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A survey of 722 physics faculty conducted in 2008 found that many physics instructors had knowledge of research-based instructional strategies (RBISs), were interested in using more, but often discontinued use after trying. Considerable…
There are vast educational research works that highlight the serious difficulties that students present in learning astronomical subjects, as well as the prevalence of a traditional education distanced from the observational and…
Statistics educators recommend teaching with real data with relevant contexts, but defining relevancy is challenging and varies by student. We investigated whether providing student choice of data context increases engagement through a…
With the rise of large language models such as ChatGPT, interest has grown in understanding how these tools influence learning in STEM education, including physics. This study explores how students use ChatGPT during a physics…
Teaching Unix to new students is a common tasks in many higher schools. This paper presents an approach to such course where the students progress autonomously with the help of the teacher. The traditional textbook is complemented with a…
Assessment of proficiency of the learner is an essential part of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). We use Item Response Theory (IRT) in computer-aided language learning for assessment of student ability in two contexts: in test sessions,…
Decades of research show that students learn more in classes that utilize active learning than they do in traditional, lecture-only classes. Active learning also reduces the achievement gaps that are often present between various…
Instruction-tuning datasets often contain substantial redundancy and low-quality samples, necessitating effective data selection methods. We propose an instruction data selection framework based on weighted in-context influence (wICI),…
Among the many decisions to be made in their teaching practice, physics teachers must decide how to explain each particular phenomenon to students. This study explores student teachers' (STs) decision-making process when presented with…
We present an Open Educational Resource system that instructors can use to assign automatically graded, randomized, and scaffolded assessment questions for astronomy classes.
There is an increasing imperative to integrate programming platforms within AI frameworks to enhance educational tasks for both teachers and students. However, commonly used platforms such as Code.org, Scratch, and Snap fall short of…
Astronomy is experiencing a rapid growth in data size and complexity. This change fosters the development of data-driven science as a useful companion to the common model-driven data analysis paradigm, where astronomers develop automatic…
Web-based systems for assessment or homework are commonly used in many different domains. Several studies show that these systems can have positive effects on learning outcomes. Many research efforts also have made these systems quite…
Assessment literacy (AL) is essential for personalized education, yet difficult to cultivate in pre-service teachers. Conventional teacher preparation programs focus on theoretical knowledge, while digital assessment tools commonly provide…
Providing personalized, detailed feedback at scale in large undergraduate STEM courses remains a persistent challenge. We present an empirically evaluated practice exam system that integrates AI generated feedback with targeted textbook…
Score reliability is necessary for establishing a validity argument for an instrument, and is therefore highly important to investigate. Depending on the proposed instrument use and score interpretations, differing degrees of precision in…
While learning by teaching is a popular pedagogical technique, it is a learning phenomenon that is difficult to study due to variability in the tutor-tutee pairings and learning environments. In this paper, we introduce the Curiosity…
Text-based open-ended questions in academic formative and summative assessments help students become deep learners and prepare them to understand concepts for a subsequent conceptual assessment. However, grading text-based questions,…
If students have a broad spectrum of study skills, learning will likely be positively affected, since they can adapt the way they learn in different situations. Such study skills can be learned in for example learning-to-learn courses.…
Programming education is becoming important as demands on computer literacy and coding skills are growing. Despite the increasing popularity of interactive online learning systems, many programming courses in schools have not changed their…