A long-standing issue in cognitive psychology is the question of content effects upon problem-solving skills, that is, do students' problem-solving abilities generalize across specific subject matter domains? Although Piaget argued that formal reasoning strategies are independent of content, the well-known decalogs of Piaget can be interpreted as…

An empirical analysis of the relationship between science reasoning skills and the amount of information acquired during science learning as predicted by a neuromathematical model of information processing is presented. Subjects were 93 adolescents (mean age of 15.4 years old) with a IQ range of 91-142. (Author/JN)

Determined if there are certain propositions that physics students (N=31) share with respect to a topic, to what extent is a student's knowledge on a subject idiosyncratic, and if there are different groups of students whose members share distinctive sets of propositions. Results are reported and discussed. (DH)

Studied a limited number of students exposed to teaching materials and strategies (developed from a cognitive perspective on learning), such that their impact would be monitored to determine how the learners constructed new knowledge frameworks as teaching proceeded. Includes background information, comparisons of teacher's intentions and…

Assessed knowledge and attitude changes resulting from home viewing of a Cousteau Society documentary on marine mammals and compares these changes with those resulting from a science teacher's presentation on the documentary's script. Results show increased and retainable knowledge and temporary change in attitudes among ninth-grade students.…

This paper describes the effects of science teacher subject-matter knowledge on classroom discourse at the level of individual utterances. It details one of three parallel analyses conducted in a year-long study of language in the classrooms of four new biology teachers. The conceptual framework of the study predicted that when teaching unfamiliar…

Determined that an instructional unit on laboratory safety could increase student safety knowledge and reduce the number of unsafe behaviors. A list of unsafe behaviors which were observed with the 333 students is included. A recommendation that positive attitudes toward safety be developed is given. (DH)

Compares knowledge and attitude levels of elementary, secondary science, and other secondary teachers on water resources. Evaluates an interactive computer simulation, the "Water Resource Management Simulator" (WRMS), as a training tool for inservice teachers. Users of WRMS exhibited higher knowledge scores than nonusers. No differences…

This investigation was conducted to determine the effects of a 10-day summer workshop using the Concerns Based Adoption Model concerning science technology and society (STS) topics and methods of classroom implementation on the knowledge, attitudes, and stages of concerns of the participating secondary inservice teachers, as well as student…

The purpose of this study was to (1) develop and validate criterion-referenced tests to measure science knowledge of students who finished the fifth grade, as well as those who finished the three cycles of the General Education and (2) to assess the performance on these tests of a national, random sample of fourth-, sixth-, seventh-, and…

The first (exploratory) phase of the Learning in Science Project focused on science teaching/learning in the Form 1 to 4 level (ages 10 to 14) and sought to identify problems and difficulties in several areas. Provided in this paper are comments obtained during structured/unstructured interviews (from students, ex-students, teachers, headmasters,…