JoinAll Book Chapters
Book Chapter
Professional Development and Teacher Learning: Using Concept Maps in Inquiry Classrooms
Two urban middle school science teachers used concept maps as a form of assessment in their inquiry-oriented teaching. Critical steps in this learning process included adapting curriculum materials to a specific school context, adjusting and re-evalu...
Book Chapter
Coming to See the Invisible: Assessing Understanding in an Inquiry-Focused Science Classroom
The work discussed here focused on the design of curricula that mirrored important aspects of realistic scientific practice, especially the ways in which causal models are used to account for patterns in data and the use of criteria for judging the a...
Book Chapter
Science Anxiety: Research and Action
Science anxiety has been shown to seriously impede student learning. This chapter will describe research done on science anxiety and will explain specific actions that college science teachers can take to build the confidence of their students. This ...
Book Chapter
New Physics Teaching and Assessment: Laboratory- and Technology-Enhanced Active Learning
For more than half a decade, two universities—North Carolina State University (NCSU) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology—have been engaged in reforming their introductory physics courses. This chapter describes the instructional objectives ...
Book Chapter
Developing Scientific Reasoning Patterns in College Biology
A long-held and central objective of science instruction is to help students develop scientific reasoning patterns. During the past few decades, considerable research has been undertaken to identify the nature of scientific reasoning patterns, their ...
Book Chapter
Learning Science and the Science of Learning
In 1988, at the invitation of the journal editors, the author published an article by the same title as this chapter in the journal, Studies in Science Education. This chapter summarizes some of the key points made in that article, presents some more...
Book Chapter
The Impact of a Conceptually Sequenced Genetics Unit in an Introductory College Biology Course
In this chapter, the authors describe how they revised the genetics section of an introductory biology course to reflect current knowledge of learning theory and conceptual change. A sequence and associated experiences were developed that would cente...
Book Chapter
Do Introductory Science Courses Select for Effort or Aptitude?
On the first day of classes, students in introductory biology courses believe that effort is the most accurate predictor of their academic success. Students know which academic behaviors are important for success, and they are confident that they wil...
Book Chapter
Active Learning in the College Science Classroom
Research has consistently shown that all students, including college science students, learn more when activity engaged. Engagement can occur through increased interaction with the content itself, or it may be coupled with increased interaction with ...
Book Chapter
Incorporating Primary Literature Into Science Learning
Recent educational initiatives call for changes in science education that promote the development of students’ scientific skills, such as interpreting data, applying concepts, and synthesizing information. Although these initiatives do not explicit...
Book Chapter
Fieldwork: New Directions and Exemplars in Informal Science Education Research
Fieldwork can teach our students that although controlled experiments are one route to scientific knowledge, they are by no means the only route (McComas 1996). In this chapter the authors have selected a small set of field-based geology education an...
Book Chapter
Using Case Studies to Teach Science
Storytelling as a formal educational device arguably entered the didactic scene about 100 years ago with case study teaching at Harvard (Herreid 1994). There in the law and business schools, instructors and students analyzed realistic stories as exem...
Book Chapter
Poetry writing is a simple yet effective way to encourage the development of cross-disciplinary connections, creativity, and critical thinking in science students. In other words, by mating ideas and methods from scientists like Charles Darwin with t...
Book Chapter
Improving Student Attitudes Toward Biology
Osborne, Simon, and Collins (2003) found positive correlations between attitude and certain characteristics of the classroom environment, including student-centered instructional designs, high levels of personal support, use of a variety of teaching ...
Book Chapter
Constructive-Developmental Pedagogy in Chemistry
This chapter reflects on research in constructive-developmental (CD) pedagogy having application to today’s undergraduate science classroom. Its focus is on the undergraduate chemistry curriculum and pedagogy. The author explores the extent to whic...