This book starts with the premise that beauty can be an engine of transformation and authentic engagement in an increasingly complex world. It presents an organized picture of highlights from the 13th European Science Education Research Association Conference, ESERA 2019, held in Bologna, Italy. The collection includes contributions that discuss…

The impulse to investigate the natural world is deeply rooted in our earliest childhood experiences. This notion has long guided researchers to uncover the cognitive mechanisms underlying the development of scientific reasoning in children. Until recently, however, research in cognitive development and education followed largely independent…

This book details the findings from a research team that used cognitive principles and a large range of experiments to devise a variety of instructional designs. Their recommendations are based on 20 years of objective, published research. Although the program focused on technical subjects, the findings can easily be applied to a range of…

This book attempts to review and extend current knowledge and perspectives on scientific problem solving by utilizing the framework of cognitive science. While the focus of the monograph is toward problem solving, its ultimate goal is the improvement of science teaching. Twelve chapters address problem solving in a variety of science content…

This paper on logical reasoning in science education was written from a philosophical, rather than a psychological, orientation within an overall curricular framework. Six areas are treated within this curricular framework: philosophical consideration, logical structure in a field of enquiry, materials development and evaluation, epistemological…

This book is intended to give teachers and student teachers a better understanding of the thinking of adolescent students in science lessons and to indicate the difficulties such students have in understanding the more abstract or formal ideas with which they are presented. It is practical in its orientation as the issues discussed are illustrated…

This book focuses on three particular context-specific accounts of scientific thinking. The first section of the book presents research focused on extending knowledge of the fundamental components of scientific thinking. In the second section, research is presented that is focused primarily on how to build a structure for scientific thinking in…

Creative thinking and how to foster it is the focus of this resource book for teachers. Part One of this book emphasizes the theoretical background of the creative thinking concept and discusses the relationship between creative thinking, problem solving, science, and technology. Part Two focuses on three levels of inventing, each examining…

Most restructuring efforts focus on changing the "how" of education. The articles in this book argue that redesign of the curriculum--the "what" of education--should be the main component of school revisioning. The book proposes a new framework for learning communities that views life as an intellectual and personal quest for knowledge and…

This collection of essays illustrates various aspects of the recent trend to situate accounts of cognitive development. The essays examine contextual sensitivity in relation to ecological theories of perception and cognition, and contrast intuitive reasoning in mathematical and other scientific domains with the child's difficulty with reasoning in…

The kindergarten year is quite unlike preschool and not like first grade, either. What should teaching practice look like for this critical year? This book offers a vivid picture of kindergarten children, perceptive discussion of the current kindergarten context and policy issues, and clear guidelines for teaching and assessing kindergartners.…

This book offers a perspective on the science education enterprise that individuals can use as they attempt to understand what happens in science classrooms and what should happen. This book is a historical account of ideas in science education that covers the time period from approximately the middle of the nineteenth century to 1991. How science…

The focus of this collection of essays is on new approaches to teaching in higher education. Selections are organized in five sections; the first section focuses on learning styles, while the remaining sections focus on applications in various academic disciplines. The chapters include: (1) "Capitalizing on College Students' Learning Styles:…