Investigated whether instructing children in the component skills underlying Piagetian transitivity tasks would increase their performance on both transitivity-related tasks and on reasoning tasks not directly related to transitivity. Results indicate that incorporating the quantification of certain abstract symbols, training can influence…

Addresses the importance of recognizing the prior knowledge and misconceptions of science educators. Provides perspectives on the nature of knowledge, conceptions of learning, nature of science and of teaching, and the relationship between general principles of learning and teaching. (ML)

Presents specific guidelines which content-oriented science teachers can follow in order to develop subject-matter comprehension, decision-making skills, and values/moral clarification and reasoning processes in their students. (Author/HM)

Offers perspectives on how conceptual changes actually take place in students. Proposes that elements of Kuhn's concept of scientific paradigms and Wittgenstein's concept of the "language-game" be considered in an analysis of conceptual change. Explains how components of these models relate to science learning. (ML)

Explores the issue of the consistency of use of students' conceptions across different tasks which probed understandings of aspects of pressure, heat, and biological evolution. Findings indicate that children have alternative frameworks for all investigated areas. (ML)

Presented is an experiment investigating children's awareness of regularities in physical phenomena and their capacity for expressing these regularities. Hypothesized and confirmed is that children can use statements with the form and purpose of a physical law. Cartoons related to Archimedes' principle (and connected gravitation and fluid…

Discusses a study which compared differences in ratio construction made by high school freshman and junior students. Reports that more freshmen than juniors selected solutions involving one variable, whereas juniors chose solutions that coordinated two variables in a mathematical or verbal rule. Reviews implications in problem solving and concept…

Summarizes a study of instruments developed for use in assessing aspects of science curriculum and instruction. (PB)

Reports on a study to test the validity of the assumption that a teacher's conception of the nature of science directly influences his/her classroom behavior. Recommends a redirection in science education to promote more adequate conceptions of the nature of science in secondary schools. (TW)

Reviews and analyzes research related to the teaching and learning of science completed in 1985. Includes: (1) reviews of research; (2) evaluation; (3) student characteristics; (4) attitudes toward science; (5) conceptual reasoning; (6) instructional treatments; (7) cognitive skills; (8) laboratory work; (9) microcomputer applications; (10)…

Argues that the failure of modern courses to achieve their declared goals in relation to children's understanding of science has two causes, namely teachers views about the nature of science, and a degree of confusion in the philosophical stance implicit in many science curricula. Presents a philosophical model for curricula. (CW)