This study compared students' learning in troubleshooting and problem solving activities. The troubleshooting activities provided students with solutions to conceptual problems in the form of refutation texts; namely, solutions that portray common misconceptions, refute them, and then present the accepted scientific ideas. They required students…

Describes a pattern of failure to apply relevant scientific principles among pupils. Tenth grade Israeli students were tested and later interviewed in order to determine areas of knowledge in which there was some question concerning knowledge of scientific principles. Suggests that teachers must involve the pupils in situations in which erroneous…

Conventional science instruction often fails to address or change students' misconceptions about physical phenomena. Students stubbornly cling to anthropocentric, causal, and product conceptions about energy. This article explores scientific and pedagogical arguments favoring development of a spiral curriculum for teaching energy in (Israeli)…

The use and analysis of student generated propositions linking two scientific concepts (photosynthesis and respiration) were examined before and after the study of photosynthesis. A proposition-generating task (PGT) was used as a diagnostic tool to indicate student misconceptions and partial understandings. Focus was on determining: how the nature…

This article suggests that a genuine reform endeavor towards the "Science for All" paradigm should adopt a holistic approach. There are several countries around the world that adopted the "Science for All" paradigm at the beginning of the 21st century. However, while looking closely at the amount of change that took place in…