No abstract

In this study a two-sample, pre/posttest, quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the effect of explicit problem-solving instruction on high school students' conceptual understanding of physics. Eight physics classes, with a total of 145 students, were randomly assigned to either a treatment or comparison group. The four treatment classes were taught how to use an explicit problem-solving strategy, while the four comparison classes were taught how to use a textbook problem-solving strategy. Students' problem-solving performance and conceptual understanding were assessed both before and after instruction. The results indicated that the explicit strategy improved the quality and completeness of students' physics representations more than the textbook strategy, but there was no difference between the two strategies on match of equations with representations, organization, or mathematical execution. In terms of conceptual understanding, there was no overall difference between the two groups; however, there was a significant interaction between the sex of the students and group. The explicit strategy appeared to benefit female students, while the textbook strategy appeared to benefit male students. The implications of these results for physics instruction are discussed.

The purpose of this article is to describe a new collaborative immersion approach for developing evaluation capacity that was used in kindergarten through Grade 12 (K-12) schools and to place this new approach on a continuum of existing capacity-building methods. The continuum extends from individualistic training-oriented methods to collaborative real-world methods of building evaluation capacity. The strengths and weaknesses of various evaluation capacity building methods are analyzed and critiqued. Included are examples of capacity building focused on technical assistance, workshops, fellowships, and collaborative immersion. The authors make the case for considering a collaborative immersion approach to evaluation capacity building.

No abstract

No abstract