This paper presents a framework that institutions of higher education can use to improve, revise and introduce comprehensive systems for the collection and dissemination of information on student learning outcomes. For faculty and institutional leaders grappling with the many issues and nuances inherent in assessing student learning, the framework…

Conceptual change views of teaching and learning processes in science, and also in various other content domains, have played a significant role in research on teaching and learning as well as in instructional design since the late 1970s. An important issue is whether conceptual change can provide a powerful framework for improving instructional…

What research says about the learning and teaching of decimal fractions is summarized, with some instructional strategies and activities to improve learning suggested. (MNS)

What makes a fraction meaningful and a definition of the quantitative notion of fractions are discussed. Then observations from teaching experiments are presented. (MNS)

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)

Based on the Kellian view of constructive alternativism (that the meanings of any idea are not fixed, but vary from individual to individual), this paper describes a technique for exploring school children's conceptions of common physical phenomena to allow science educators (1) to appreciate the alternative conceptions of their students and (2)…

This eight-chapter book clearly presents a theory of how children learn and, therefore, how teachers and others can help children think about science as well as other topics. Its ideas and techniques may be adopted for preschoolers when objects are conceptually ordered, or for theoretical physicists when findings are conceptually organized. In…

This paper designs a theoretical construct that integrates a number of mainstream systems of inquiry available to educational policymakers. Each system of inquiry has postulates, basic and derived concepts that characterize its epistemological foundations and methodological directives. None of these systems of inquiries, however, is proscriptive…

Presents results of a study of the effects of advance organizer instruction on preschool children's learning of the musical concepts of dynamics, pitch, tempo, and rhythm. Reports that three modes and three methods of presentation were evaluated. Concludes that, although results did vary with mode, the method of presentation had no significant…

This first volume of a review prepared for the Cockcroft Committee of Inquiry into the Teaching of Mathematics in Schools in Great Britain, and its main conclusions were incorporated in their report, "Mathematics Counts." Its aim was to display the main outcomes of research relevant to the teaching and learning of mathematics. The…

An annotated bibliography presents 53 citations of dissertations, articles, and other works focusing on practical rather than theoretical aspects of the teaching and learning of second language pronunciation. Listed according to author, the subjects of the citations include: the need to teach pronunciation, teaching techniques, the use of reading…

The first working paper of the Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--"Toward a Framework," outlined what was then seen (1982) as the major aim of the project and proposed a research plan that seemed capable of enabling the project to establish difficulties that teachers have teaching science, to identify difficulties children…

This paper proposes some possible areas of research and tentative theoretical guidelines for the Learning in Science Project (Primary)-- LISP(P). This new project, designed to investigate the teaching and learning of science in the primary school, arises from the work of the original Learning in Science Project (LISP). LISP(P) has two…

The theme of the meeting reported in this document was "Research in Mathematics Education from an Epistemological Perspective." In addition to the plenary session and reaction papers the conference proceedings contain papers grouped under the headings: (1) algebra; (2) computers and mathematics education; (3) early arithmetic (K-3); (4)…