This paper is a quasi-experimental investigation into the effectiveness of using analogy in teaching new and unfamiliar physics concepts to students enrolled in a British curriculum school in the United Arab Emirates. The students (N = 34) were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the control group (N = 17) following the traditional teaching…

This study investigated one-semester outdoor education program impact on adolescents' perceived self-authorship--the ability to form our identity independently from the expectations of external individuals and the capacity to invent our beliefs, identity, and relationships (Baxter Magolda, 1998; Kegan, 1982)--as measured by the Self-Authorship…

With this premise as a backdrop that effective use of Socratic questioning in instructional practices is of vital importance in English as a forging language (EFL) classrooms, this study was undertaken to investigate application of Omani knowledge of Socratic questioning (SQ) on students' critical thinking (CT) in post basic schools. This study…

Critical thinking is a unifying goal of modern education. While past research has mostly examined the efficacy of a single instructional approach to teaching critical thinking, recent literature has begun discussing mixed teaching approaches. The present study examines three modes of instruction, featuring the direct instruction approach and the…

Students' inaccurate ideas about what is represented by chemical equations and concepts underlying stoichiometry are well documented; however, there are few classroom-ready instructional solutions to help students build scientifically accurate ideas about these topics central to learning chemistry. An intervention (two inquiry-based activities)…

This study was conducted to explore the effects of an event history calendar (EHC) approach on adolescent sexual risk communication and sexual activity. Adolescent school-linked health clinic patients (n = 30) who reported sexual activity self-administered the EHC that was used by nurse practitioners (NPs; n = 2) during a clinic visit. Immediately…

Electronic tutors able to respond appropriately to a user's input have been shown to be effective in improving learning in a number of contexts. This study extends this research into the context of conceptual change during in-service science teacher workshops. Quantitative data were collected from 1,049 South African grade 12 physical sciences…

Computer-based multimedia presentations employing animated agents (avatars) can positively impact perceptions about engineering; the current research advances our understanding of this effect to pre-college populations, the main target for engineering outreach. The study examines the effectiveness of a brief computer-based intervention with…

At one high school, the goal for nonproficient reading students was to score at or above the 50th percentile to meet adequate yearly progress objectives. In 2010, the performance levels of nonproficient reading students tested with the state reading test in Grades 9 and 10 declined from the 47th to the 46th percentile. The purpose of this research…

This paper draws on a case study undertaken by an English teacher in a rural school with a Year 12 English class, most of whom had been singularly unsuccessful in terms of NCEA achievement. The case study was undertaken as part of a two-year project, directed by the first author, entitled: "Teachers as writers: Transforming professional…

Understanding the meaning of rational numbers and how to perform mathematical operations with those numbers seems to be a perennial problem in the United States for both adults and children. Based on previous work, we hypothesized that giving students more time to practice using rational numbers in an environment that enticed them to apply their…

This study examines whether the Problem Based Economics curriculum developed by the Buck Institute for Education improves grade 12 students' content knowledge as measured by the Test of Economic Literacy, a test refined by the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) over decades. Students' problem-solving skills in economics were also…

The state of mathematics and science education in South Africa is a cause for concern. This situation can be attributed, in part, to many mathematics and science teachers' limited content knowledge, ineffective teaching approaches, and unprofessional attitudes. To address these three problem areas simultaneously, a holistic model for the…

In order to improve the spelling performance of high school students with deficits in written expression, an error self-correction procedure was implemented. The participants were two tenth-grade students and one twelfth-grade student in a program for individuals with learning disabilities. Using an alternating treatments design, the effect of…

This study examined the relationship between environment-based education and high school students critical thinking skills and disposition toward critical thinking. Four hundred four 9th and 12th grade students from 11 Florida high schools participated in the study. A Pretest-Posttest Nonequivalent Comparison Group Design (9th grade) and a…