In this article, the author discusses how media can provide great sources for case studies. However, he cautions that teachers should look for events in media that will grab their students' interest and allow them to develop a case that will teach discipline. He also suggests that teachers need to develop a case-study mindset, an ability to see…

We present an approach for integrating instruction of scientific writing and reading into undergraduate science courses, inspired by the pedagogical theory of cognitive apprenticeship. We demonstrate its implementation and describe a study of students' feedback that enabled us to elicit students' difficulties and fine-tune the next application…

The process of a successful undergraduate student-faculty research collaboration involving a student with documented learning disabilities is detailed. As the student developed research skills, she also learned how to develop her own learning strategies. At the same time, the faculty member learned strategies adaptable to all student-faculty…

In this research our purpose was to examine the effectiveness of a program in retaining women in science, mathematics, and engineering majors. We compared undergraduate women participating in a support and mentoring program with nonprogram students in terms of their retention in these majors. The pretest and posttest results over one academic year…

We present an automated system that allows students to replay both audio and video from a large nonmajors' organic chemistry class as streaming RealMedia. Once established, this system requires no technical intervention and is virtually transparent to the instructor. This gives students access to online class review at any time. Assessment has…

The misconceptions that students bring with them, or that arise during instruction, are a critical barrier to learning. Implicit-confidence tests, a simple modification of the multiple-choice test, can be used as a strategy for recognizing student misconceptions. An important issue, however, is whether such tests are gender-neutral. We analyzed…

Performing inquiry should enhance the intellectual development of students on numerous levels. We evaluate whether inquiry-based activities elicit inquiry behaviors by comparing these activities with traditional review sessions. We find that both inquiry-learning and teaching behaviors increase during inquiry-based activities, but that teachers…

In this article, the author discusses why it is imperative that students understand the importance of academic integrity. The author emphasizes that students should maintain their integrity because the reliability of their work and what they learn depends on it. He also shares the new policy adopted by his university in dealing with violations of…

Science educators are well-positioned to incorporate civic engagement into the classroom by the natural suitability of the subject matter. Civic engagement, or civic education, is a fairly new, multidisciplinary concept that is becoming a requisite for institutions of higher education; it enables students to become actively involved in the…

This study assessed the influence of a 3-year professional development program on elementary teachers' views of nature of science (NOS), instructional practice to promote students' appropriate NOS views, and the influence of participants' instruction on elementary student NOS views. Using the VNOS-B and associated interviews the researchers…

This is a qualitative case study of a collaboration among multiple stakeholders in science education who came together in order to create environmental field trips and the surrounding classroom curriculum. The collaboration involves 4 major facets of science education: formal education at the elementary and university levels, informal education,…

This study compared the relationships of self-efficacy and reasoning ability to achievement in introductory college biology. Based on the hypothesis that developing formal and postformal reasoning ability is a primary factor influencing self-efficacy, a significant positive correlation was predicted between reasoning ability and degree of…

This study asked elementary school teachers how educational policies affected their science instruction with a majority of English language learners. The study employed a questionnaire followed by focus group interviews with 43 third and fourth grade teachers from six elementary schools in a large urban school district with high populations of…

This article describes a 3-year study of school visits to four natural history museums and addresses the research agenda with regard to out-of-school learning. More specifically, the findings focus on the "process of learning" in museums. Comprehensive data collection allowed for an analysis of patterns of guided visits, the way the scientific…

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of three science teachers attempting to transform their practice by conducting action research on feminist science teaching. The teachers engaged in systematic, self-critical inquiry of their own practice and joined 8 other science teachers to engage in collaborative conversations about the…