In practical work focussing on conceptual development, students spend valuable in-class time on collecting data rather than making sense out of it. This provides a barrier to learning about the targeted concept. To address this problem, we developed an approach that we coin "collaborative data collection." Using a practical on the topic…

This article presents a mathematical modeling activity for students related to the process of memorization in which students collect their own data to drive their model development, parameterization, and validation. Engaging in the data collection gives them insight to critique and evaluate various models. This task is a low-floor high ceiling…

I argue that Ricoeur's "preunderstandings" can be used as a heuristic to aid researchers who collect narratives as data (1) to identify cultural meanings that become resources for participants' positioning work, (2) to ground the identified cultural meanings in participants' experiences, and (3) to understand participants'…

In response to calls for research into effective instruction in the Earth and space sciences, and to identify directions for future research, this systematic review of the literature explores research into instructional approaches designed to facilitate conceptual change. In total, 52 studies were identified and analyzed. Analysis focused on the…

Interactions between conceptual and procedural knowledge influence the development of mathematical competencies. However, after decades of research, these interrelations are still under debate, and empirical results are inconclusive. The authors point out a source of these problems. Different kinds of knowledge and competencies only show up…

In the present study, we have applied a word association procedure for assessing conceptual change in science education, leaning on the presuppositions of the theory of social representations. The proposed method was applied both before and after a university population ecology course. Our results have shown that the teaching procedure can change…

This article proposes a different way for curriculum developers to visualize the curriculum-building process. The author suggests a method to assist faculty in incorporating the ideas that authorities in the field have set forth. (Author/CT)

This report lays out the design for the Evaluation of Reading Comprehension Interventions, which is assessing supplemental reading comprehension programs for fifth-grade students in Title I schools. The key design parameters are described. The report itself provides the rationale for these decisions and discusses design and measurement issues,…

Last fall, "Science and Children" invited kindergarten to grade eight teachers to participate in a study investigating students' ideas about plants and plant growth (Barman et al. 2002). Two hundred twenty-seven individuals from 16 states in the United States, one U.S. Territory, and one Canadian Province responded to this invitation and…

The methodological parameters of evaluative research studies help to identify a conceptualization of the phenomenon under investigation. Holistic critiques that identify the conceptual models under which the research was conducted shed light on the validity of the disparate inferences made from a number of studies of schools and school…