This study examined university engineering and physical science students' misconceptions of the nature of magnetic field. It is assumed that a significant knowledge of the sources of magnetic field is a basic prerequisite when students have to think about electromagnetic phenomena. To analyze students' conceptions, we have taken into account the…

The specific purpose of this article is twofold. First, the article addresses critical teaching and learning evident in two generations of one nuanced Black family, the Foresight family, who appear to be surviving and thriving during and after the Freedom of Choice era of rural public schooling. The phrase "nuanced Black family" is…

Health educators have embraced empowerment as an alternative to traditional frameworks that place greater emphasis on individual health behaviors than socio-political factors that promote or constrain life-style choices. A critical element of empowerment theory for health educators is the participatory process in which people might engage to…

Purpose: Determining the valid and fair use of the interview for medical school admissions is contingent upon a demonstration of the reproducibility of interview scores. This study seeks to establish the generalizability of interview scores, first assessing the existing research evidence, and then analyzing data from a non-experimental independent…

This study focused on how the design of a national student survey instrument was informed and improved through the combined use of student focus groups, cognitive interviews, and expert survey design advice. We were specifically interested in determining (a) how students interpret the items and response options, (b) the frequency of behaviors or…

Situated within the framework of the conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999), this study investigated young children's understanding of metaphorical extensions of spatial motion. Metaphor was defined as a conceptual-linguistic mapping between a source and a target domain. The study focused on metaphors that are structured by the source…

This study addresses parental perspectives and coping strategies related to Duchenne muscular dystrophy and specific learning disabilities. Data were collected through individual semi-structured in-depth interviews with fifteen sets of parents. Participants were selected based on variables such as age of children, number of children with both…

Purpose: To introduce the concept of diverse career cultures in the education system and to consider how these impact on individual career investment and attempts to modernise the teaching profession internationally. Design/methodology/approach: A life history approach was used to determine the career environment of teachers, setting career…

How does the rhetoric of managerialism influence actors' perceptions about the ultimate goals of Portuguese higher education (HE)? From the data, based on interviews, three major themes were extracted: teaching/research relationship, HE's cultural and social relevance, and its economical relevance. The actors' narratives led to the conclusion that…

This paper innovatively extends the application of transactional distance theory (TDT) to evidence-based policy development in Mauritius. In-depth interview data on student persistence from a range of stakeholders is used to understand the implications of distance education (DE) policy deficit. Policy deficit has surfaced as another dimension of…

The phenomenon of marketing in educational institutions has been critically examined by Vining, Topor (2001) and Sevier (1986, 1996). However, no studies have yet been undertaken to examine the marketing of language programs in public education. A timely study is needed to examine the promotion of a recent educational program: the Alberta…

This article draws on a wider body of research that explores whether art and design teachers (art teachers) and museum and gallery educators (gallery educators) hold conflicting conceptions of "critical and contextual studies". The data analysis focuses on what interviewees said about each other in relation to crossing boundaries between…

This paper is the culmination of a three-year study that sought to frame an initial answer to the question, "What are the circumstances and conditions under which National Board Certified teachers (NBCTs) can have a positive impact on low-performing schools?" The study, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, was part of the National Board's more…

A study compared the informal theories about the child held by 10 preservice education students with those held by 8 educational leaders with experience in the elementary grades. During interviews, students and educators were asked to define "the child" in everyday terms. They were also asked to categorize and respond to 32 statements…

If greater self-monitoring can lead to greater awareness of the characteristics of others, self-monitoring should be positively related to personality attributions and negatively related to situational attributions. To compare the relationship between self-monitoring and attributions when gaining information through social interactions and through…