Political science is a challenging field, particularly when it comes to undergraduate teaching. If we are to engage in something more than uncritical ideological instruction, it demands from the student a willingness to approach alien political ideas with intellectual generosity. Yet, students within introductory classes often harbor inherited…

Professors seem to be more aware of different student learning styles than ever before and are utilizing various teaching techniques in order to appeal to different students in their classes. Unfortunately, presenting materials is only one side of the coin, while the other side--assessment--has not received the same amount of attention. After all,…

The idea that "film is an extraordinarily powerful teaching tool" (Champoux) is explored in relation to the film "5 Fingers" that presents an account of the true story of the reproduction and sale of top secret documents held by the British Ambassador in Ankara, Turkey to Nazi Germany by Elyesa Bazna, code named Cicero, arguably the most…

Cultivating an inclusive definition of citizenship is increasingly important to the maintenance of America's multicultural democracy. Yet, current college-level civic education and diversity interventions are incapable of fully addressing this problem. Hence, this comprehensive review of the literature on diversity and higher education suggests…

This study assessed the capacity of a major Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Assignment to improve students' content knowledge surrounding relevant course concepts in two sections of "The Politics of Welfare Reform," a 200-level class offered at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. The hypothesis was that performance on the PBL assignment, which…

Given the central importance of the Nature of Science (NOS) and Scientific Inquiry (SI) in national and international science standards and science learning, empirical support for the theoretical delineation of these constructs is of considerable significance. Furthermore, tests of the effects of varying magnitudes of NOS knowledge on…

Worldwide, a tendency is visible in which upper secondary science curricula are innovated in the direction of context-based education. Crucial to these innovations is the way teachers interact with newly developed teaching materials and implement them in classroom practice. The focus of our research is to identify characteristics of the…

The characterization of students' reasoning strategies is of central importance in the development of instructional strategies that foster meaningful learning. In particular, the identification of shortcut reasoning procedures (heuristics) used by students to reduce cognitive load can help us devise strategies to facilitate the development of more…

This study describes the development of an instrument to investigate the extent to which student-centered actions are occurring in science classrooms. The instrument was developed through the following five stages: (1) student action identification, (2) use of both national and international content experts to establish content validity, (3)…

The science education literature clearly shows that knowledge of the nature of technology is an educational goal; however there is a lack of research on student conceptions about the nature of technology. To address this gap in the literature, this research began with a thorough review of the literature on scientific and technological literacy,…

The apartheid policies in South Africa had a marked influence on the accessibility and quality of school science experienced by the different race groups. African learners in particular were seriously disadvantaged in this regard. The issues of equity and redress were foremost in transformation of the education system, and the accompanying…

The objective of this study was to provide the person in charge and food safety instructors an assessment tool to help characterize, identify strengths and weaknesses, determine the completeness of the knowledge gained by the employee, and evaluate the level of content presentation and usability of current retail food safety training platforms. An…

Abstract: Students' perception of 8 criteria (rationale of the problem; interdisciplinary learning; facilitator asked essential questions; learner's skills; assessments; facilitation procedures; team's use of resources [team collaboration], and facilitator within a problem-based learning context) were assessed for a food biotechnology course that…

A modified problem-based learning (PBL) exercise was implemented in a food science Dairy Products course, which had previously been taught in the traditional lecture and laboratory format only. The first 10 wk of the course consisted of weekly lectures and laboratory exercises. During the remaining 3 wk, students were presented with a case study…

Internet-based science learning has been advocated by many science educators for more than a decade. This review examines relevant research on this topic. Sixty-five papers are included in the review. The review consists of the following two major categories: (1) the role of demographics and learners' characteristics in Internet-based science…