Investigated was the assumption that college students are fully capable, by the time they enter college, of operating at the level of formal thought. The subjects selected for this study were students in chemistry and physics courses at a state university and an inner-city community college. Each student was tested with a Piegetian task to…

The purposes of this study were: (1) to evaluate the effectiveness of audio-tutorial (A-T) instruction and (2) to identify, classify and study differences in problem solving approach using a theoretical framework derived from the ideas of D. P. Ausubel. Seventy of 420 students taking a college introductory non-calculus physics course used A-T…

This study investigated the extent to which certain aspects of the structure of a learner's memory following instruction corresponded with the structure of the instructional material. Content structure was represented using digraph theory. The digraph analysis revealed a formal structure built substantially on six specific concepts. Cognitive…

The three purposes of this study were (1) to evaluate a paper-pencil test of critical thinking skills using physical science content, (2) to compare the effectiveness of Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) and non-PSSC physics programs in developing critical thinking skills, and (3) to identify teacher-pupil verbal interaction behaviors that…