Considered are two commonly used techniques, the interview and word association techniques. Highlighted is a third technique called the repertory grid. This third technique can be used to interpret students' knowledge based on an explicit, psychological theory of human behavior. (Author/CW)

Assessed Venezuelan college freshmen's (N=709) level of formal or concrete operations and its correlation with performance in various courses. Findings show 84 percent were concrete; achievement in chemistry had the highest correlation with formal operations, and decreasing correlations occurred with mathematics, biology, biology lab,…

Student understanding of 30 nontechnical words used in science was investigated. No significant differences were found between the understanding of nontechnical words in science or between the verbal reasoning ability of males (n=108) and females (n=89). Of the four different question formats, students had the most difficulty with the synonym…

Concepts used by two classes of grade eight students, one advanced and the other average, to explain the changes that occur when water is heated to boiling are presented. Little difference was found between groups in terms of the personal misconceptions used to explain boiling. The changes that take place in conceptual knowledge immediately after…

Combined free response questionnaire and interview procedure are used to probe students' ideas regarding how they believe they see both luminous and nonluminous objects and how they think they hear source of sound. From large sample of students studied (n=1901), prevalence of ideas in different age groups is compared, and progression can be seen.…

An increase in the cognitive restructuring aspect of field-independence was found to be associated with an increase in formal operational thought in 11- to 12-year-olds who were given materials designed to achieve this result. Materials used (including computer programs) are described in an appendix. (JN)

The purpose of this study was to develop a procedure for the evaluation of M-demand of chemistry problems. It was shown that dimensional analysis upon the Neo-Piagetian theory of Pascual-Leone could help science teachers to understand the epistemological basis of their discipline. (CW)

An intervention study with 12- to 13-year-old students which attempts to move students' thinking about matter and the dissolving process toward the school science view by use of activities and group discussion tasks which directly address some of the thinking underlying students' prior ideas is described. Students responses to the strategies…

Described is a collaborative study between a Year 11 physics teacher and 3 university personnel designed to identify and document the manner in which content knowledge was transmitted in the classroom by the teacher and how this knowledge was acquired by students. The role of the textbook is discussed. (KR)

Presents a theoretical framework for and a detaled description of a model for teaching scientific analogies. The framework focuses on the definition of an analogy, analogical learning, variables related to analogical learning, evaluating outcomes of analogical limiting, and limitations of using analogies in teaching. (JN)

Described in this study are student teachers' frameworks of purity and the related concepts of the states of matter. The concept of natural versus pure substances, classifying states of matter, and implications for teaching drawn from the results are discussed. (Author/KR)

Discussed is whether, and to what extent, science teachers critically and spontaneously attend to the logical structure of situations, and whether they need prompting, or completely fail to do so. The relationship between the results of this study and science teachers' pre- and in-service education is discussed. (Author/KR)

This study reports a new analysis of data on children's ideas about direct current (DC) electrical circuits. The analysis is theoretically informed by Piagetian stage theory of genetic epistemology. The limits of the genetic epistemology are discussed. (KR)

The relationships and possible effects of various personal home and school variables on the acquisition of functional biological, chemical, and physical scientific knowledge by tenth grade Israeli students (n=544) was investigated. Biology was the only subject in which functional knowledge was significantly related to nonformal science activities.…