Related papers: Investigations about Science Misconceptions
Background: Dataset skills are used in STEM fields from healthcare work to astronomy research. Few fields explicitly teach students the skills to analyze datasets, and yet the increasing push for authentic science implies these skills…
Blended mathematical sensemaking in science (MSS) involves deep conceptual understanding of quantitative relationships describing scientific phenomena. Previously we developed the cognitive framework describing proficiency in MSS across…
Students are taught several models of conductivity, both at the introductory and the advanced level. From early macroscopic models of current flow in circuits, through the discussion of microscopic particle descriptions of electrons flowing…
Statistical thinking partially depends upon an iterative process by which essential features of a problem setting are identified and mapped onto an abstract model or archetype, and then translated back into the context of the original…
The epistemology of science students, i.e., their beliefs about the nature of the knowledge they are learning, about what they have to do to learn it, and about how they will use that knowledge, often plays a powerful role in what they…
Context: Students often misunderstand programming problem descriptions. This can lead them to solve the wrong problem, which creates frustration, obstructs learning, and imperils grades. Researchers have found that students can be made to…
Explainer videos are increasingly used to support science learning. While prior research has demonstrated their potential, studies have also identified limitations - particularly their tendency to foster an illusion of understanding, where…
While proof is a central component of postsecondary mathematical study, proof construction has historically posed significant difficulties for students who intend to earn mathematics degrees at the undergraduate level. This work is…
Science communication forms the bridge between computer science researchers and their target audience. Researchers who can effectively draw attention to their research findings and communicate them comprehensibly not only help their target…
Research has shown that both high school and university students' reasoning patterns regarding direct current resistive electric circuits often differ from the currently accepted explanations. At present, there are no standard diagnostic…
Education is a goal-oriented field. But if we want to treat education scientifically so we can accumulate, evaluate, and refine what we learn, then we must develop a theoretical framework that is strongly rooted in objective observations…
There are two important things in science: (A) Finding answers to given questions, and (B) Coming up with good questions. Our artificial scientists not only learn to answer given questions, but also continually invent new questions, by…
Various research initiatives try to utilize the operational principles of organisms and brains to develop alternative, biologically inspired computing paradigms and artificial cognitive systems. This paper reviews key features of the…
University students taking introductory physics are generally successful executing mathematical procedures in context, but often struggle with the use of mathematical concepts for sense making. Physics instructors note that their students…
The term "interpretability" is oftenly used by machine learning researchers each with their own intuitive understanding of it. There is no universal well agreed upon definition of interpretability in machine learning. As any type of science…
We describe the difficulties that advanced undergraduate and graduate students have with quantum measurement within the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics. We explore the possible origins of these difficulties by analyzing student…
In this article we present and discuss a didactic activity that combines epistemic aspects of the nature of science (NOS) and a simple, relatively low-cost experiment on electromagnetic induction. The aim of the activity is for students to…
This article discusses a three-year study (2020 - 2022) of dominant misconceptions (DMs) for a large cohort of first-year physics course students at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa. Our study considered pre-test scores on…
Identifying the relevant physics principles is a central component of problem solving. A major goal of most introductory physics courses is to help students discern the deep similarities between problems based upon the physics principles so…
While the positive outcomes of undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have been extensively categorized, the mechanisms for those outcomes are less understood. Through lightly structured focus group interviews, we have extracted the…