Designed-based research principles guided the study of 51 secondary-science teachers in the second year of a 3-year professional development project. The project entailed the creation of student-centered, inquiry-based, science, video games. A professional development model appropriate for infusing innovative technologies into standards-based…

In a standards-based system, it is important for all components of the system to align in order to achieve the intended goals. No Child Left Behind law mandates that assessments be fully aligned with state standards, be valid, reliable and fair, be reported to all stakeholders, and provide evidence that all students in the state are meeting the…

The term "cyberlearning" reflects a growing national interest in managing the interactions of technology and education, especially with respect to the use of networking and information technologies. However, there is little agreement about what the term means. Such disagreements reflect underlying differences in beliefs about the purposes of…

The paper traces a research process in the design and development of a science learning environment called WiMVT (web-based inquirer with modeling and visualization technology). The WiMVT system is designed to help secondary school students build a sophisticated understanding of scientific conceptions, and the science inquiry process, as well as…

Chemistry instructors in teaching laboratories provide expert modeling of techniques and cognitive processes and provide assistance to enrolled students that may be described as scaffolding interaction. Such student support is particularly essential in laboratories taught with an inquiry-based curriculum. In a teaching laboratory with a high…

This paper describes the structure of the "Air Pollution Course", an environmental science laboratory course developed at the Science Education Laboratory of the Faculty of Primary Education, University of Athens, as well as the findings resulting from its implementation by pre-service elementary teachers. The course proposed in this study deals…

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of jigsaw cooperative learning and computer animation techniques on academic achievements of first year university students attending classes in which the unit of chemical bonding is taught within the general chemistry course and these students' learning of the particulate nature of matter of this…

In a previous study, the authors identified several student misconceptions regarding the process of dissolving ionic compounds in water. The present study used multiple-choice questions whose distractors were derived from these misconceptions to assess students' understanding of the dissolving process at the symbolic and particulate levels. The…

This paper looks at the conceptual differences between video game learning and traditional classroom and laboratory learning. It explores the notion of virtual experience by comparing a commonly used high school laboratory protocol on DNA extraction with a similar experience provided by a biotechnology themed video game. When considered…

The impacts of biotechnology are found in nearly all sectors of society from health care and food products to environmental issues and energy sources. Despite the significance of biotechnology within the sciences, it has not become a prominent trend in science education. In this study, we seek to more fully identify biology teachers' concerns…

Does an online, multimedia case study influence students' performance, motivation, and perceptions of science in collegiate level biology classes, and if so, how? One hundred and eight students in 5 classes from 4 campuses in the United States and Puerto Rico participated in data collection (performance tests, surveys and focus group interviews).…

We conducted a literature review of using educational technology in biology learning from 2001 to 2010. A total of 36 empirical articles were included for review. Based upon the content analyses of these studies, such as technologies utilized, student sample, biological topics involved, the research purpose, and methodology, the following…

This study deals with engineering education in the middle-school level. Its focus is instructors' concerns in teaching design, as well as scaffolding strategies that can help teachers deal with these concerns. Through participatory action research, nine instructors engaged in a process of development and instruction of a curriculum about energy…

A study was conducted to quantify the effectiveness of concept maps in learning physics in engineering degrees. The following research question was posed: What was the difference in learning results from the use of concept maps to study a particular topic in an engineering course? The study design was quasi-experimental and used a post-test as a…

Web-based computer-aided instruction (CAI) has become increasingly important to medical curricula. This multi-year study investigated the effectiveness of CAI and the factors affecting level of individual use. Three CAI were tested that differed in specificity of applicability to the curriculum and in the level of student interaction with the CAI.…