This study aims to develop, implement, and evaluate an instructional design model to enhance the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of physics student teachers. Model development is accomplished in five stages over two years: 1) problem identification, 2) preliminary identification of the product and design concepts, 3) preliminary theories and…

Teachers are increasingly expected to incorporate Project-based learning (PBL) pedagogy to teach science. While teachers' definitions and challenges in the use of PBL are widely studied, very few studies focus on the development of a teacher's knowledge of the use of PBL over multiple projects. The current research is an in-depth case study aimed…

Visualizations may help students understand the network of connections among multiple documents. This study explored how ninth-grade students used a novel digital document mapping scaffold to construct models of multiple documents. We examined students' maps and mapping processes in order to understand how they used the scaffold to visually…

Powerful arguments have been made recently to advocate for the introduction of systems thinking in chemistry education to equip graduates to address sustainability challenges. This contribution describes systems thinking activities and an assessment tool that enables meaningful learning in first-year organic chemistry as students engage with the…

Concept-maps are widely used to assess students' conceptual understanding in different subject areas. Conventionally, it is mostly built maps which are assessed. In this study, we explore if "concept-mapping" could be used as a case for constructive alignment of both the process and the outcome of learning. Specifically, we have studied…

Despite an increasing academic attention towards both gamification and competencies-based education, little is known about Higher Education teachers' beliefs regarding the use of gamification to develop students' competencies. To fill this research gap, concept mapping was used to cluster teachers' beliefs in 4 dimensions regarding the use of…

Openness in education is not a consistent term or value since "open" is used to describe various things and often means different things to different individuals. In a research context, it is important to identify the many interpretation(s) and perspectives of openness being investigated, especially since the underlying ideas behind…

This article critically discusses the ecology of public schools in the United States: systemic barriers and associated biases that permeate these learning contexts and derail efforts to close opportunity gaps for African American adolescents with emotional and behavioral challenges. Using results from a mixed-methods study, we illustrate the…

This study explored whether different types of instructional visuals--knowledge maps and pictorial illustrations--encourage students to focus on specific types of conceptual relationships during learning. Undergraduates (n = 134) studied a text lesson on the human nervous system accompanied by maps (text-with-maps group), illustrations…

Background: The goal of this research was to determine students' perceived self-efficacy in science classes through involving students in expanding disciplinary core idea (DCI) and interdisciplinary core idea (ICI) maps, as a method to visualize knowledge (utilizing mind mapping and concept mapping) to support students to integrate…

Over the past decade, sociologists have become increasingly interested in the formal study of semantic relations within text. Most contemporary studies focus either on mapping concept co-occurrences or on measuring semantic associations via word embeddings. Although conducive to many research goals, these approaches share an important limitation:…

Communication skills are one of the abilities required for 21st-century learning. Students must consider communication skills in learning because they can guide students in conveying ideas effectively and interacting and collaborating with others. This study aimed to investigate the online reading-concept mapping-reciprocal teaching (REMAP-RT)…

A previous study mentioned that students' action responses towards water pollution are incongruent with the training they received in schools. Conducting a course of two weeks with elementary students (N = 22) aged 9-10 in Hong Kong, the study aims to connect primary students' perceptions of the causes, consequences and responsive actions on water…

Concept maps have been shown to have a positive impact on the quality of student learning in a variety of disciplinary contexts and educational levels from primary school to university by helping students to connect ideas and develop a productive knowledge structure to support future learning. However, the evaluation of concept maps has always…

Many scientific concepts and theorems are often abstract and challenging to relate to real-life problems, making it difficult for students to grasp them. Therefore, some researchers have attempted to enhance students' understanding by employing a contextual learning approach, which allows students to apply scientific knowledge to real situations…