Determined the effects of questions on the learning of 55 undergraduate education majors from case exhibits associated with a "walk-through" museum exhibit. The case exhibits contained diagrams, some specimens, a large amount of written material, but no questions. Also compared the effects of experimenter generated questions versus…

Determined if the number of operational questions asked by fifth- and sixth-grade students (N=72) increased by teacher modeling or by practice at writing such questions. One finding is that students experiencing two types of teacher modeling asked more operational questions than students in a control group. (JN)

The purpose of this study was to examine the thinking underlying the questions posed by a science teacher to her seventh grade students in an instructional activity called Mind Games, in which hypothetical situations focussed on scientific issues are proposed and explored at least once during each major instructional unit. Mind games are conveyed…

An alternative approach for teaching primary school science has been proposed by the Learning in Science Project (Primary--LISP(P). This study investigated the use of the approach during three series of lessons on the topic "metals." Each series followed the same general pattern: (1) an introductory session to stimulate children to ask…

The stand taken in the Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--is that primary school science should be centrally concerned with children's present interaction with their world rather than their future science education. Further, it has been decided that one of the LISP(P) foci should be on questions that children ask and how these…

One area explored in the Learning in Science Project (Primary--LISP(P)--was children's questions about and explanations of phenomena. Data were obtained from work with classes of children, interviews with children, informal discussions with teachers, and observations of two teachers using an alternative teaching model (outlined in an appendix)…

Identified and described (using a slight modification of Flander's interaction analysis categories) the nature of biology, chemistry, and physics teachers' verbal behaviors exhibited during science instruction. Results indicate that verbal behaviors are dominated by teachers in the study (N=24), with students remaining mostly passive. (JN)

Investigated changes that occurred in sixth- and seventh-grade teacher and student discourse when teachers endeavored to implement extended teacher wait-time in a sequence of seven lessons related to probabilistic reasoning. Results indicated that teacher wait-time increased from an average of 1.9 to 4.4 seconds during the lesson sequence. (JN)

Adjunct questions were inserted after each of 12 computer-animated graphics sequences shown to 160 eighth-grade science students. These sequences presented two relationships in a purely spatial fashion. Four randomly assigned treatment groups received questions targeting one of the two relationships (temperature or molecular motion) over all or…

The effects of instructional guides and wait-time feedback upon the classroom interaction of 40 middle school science teachers were investigated in a prior study. The experimental nature of that study produced an artificial situation involving little personal contact between teacher-participants and the research staff. Therefore, a subsample of 10…

This document reports on a study to develop an empirical method for analyzing and reporting classroom interaction data. Data were collected according to a classroom observation scheme involving the frequency of various interactions (question, answer, or management), the cognitive level of the interaction, the role of the actor, the level of…

A university consortium recently undertook a project designed to explore the use of technology in teaching high school biology as a means of engaging students actively in the scientific method, and in changing the role of the teacher from lecturer and conclusion drawer to initiator and facilitator. The study examined the degree to which teachers…

An alternative teaching model has been proposed by the Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P). The model uses a six-step approach (outlined in an appendix) which fosters an environment in which children can ask questions about a situation, offer explanations, carry out investigations, and report their findings. This paper reports on the…

Two booklets were developed by the Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--to help teachers adopt an approach to primary science teaching which would enhance children's understanding of floating and sinking. Both booklets were designed to enable teachers to reconceptualize their teaching task from activity-driven, didactic teaching to…

The identification of the characteristics of teaching experts can help beginning teachers to learn and provide a picture for both beginning science teachers and science educators on what has been accomplished and what has to be done in the future. This study, as part of an evaluation project, was intended to investigate the progress of a group of…