The importance of engaging students with complex societal challenges has led to the adoption of various interdisciplinary teaching and learning practices in both K-12 and higher education. However, interdisciplinary learning is one of the most complex domains of contemporary educational practice, and, despite its significance, remains…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced educators across the world to quickly move their instruction to a virtual or hybrid environment. Teachers experienced a wide variety of adverse situations stemming from teaching online, and their experiences depended upon their technology training as well as their access to technology resources. The problem addressed…

The United States, in less than 50 years, has gone from legal segregation and exclusion of students with disabilities in schools to an emphasis on inclusion in the least restrictive environments based on individual student needs. The United States has made great strides in the physical inclusion of students with disabilities, but work is still…

The Ball Bearing High Voltage generator is a fairly simple and transparent apparatus that can serve as a tool to motivate conceptual descriptions and calculations in electrostatics that are normally presented to our students in a rather dry and matter-of-fact fashion. For example, instead of posing a problem in the typical textbook form of…

Problem solving is an important aspect of the mathematics classroom and teachers should work to promote problem solving in their classrooms. The purpose of this explanatory mixed-methods study was to examine mathematics preservice teachers' (PSTs) problem-solving performance and connect it with their K-12 and tertiary education problem-solving…

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is a federal program designed to promote postsecondary readiness and success among low-income students. Some evidence suggests that this program promotes college enrollment and persistence, but GEAR UP may include a wide variety of services, and it is unclear which ones…

This paper reports on the use of role-play as a scenario-based learning approach in the teaching of counselling skills, client assessment and diagnostic interviewing within psychological training. While role-play is not a new technique in teaching such skills, its use is generally reserved for the training of higher level students. This paper…

Comprehension of the 3D structure of objects usually represented in 2D is a critical part of understanding molecular geometries. The frequency with which students actually get hands-on with 3D molecular structures is often limited to a singular laboratory session. We sought to develop a set of molecular shapes that were inexpensive enough not only…

In 2018-2019, the program's second federally funded year, GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) Austin served a cohort of 7th-grade students (n = 2,536) across 11 middle schools. Nearly all GEAR UP students received support services relevant to college preparation. Evaluation findings suggest that students,…

This is the full report. In 2019-2020, the program's third federally funded year, GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) Austin served a cohort of 8th grade students (n = 2,546) across 11 middle schools. Nearly all GEAR UP students received support services relevant to college preparation. Evaluation findings…

An exploratory case study involving six grade 9 science teachers was undertaken to probe how teachers' understanding of learners' misconceptions relate to their perceptions about teaching simple circuits. The participants' understanding of documented misconceptions in electricity were explored by means of a questionnaire, while their perceptions…

In this study, the authors analyze the undergraduate economics coursework of U.S. college graduates who became pre-college classroom teachers. The results show that teachers successfully completed on average the equivalent of about half an economics course in their undergraduate coursework. About 6 in 10 teachers earned no course credits in…

This research aims to reveal the education values of teachers; where they recognized the values, the importance of the values for teachers in performing their duties, the effects on their teaching methods, and how well the undergraduate program has equipped them with the competence of values education. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 56…

To gather information about student perspectives of the GEAR UP program, the AISD evaluation team conducted students focus groups with students at six GEAR UP campuses in the fall of 2018. This report presents summary of findings related to students' feedback in the following areas: (1) understanding of the GEAR UP program; (2) GEAR UP…

The purpose of the staff focus groups was to gather information about staff perspectives on the GEAR UP program, their experiences with the GEAR UP program, and their support for student college preparation. Most of the focus group participants across five GEAR UP campuses understood the GEAR UP program. Many staff provided positive comments about…