Questionnaires designed to tap misconceptions of the content of psychology courses can serve as pedagogical devices useful for introducing students to topics and for evaluating student learning. The topic of sleep and dreams is of particular interest to students. To develop a useful introductory tool and to evaluate students' knowledge of sleep,…

Describes efforts to infuse an international perspective into Clarion University of Pennsylvania's social studies methods course. Reports results of a pretest indicating poor knowledge of and interest in social studies among education majors. Discusses course activities, materials, and requirements. Concludes that knowledge and interest in global…

Undergraduate students' educational needs concerning Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and the faculty role in AIDS education are discussed. Results of a study at the Ursinus College (Pennsylvania) campus to assess both knowledge of and attitudes toward AIDS are summarized. Seventy-three percent of the 141 Introductory Psychology students…

Maintains that misperceptions or incorrect mental images about relative location and size are common in geography. Reports on a study of 708 students ranging in age from junior high school through undergraduate school. Finds that misperceptions are widespread and exist across grade levels. (CFR)

Designed to test the effects of knowledge acquisition on attitude formation and change, this study investigated whether knowledge-oriented instruction would have a different effect on students' nuclear attitudes than attitude-oriented instruction. High school students (N=331) from six schools who had not studied nuclear energy in any class or…

Presents two composite and contrasting cases of how elementary school children are taught history. One student receives instruction heavily slanted toward institutional political history, while the other learns these concepts incorporated throughout social history illustrated with different types of learning activities. Suggests workable…

Contrasts two approaches to achieving depth in an 8th grade U.S. history class. One presents a detailed and chronological approach, the other a discipline-based matrix structure with chronological and regional evolutions as a backdrop. Favors stressing major principles and generalizations while focusing in depth on prototypical examples. (MJP)

Contends British educational researchers must begin investigating what is taught in the classroom and how teachers might best manage content within the constraints of the National Curriculum. Reviews U.S. research concerning the importance of subject matter in educating students. Illustrates research possibilities for problems in primary…

Describes a high school civics course constructed almost solely around a close reading of the Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, and Gettysburg Address. Maintains that understanding these documents establishes the minimum essentials of civic literacy and frees classes from the burden of irrelevant and unreadable textbooks.…