This book discusses the importance of identifying and addressing misconceptions for the successful teaching and learning of science across all levels of science education from elementary school to high school. It suggests teaching approaches based on research data to address students’ common misconceptions. Detailed descriptions of how these instructional approaches can be incorporated into teaching and learning science are also included. The science education literature extensively documents the findings of studies about students’ misconceptions or alternative conceptions about various science concepts. Furthermore, some of the studies involve systematic approaches to not only creating but also implementing instructional programs to reduce the incidence of these misconceptions among high school science students. These studies, however, are largely unavailable to classroom practitioners, partly because they are usually found in various science education journals that teachers have no time to refer to or are not readily available to them. In response, this book offers an essential and easily accessible guide.

Effective science teaching requires creativity, imagination, and innovation. In light of concerns about American science literacy, scientists and educators have struggled to teach this discipline more effectively. Science Teaching Reconsidered provides undergraduate science educators with a path to understanding students, accommodating their individual differences, and helping them grasp the methodsâ€"and the wonderâ€"of science. What impact does teaching style have? How do I plan a course curriculum? How do I make lectures, classes, and laboratories more effective? How can I tell what students are thinking? Why don't they understand? This handbook provides productive approaches to these and other questions. Written by scientists who are also educators, the handbook offers suggestions for having a greater impact in the classroom and provides resources for further research.

Over the last decades several researchers discovered that children, pupils and even young adults develop their own understanding of "how nature really works". These pre-concepts concerning combustion, gases or conservation of mass are brought into lectures and teachers have to diagnose and to reflect on them for better instruction. In addition, there are ‘school-made misconceptions’ concerning equilibrium, acid-base or redox reactions which originate from inappropriate curriculum and instruction materials. The primary goal of this monograph is to help teachers at universities, colleges and schools to diagnose and ‘cure’ the pre-concepts. In case of the school-made misconceptions it will help to prevent them from the very beginning through reflective teaching. The volume includes detailed descriptions of class-room experiments and structural models to cure and to prevent these misconceptions.

Part one includes information on some of the key alternative conceptions that have been uncovered by research and general ideas for helping students with the development of scientific conceptions.

The number of students taking online courses continues to grow each year. Despite the growth, a large percentage of faculties still don't accept the value of online learning. Online educators find themselves in exciting times where they continue advancing the dialogue about online learning, beyond the discussions of "is it as good as face-to-face instruction?" to more nuanced issues such as some of the various benefits, challenges, and misconceptions that go along with learning online. The purpose of this book is to address the various benefits, challenges, and misconceptions that coincide with online teaching and learning. The audience includes anyone with an interest in online learning, whether they are researchers, designers, instructors, or trainers. This book is organised into several themes that are current and emerging in the field of online learning, including student and instructor supports, instructional approaches, current trends and emerging technologies, reaching new audiences, and planning for the on-line learning environment.

"Reaching Students presents the best thinking to date on teaching and learning undergraduate science and engineering. Focusing on the disciplines of astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, geosciences, and physics, this book is an introduction to strategies to try in your classroom or institution. Concrete examples and case studies illustrate how experienced instructors and leaders have applied evidence-based approaches to address student needs, encouraged the use of effective techniques within a department or an institution, and addressed the challenges that arose along the way."--Provided by publisher.

To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.