist beliefs and the role such beliefs may play in creating a student centered instruction, focused on students´ interests and motivations. Using a mix of quantitative and…

The Building Blocks of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Act was put in place to direct the National Science Foundation to support STEM education research focused on early childhood. The Act includes the following sections: (1) Short Title; (2) Findings; (3) Supporting Early Childhood and Elementary STEM Education Research;…

Having intense or "special" interests and a tendency to focus in depth to the exclusion of other inputs, is associated with autistic cognition, sometimes framed as "monotropism". Despite some drawbacks and negative associations with unwanted repetition, this disposition is linked to a range of educational and longer-term…

Research findings indicate a decline in students' motivation towards science learning through grade levels. However, there is a lack of studies investigating students' motivation comparing learning between science subjects and at different school levels. Using self-determination theory as a framework, this study compares perceived changes in…

Increasing the inclusion of underrepresented individuals in coding is an intractable problem, with a variety of initiatives trying to improve the situation. Many of these initiatives involve STEAM education, which combines the arts with traditional STEM disciplines. Evidence is emerging that this approach is making headway on this complex problem.…

We examined the bidirectional relations between home literacy environment, reading interest, and children's emergent literacy and reading skills in a sample of 172 English-speaking Canadian children (M[subscript age] = 75.87 months) followed from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Results of cross-lagged analysis revealed that the reading comprehension…

Research on the advantages and disadvantages of project-based learning (PBL) among gifted pupils studying physics is scarce. This mixed-methods study investigates engagement, experiences, and learning outcomes among gifted Finnish upper-secondary-level students learning physics through PBL. A six-lesson PBL module on basic Newtonian mechanics was…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience barriers to competitive integrated employment during their transition to adulthood. To better understand potential reasons for these barriers, we interviewed 10 young adults with ASD, ages 18-26, and their parents or guardians. We audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed…

The author of this article presents a brief introduction to the use of current events news articles in an introductory microeconomics course for business students. Popular press articles are integrated with small-group peer instruction, and student understanding is assessed using student response system, or clicker, questions. Examples of lesson…

This classroom-based study investigates the relative effectiveness of content and language integrated learning in Biology for students with limited knowledge of English. The sample comprised 252 German-speaking learners of English taking intermediate English courses (3rd year of English learning) at a special secondary school (German…