The relationship between teaching and learning is a most central issue in education research, but it is yet to be fully understood. Variation Theory provides an explanatory account for teaching and learning and offers a specific view on what it means to learn: to discriminate and to discern critical aspects of the object of learning. This paper…

This chapter describes an innovative method of curriculum design that is based on combining phenomenographic research, and the associated variation theory of learning, with the notion of disciplinary threshold concepts to focus specialised design attention on the most significant and difficult parts of the curriculum. The method involves three…

This study aims to add to the growing research related to the implementation of non-traditional writing tasks in classrooms to encourage science literacy. A secondary reanalysis methodology was employed to review student interviews collected as a part of several individual studies during a ten year research program. This method established an…

Reviews approaches used in teaching seasons to elementary and middle school students over the past 200 years. Finds that the same diagrams have been used from the 1800s to teach about the seasons despite changes in the background knowledge of students and teachers, and changes in theories of teaching and learning. (Contains 24 references.)…

The process of students' conceptual change was evaluated during a computer-supported physics unit in a Grade 10 science class. Computer simulation programs were developed to confront students' alternative conceptions in mechanics. A conceptual test was administered as pre-, post-, and delayed post-tests to determine students' conceptual change.…

This study, conducted in an Australian institution, investigates the intellectual requirements of the mechanics section of a first-year college physics text. Instructional and prerequisite concepts were classified in terms of the intellectual skills required to understand them. (HM)

This book contains selected refereed papers from the 21st Annual Conference of the Australasian Science Education Research Association. The papers are as follows: "A Learning Model for Science Education: Developing Teaching Strategies" (Appleton); "Researching Balance between Cognition and Affect in Science Teaching" (Baird et…