From 2012-2015, Advanced Placement (AP) science courses underwent a large-scale curricular reform to include more scientific inquiry and reasoning, reduce emphasis on broad content coverage, and focus on depth of understanding, with corresponding changes in high-stakes AP examinations. In this study, we explored how teachers prepared for and…

Over the past decade, the field of teacher professional learning has coalesced around core characteristics of high quality professional development experiences (e.g. Borko, Jacobs, & Koellner, 2010. Contemporary approaches to teacher professional development. In P. L. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGaw (Eds.), "International encyclopedia…

Much research has focused on student views about physics concepts, with an emphasis on the identification of alternative conceptions, and how curricula and professional development may ameliorate the situation. However, there has been little work on determining the extent of, and in separating, the student and teacher/classroom level variables…

Describes a teaching assistant (TA) training program to improve quality of a college physics course. Presents the goals and structures of the physics course and the TA training program. Describes the formative evaluation procedure and its role in developing the training model. Concludes that students in the physics class valued the recitation and…

This research study investigated student perception of the social learning environment in biology, chemistry and physics courses. A stratified random sample of secondary schools from three regions was selected. The principal of each sampled school randomly selected a biology, chemistry or physics teacher who, in turn, randomly selected one of his…

Students perception of the social learning environment in secondary school science courses were examined. The different environments that were perceived within the individual science courses and results, examined in light of student interest in science, are discussed. (BT)

Discussed is whether high school students of teachers trained in the use of open-ended historical experiments dealing with light and sound perceive physics in a more favorable light. The effect of the training on the participants' classrooms on both teachers and students (n=130) is investigated. (KR)

Describes a study of high school students' and chemistry teachers' understanding of the gas laws which focused on the application of scientific concepts in practical situations instead of mathematical calculations in theoretical situations. (Contains 13 references.) (WRM)

Investigated whether dropouts and other students having difficulty with physics could be identified by including mathematics reasoning items along with mathematics skill items on a 13-item mathematics pretest and by using records of past performance in conjunction with the pretest. Sample included 483 students in an introductory, noncalculus,…