Thirty years ago, when personal computers were first becoming available in homes and schools, a large group of primary school-age children were asked to share their attitudes about computers, their conceptions regarding how computers function, and their beliefs concerning computers' agency. The researchers wanted to gather baseline data regarding…

This qualitative analysis explored children's and adults' experiences with adoption. We used phenomenological methodology and individually interviewed 25 participants and included adoptive mothers and fathers, and their children, each adopted before 18 months of age. Two research questions guided the data analysis: (a) What are children's and…

Interviews with fourth, fifth, and sixth graders found that they thought about the concept of average as mode, median, and/or a procedure. Presents approaches to develop the concept of average. (MKR)

Because second grade students had difficulty in explaining what they knew about the number 15, it was suspected that they did not understand place value. Realizing every number has a place value and its place provides facility for calculation, a teacher attempted to ascertain second grade students' (N=18) knowledge of place value. Results of…

Describes a program for teaching search analysts at the SUNY Albany School of Library and Information Science. (RAA)

Considers what college students think reasoning about physics involves. Discusses whether it is possible to identify students' general conceptions of physics and the effects of a course on students' concepts. Data indicated that students' understandings had an effect on problem solving, qualitative problems, and misconceptions. (YP)

The focus of this document is on students' understanding of symbolization processes in algebra, and specifically their understanding of semantically laden letters. In the first four sections, four inappropriate ways in which many college students use semantically laden letters are described. Evidence from clinical interview protocols demonstrate…

Reports on a study in which clinical interviews were conducted with three elementary school children to determine the extent to which they held naive misconceptions about important biological topics, and to determine agewise trends in the development of biological knowledge. (TW)

Interview data exemplify students' attempts to integrate the concepts of electrochemistry with related knowledge that they had previously constructed or acquired in other classes. The implications for minimizing potential misconceptions center on the difficulties students experience when using more than one model for explaining scientific…

Discusses children's ideas about colored objects and colored shadows, with special attention to the organization of these ideas into mental models. The clarification of these models provides instructional tools that serve to assess and confront students' naive conceptions. Subjects were visitors to a science museum who engaged in interactive…

In an attempt to find out more about how creative people engage in thinking, more than 50 men and women considered to be prominant in the humanities, the arts, and the sciences were interviewed. Letters, diaries and autobiographies of other creative individuals were examined in an effort to provide a broad base for studying the psychology of…

This paper analyzes the misconceptions high school students have about force and suggests that the misunderstanding of Newton's third law is the key to these misconceptions. Clinical interview and diagnostic test data (N=104) indicates that many students have a naive view of force as an acquired or innate property of single objects rather than…

Ways in which children think of 10 are considered first. Then a study with 14 second graders is reported; students were placed at three levels with respect to their addition and subtraction concepts. Findings are detailed, along with implications for instruction. (MNS)

Presented are examples of how the terminology used in typical rate questions is misunderstood by a large proportion of students. Explanations based on both interviews and paper-and-pencil tests are given as to why this phenomenon exists. (MNS)

Discusses the frequent misconception displayed by students that chromosome structure is a function of chromosome number or ploidy. Provides detailed analyses of the evidence concerning the prevalence of this ploidy/structure misconception among students of introductory genetics and the potential sources for inaccurate communication that it can…