Across the landscape of higher education, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused fundamental changes at a variety of scales. To understand which aspects of higher education instruction at the departmental (meso-scale) level were most and least impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, chairs of geoscience departments at public higher education institutions in…

The interrelationship between mathematics and science education has frequently been emphasized, and common goals and approaches have often been adopted between disciplines. Improving students' problem-solving skills in mathematics and science education has always been given special attention; however, the problem-posing approach which plays a key…

In the market discourses of technological disruption, higher education institutions have routinely been positioned in deficit models and of anachronistic approaches to teaching at odds with the types of educational futures being presented by commercial organisations. Predominantly, automation technologies in the form of artificial intelligence are…

The new model of Polish education was designed by the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (KEN). The Commission, established in 1773, was the first ministry of education in Europe. It dealt not only with problems related to the learning-teaching process, but also promoted scientific development. The present analysis is an attempt at examining the process…

The reform movement in statistics education has led to a revitalization of the undergraduate introductory statistics course. However, many students satisfy their degree requirements by taking statistics courses in "client departments" such as business, the social sciences, and the lab sciences, typically taught by non-statisticians. This…

Instruction in analog electronics is an integral component of many physics and engineering programs, and is typically covered in courses beyond the first year. While extensive research has been conducted on student understanding of introductory electric circuits, to date there has been relatively little research on student learning of analog…

The hermeneutics of fairytales, understood as a new way to get their deep significances and therapeutic effects on children by the process of psychic conflicts awareness, represents a frequent topic in the current research, a real source of inspiration for those delivering literature for children or for those using fairytales for therapeutic…

This study aimed to identify the current status of using Web 2.0 tools in university teaching by the faculty members of the College of Education at Sudan University of Science and Technology. The study used a descriptive analytical method based on the use of questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 40…

In response to the need for a scalable, institutionally supported model of educational change, the Science Education Initiative (SEI) was created as an experiment in transforming course materials and faculty practices at two institutions--University of Colorado Boulder (CU) and University of British Columbia. We find that this departmentally…

This column presents ideas and techniques to enhance science teaching. This month's issue describes preservice elementary teachers learning engineering principles from engineers. Few elementary teachers have experience with implementing engineering into the classroom. While engineering professional development opportunities for inservice teachers…

In China, science educators as a professional group were originally referred to as academic staff responsible for teaching the subject-based science teaching methods course at the related science departments at teachers' universities. In this study, a biographic method was used to approach the professional life of Zhixin Liu, who was a senior…

In the late 1990s, the physics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had a problem. The department was responsible for teaching the two required physics courses that are part of the General Institute Requirements (GIRs), MIT's core curriculum--Physics I (mechanics, or in MIT parlance, 8.01) and Physics II (electricity and…

In this article we investigate the changing context for teacher professional learning potentially afforded by the conceptual change from professional development to professional learning. Using a narrative case study methodology, we utilize the "Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration" developed by Timperley, Wilson, Barrar and Fung (2007) to analyse…

Interviews with 31 science teachers and 39 class observations focused on aspects of the departmental environment: management style, emphasis on science disciplines instead of science, and student characteristics. Departmental characteristics were perceived by teachers as significant influences on their working environment and the experience of…

The defining task for undergraduate departments is the design of a major, including the number and content of courses as well as other requirements. Department members must weigh the desire to produce graduates superbly prepared for further study against the charge that the major requires too large a share of an undergraduate's course options.…