The purpose of this study was to explore whether Modeling Instruction, compared to traditional lecturing, is an effective instructional method to promote academic achievement in selected high school physics classes at a rural middle Tennessee high school. This study used an "ex post facto," quasi-experimental research methodology. The…

Little empirical investigation has been conducted on high school students and teachers using online instructional multimedia developed entirely from the classroom teacher's traditional live-lecture format. This study investigated academic achievement, engagement, preference, and curriculum development using screen-capture instructional…

This article features two high school chemistry teachers, Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann, who have overturned conventional classroom instruction by using video podcasts to form the root of a new learning model. Thumbing through an issue of "MacWorld" a few years ago, Aaron Sams was struck by an article about an application called ProfCast that…

A summer academy is held for grade 9-12 high school students at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, every year. The academy, dubbed the Da Vinci Engineering Enrichment Program (DEEP), is a diverse program that aims to attract domestic and international high school students to engineering and sciences (and possibly recruit them). DEEP…

A series of observations in math classrooms revealed a pervasive problem of "re-teaching". It matters little the subject; before the teacher can begin teaching new material, basic skills often have to be re-taught before the lesson can move forward. Perhaps some methods are more effective than others in the classroom. Consequently, this study…

Too often, students enter our classrooms with insufficient knowledge of physical science. As a result, they have a difficult time understanding content in texts, lectures, and laboratory activities. This lack of background knowledge can have an impact on their ability to ask questions and wonder--both key components of inquiry. In this article,…

Students in 4 Canadian high school physics classes completed instructional sequences in two key physics topics related to motion--Straight Line Motion and Newton's First Law. Different sequences of laboratory investigation, teacher explanation (lecture) and the use of computer-based scientific visualizations (animations and simulations) were…

History teachers are faced with numerous literacy-related decisions about the types of texts they use and how students are taught to learn with texts. Teachers' decisions about texts and instruction reflect their knowledge of historical inquiry processes and attitudes about the purpose of history instruction, specifically whether instruction on…

This dissertation addresses the research question: To what extent do secondary school science students attending the U.S. Particle Physics Masterclass change their view of the nature of science (NOS)? The U.S. Particle Physics Masterclass is a physics outreach program run by QuarkNet, a national organization of secondary school physics teachers…

This study compared the final grades of courses taught both through distance learning (online) and the traditional classroom (lecture) delivery mode. This research sought to determine if a significant difference existed between the grades of the two identified delivery modes. Four courses taught by Embry Riddle Aeronautical University were…

In the past few years, audience response technology (ART) has been widely adopted on college campuses, and is especially popular among instructors of large lecture classes. Claims regarding ART's benefits to students have received only limited empirical evaluation, and prior studies exhibit methodological limitations. The current study provides a…

The current practice of traditional in-class lecture for learning computer science (CS) in the high schools of Taiwan is in need of revamping. Teachers instruct on the use of commercial software instead of teaching CS concepts to students. The lack of more suitable teaching materials and limited classroom time are the main reasons for the…

This case study examined the place that perspective recognition and care as components of historical empathy occupy in one history teacher's purpose, instruction, and students' response. Abigail, a high school history teacher, and four tenth grade students from one section of her Advanced Placement European History course participated in this…

This Brief Report summarizes case studies of the classroom teaching practices of 2 algebra teachers. The data consist of videotaped classroom observations during 1 academic year. The study identifies and characterizes specific teaching practices that establish the norm that the teacher is the sole arbiter of mathematical correctness in the…

The main goal of this study was to explore whether the use of multimedia in genetics instruction contributes more to students' knowledge and comprehension than other instructional modes. We were also concerned with the influence of different instructional modes on the retention of knowledge and comprehension. In a quasi-experimental design, four…