Advancements in technology and personal computing have allowed for the development of novel teaching modalities such as online web-based modules. These modules are currently being incorporated into medical curricula and, in some paradigms, have been shown to be superior to classroom instruction. We believe that these modules have the potential of…

Educators are encouraged to provide inquiry-based, collaborative, and problem solving activities that enhance learning and promote curiosity, skepticism, objectivity, and the use of scientific reasoning. Making anatomical casts or models by injecting solidifying substances into organs is an example of a constructivist activity for achieving these…

Publications on anatomy in medical education appear to be largely anecdotal. To explore this, we investigated the literature on anatomy in medical education, aiming first to evaluate the contribution of the literature on anatomy in medical education to "best evidence medical education" (BEME) and second to evaluate the development of this…

In most medical schools, summative practical examination in Anatomy usually takes the format of a "steeplechase" ("spotters" or "bell ringers") conducted in the gross anatomy laboratory using cadaveric material and prosected specimens. Recently, we have started to administer similar examinations online using the quiz facility in WebCT[TM] and…

This study explored factors that contribute to students' concepts of magnification and scale. Spatial visualization, logical thinking, and concepts of magnification and scale were measured for 46 middle school students. Scores on the "Zoom Assessment" (an assessment of knowledge of magnification and scale) were correlated with the "Test of Logical…

This paper presents findings from an exploratory study into a science teacher education initiative that seeks to build the foundations on which novice teachers can begin developing their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The initiative involved the use of Content Representations (CoRes), which were originally developed as part of a strategy for…

Science education research has examined the benefits of coteaching for learning to teach in elementary and secondary school contexts where coteachers bring variable levels of experience to the work of coteaching. Coteaching as a pedagogical strategy is being implemented at the university level but with limited research. Drawing from the field of…

Involving teachers in early stages of context-based curriculum innovations requires a professional development programme that actively engages teachers in the design of new context-based units. This study considers the implementation of a teacher professional development framework aiming to investigate processes of professional development. The…

It is well established that many teachers are resistant to take up the messages of reform if these messages require them to substantially shift their teaching practices. What accounts for this resistance? One well established explanation is that teachers lacks the self-efficacy required to attempt something new in their teaching--they simply do…

The purposes of this study are to explore fifth graders' epistemological views regarding their own experiences of constructing scientific knowledge through inquiry activities (i.e., practical epistemologies) and to investigate possible interactions between students' practical epistemologies and their inquiry skills to construct scientific…

New Zealand has had a national school science curriculum for more than 80 years. In the past the evolution content of this document has varied, and has at times been strongly influenced by creationist lobby groups. The "new" science curriculum, to be fully implemented in 2010, places much greater emphasis than before on understanding evolution,…

In mathematics education, a vast amount of research has shown that students of different ages have a strong tendency to apply linear or proportional models anywhere, even in situations where they are not applicable. For example, in geometry it is known that many students believe that if the sides of a figure are doubled, the area is doubled too.…

Taking the view that pictures are not a transparent but rather a deforming mirror of reality, shaping representations of the world bound up with the interests of the social institutions within which pictures are circulated and read, our aim is to explore what view of nature and of the human-nature relationship is built in Greek natural science…

According to the literature, there is a very important corpus of knowledge that allows for the investigation of some dimensions of "learning experience" provided to students, in relation to epistemic, pedagogical and meta-cognitive practices. However, in the literature, there is little investigation into the invariance (or not) of the…

Students have been largely ignored in discussions about how best to teach science, and many students feel the curriculum is detached from their lives and interests. This article presents a strategy for incorporating students' interests into the formal Biology curriculum, by drawing on the political meaning of "shadow government" as alternative…