Related papers: Active learning in pre-service science teacher edu…

Over the past several decades, a large body of research has shown that undergraduate science students learn more and more equitably in active learning classrooms; however, the term "active learning" lacks definition and little research has…

This study involves a theory-based teacher professional development model that was created to address two problems. First, dominant modes of science teacher professional development have been inadequate in helping teachers create learning…

This paper explores two preservice mathematics teachers' understanding of mode. Participants' initial understanding and understanding following use of an interactive virtual manipulative is examined. Findings suggest that participants…

A national survey of physics faculty was conducted to investigate the prevalence and nature of computational instruction in physics courses across the United States. 1246 faculty from 357 unique institutions responded to the survey. The…

Active learning comprises many varied techniques that engage students actively in the construction of their understanding. Because of this variation, different active learning techniques may be best suited to achieving different learning…

The scope of this paper was to find out how the students in Computer Science perceive different teaching styles and how the teaching style impacts the learning desire and interest in the course. To find out, we designed and implemented an…

We report on a profession-oriented course we offered at the University of Vienna, aimed at physics education teacher students. The course on Theoretical Classical Mechanics has been conceived and designed from its outset with the explicit…

In this paper we explore the theory of communities of practice in the context of a physics college course and in particular the classroom environment of an advanced laboratory. We introduce the idea of elements of a classroom community…

This study discusses the opportunity to integrate tinkering, a constructionist practice, into formal education, highlighting its potential and challenges. We propose a model through which teachers can blend the open exploratory nature of…

Computational physics is a key part of what it means to do physics in the twenty-first century. However, upper division computational physics remains a largely understudied area. We set out to understand the experiences of students in an…

Since 1984 INFN scientists performing experiments at Fermilab have been running a two month summer training program for Italian students at the lab. In 1984 the program involved only a few physics students from the Pisa group, but it was…

Prior research suggests that using evidence-based pedagogies can not only improve learning for all students, it can also reduce the gender gap. We describe the impact of physics education research based pedagogical techniques in flipped and…

Projects and Practices in Physics (P$^3$) is an introductory physics class at Michigan State University that replaces lectures with a problem based learning environment. To promote the development of group based practices, students all…

Owing to their potential impact on students' cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes, the negative attitudes towards science held by many elementary teachers are a critical issue that needs to be addressed. This study focuses on the science…

A growing number of introductory physics instructors are implementing active learning methods in their classrooms, and they are modifying the methods to fit their local instructional contexts. However, we lack a detailed framework for…

Instructional physics labs are critical junctures for many STEM majors to develop an understanding of experimentation in the sciences. Students can acquire useful experimental skills and grow their identities as scientists. However, many…

Machine-learning force fields enable an accurate and universal description of the potential energy surface of molecules and materials on the basis of a training set of ab initio data. However, large-scale applications of these methods rest…

There is some evidence that conceptual inquiry-based introductory physics lab curricula, such as RealTime Physics, may improve students' understanding of physics concepts. Thus, these curricula may be attractive for instructors who seek to…

This is a report of a course on modern physics designed and taught to undergraduate science and engineering students in the Spring of 2013. The course, meant for freshmen, attempts to integrate statistical mechanics into non-classical…

'Cookbook' style laboratory tasks have long been criticised for the lack of critical and independent thought that students need in order to complete them. We present an account of how we transformed a 'cookbook' lab to a genuine inquiry…