The direct involvement of students in conducting experiments in order to learn science has been a common part of U.S. educational practice since the late 19th century, the result of the rapid spread of what was known as the "laboratory method" of teaching. Those promoting the laboratory method recognized it as a new educational approach,…

This study addressed the following research questions: 1) What is the effect of differentiated gamified instruction on the cognitive engagement of ninth grade students in the unit of plant and animal systems? 2) What is the effect of differentiated gamified instruction on the behavioral engagement of ninth grade biology students in the unit of…

There has been a growing emphasis on integrating green and sustainable chemistry (GSC) into the curriculum. Unfortunately, there is yet to be a nationwide, uniform decision of which aspects should be included or how, leaving individual instructors or institutions to decide whether--and how--to address GSC knowledge. Furthermore, faculty nationwide…

This dissertation investigates how the numerical representation of women in small collaborative groups influences their learning in a college biology class for non-majors focused on sex, gender, and society. Prior to the start of the semester, the researchers divided students into all-male, all-female, or mixed-gender groups of varying sex ratios.…

This dissertation focuses on three manuscripts all related to bolstering science achievement through recommendations from the National Research Council (NRC) regarding the teaching and learning of science. The manuscripts address meeting the NRC's call to incorporate curriculum and assessment that lead to more in-depth knowledge that can be…

Moving Beyond the Ordinal Methodological Controversy: A Systematic Review (Manuscript 1): Ordinal outcome data is a common byproduct of education research. Yet more than seventy-five years after the development of Stevens' original measurement framework, the permissibility of select analytic techniques to ordinal outcome data remains a topic of…

Efforts to understand changes in teacher curricula following the adoption of reform-based standards, such as the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) remain incomplete and prior scholarship has identified several topics in the standards (e.g., nuclear chemistry and kinetics) that remain infrequently addressed in teachers'…

This study was an action research self-study that examined my role as a teacher educator supporting a resident teacher in learning how to design inquiry-based culturally responsive science lessons. I explored my own growth in understanding how to act as a teacher educator to provide appropriately scaffolded support to promote learning for a…

This study explores the intersection of human intelligence and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to design knowledge-in-use science assessments for supporting students' deep science learning. In the context of evolving educational paradigms, it seeks to harness AI tools (GPT), to enhance knowledge-in-use assessment design, ensuring equitable…

This thesis identifies and explains the gaps in prior and current applications of representational competence construct in chemistry. Representational competence (RC) describes a set of skills that chemistry researchers Kozma and Russell observed experts demonstrate when engaging with disciplinary representations (Kozma & Russell, 1997; Kozma…

Nature of Scientific Knowledge (NOSK) and Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI) are important components of scientific literacy and important educational objectives in science education. Recent literature theorizes that understanding both NOSK and NOSI increases students' understanding of science content knowledge. However, this assumption has yet…

This quasi-experimental study aimed to determine if there is a statistically significant difference in student test scores when a modified instructional sequence in middle school science is used versus the instructional sequence suggested by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Grade 8 science cumulative Standards of Learning (SOL) test results from…

Over the past few decades, physics education researchers (PER) developed a variety of assessments instrument for research and instructional purposes. Most of these instruments are designed to measure topical understanding. Generally, if student performance is satisfactory, it is assumed that the students possess the content understanding and that…

Many middle school students come to Computer Science (CS) classes without any previous CS instruction or any Computational Thinking (CT) skills that are needed to be successful. To overcome this, many curriculums and programming environments have been used to engage students and to instill a love of CS. Which curriculum should be used to develop…

Science teachers in the local area lacked self-efficacy to teach science and were struggling to engage students in science learning, which resulted in student underachievement. Principals reported that teachers' lack of self-efficacy in teaching science may be limiting students' goals for scientific careers. The purpose of this basic qualitative…