[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] This paper presents a historical analysis of the development, implementation, research, and assessment of an evidence-based introductory algebra-based physics course. The course is laboratory based and taught with an inquiry-based…

Since the emergence of augmented reality (AR), it has been a constant subject of educational research, as it can improve conceptual understanding and generally promote learning. In addition, a motivational effect and improved interaction and collaboration through AR were observed. Recently, AR technologies have taken a major leap forward in…

In experimental physics, lab notebooks play an essential role in the research process. For all of the ubiquity of lab notebooks, little formal attention has been paid to addressing what is considered "best practice" for scientific documentation and how researchers come to learn these practices in experimental physics. Using interviews…

Science education research has shown that students use causal reasoning, particularly the model "agent--instrument--object," to explain or predict the outcome of many natural situations. Students' reasoning seems to be based on a small set of few intuitive rules. One of these rules quantitatively correlates the outcome of an experiment…

The discipline-based education research (DBER) report from the National Research Council (2012) highlighted the existence of a research-practice gap in science instruction in higher education and the need to identify strategies to close it. This study hypothesizes that one potential factor is instructors' access to research-based…

It has been the hotspot to reconstruct the education course based on the research-based learning in the course reform in many countries in recent years. The new course standard of China insists that the teaching is the interactive process that teachers and students communicate and develop together. In the teaching, the relationship between…

A discussion of an experiment on learner controlled instruction as opposed to teacher controlled instruction in math and physics instruction. (HB)

This report reviews some goals for laboratory activities in contemporary science teaching, discusses an investigation that analyzed and compared laboratory activities from two major physics guides, and discusses the implications of the goals and analysis for physics teaching. Six major deficiencies in the two laboratory handbooks are identified.…

Describes how student responses to 26 bipolar adjectives describing laboratory studies are used at a New Zealand university to modify the content of laboratory experiments in physics. (MLH)

Methods of instruction involved in an introductory, nontechnical college physics course were studied and compared. Students involved were divided into experimental and control groups respectively, about 50 in each group. The experimental group was instructed by lab method films for six experiments, while the control group was taught traditionally.…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if self-instructional data analysis sessions could be used effectively as traditional college laboratories to reinforce students' understanding of certain principles of mechanics. The secondary purpose was to determine whether any of the 140 college physics students involved had a dependence on…

The major problem of this study was to assess the effect of computer simulated experiments on the attainment of process skills and the acquisition of subject matter content in the high school physics laboratory. Over a 4-month period, 51 students from 2 physics classes were involved in 4 laboratory experiments and simulations. There was a random…

This study investigated the feasibility of using computer-simulated experiments in high school physics and chemistry. Fifteen sections of students enrolled in high school physics and chemistry were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. A series of 10 experiments was done by use of computer simulation in the experimental group;…

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a series of simulation dialogs utilizing certain computer capabilities. The series of simulations produced in the study parallel the fundamental, inductive experiments developed by the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) through which students generalize Newton's Second Law. Students…

This paper addresses the role experiments can play in concept development. The study used a qualitative phenomenography research methodology. The interactions of one student with an instructor in a series of eight sessions on electric circuits is reported. The first three session focused on diagnosing the students' prior conceptions of electric…