Background: The gap between theory and teachers' practice is a barrier to education improvement. There is therefore an ongoing need to understand teachers' thinking and find new ways to meaningfully relate theory and practice in STEM education. The research explores, through teachers-as-learners' questions, the connections made by experienced high-school biology teachers between theory and practice, their practical concerns, and the contribution of a supportive course pedagogy to these connections. The research included 31 experienced high-school biology teachers that participated in a special graduate program. Results: Applying a grounded theory approach, the analysis of the teachers' questions, asked as a part of their course assignments, yielded four categories: theory, practice, practice and theory, practice vs. theory. We found that most of the biology teachers' questions asked under a supportive pedagogical design, directed at mediating theory and practice, associated practice and theory. The teachers formed two types of connections between practice and theory in their questions. While asking questions associating practice and theory, the teachers mentioned practical aspects of their work. The types of connections between theory and practice are discussed, as well as the relevance to teacher education. Conclusions: The opportunity to ask questions during assignments that are topic-specific and designed to combine practice and theory enabled teachers to think of both domains and try to better understand their association. The research results indicate that the questions asked by teachers-as-learners can serve a dual purpose: as a way to help teachers direct their thinking to the association between theory and practice, and as a tool to describe and understand teachers' tacit thinking. This research also emphasizes the importance of supporting STEM teachers by developing courses and professional development programs that explicitly combine educational theory and practice.

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Technology-enriched lessons can contribute to improving student engagement and learning in engineering courses. In this study we systematically incorporated Kahoot!, a game-based response system, in two mandatory content-intensive undergraduate engineering courses. In both courses, short quizzes were incorporated regularly at the beginning of the lesson. The questions were mostly about concepts, and students earned bonus points. At the end of the course, the students filled in an anonymous survey regarding their perceptions of the Kahoot! part of the lessons. In addition, the students’ grades in the final test were compared to their gains in the Kahoot! quizzes. We found that student satisfaction with the systematic incorporation of the Kahoot! quizzes was high in both courses. Most students were motivated to review the course content before class and about half were motivated to attend class. Most students perceived Kahoot! quizzes as contributing to their understanding of the course content. We also found a positive association between student success in the quizzes and their performance in the final exam in both courses. The frequent Kahoot! quizzes supplied continuous feedback to the students and lecturers, and the students became more engaged in the course content. Our findings indicate that technology-enriched strategies, specifically gamification techniques, contribute to increased student engagement, motivation, and performance in content-intensive engineering courses.

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