Identifying students' misconceptions and learning difficulties and finding effective ways of addressing them has been one of the major concerns in chemistry education. However, the chemistry education community has paid little attention to determining discipline-specific aspects of chemistry that can lead to learning difficulties and…

In recent years there has been an increasing trend in education to seek answers for best pedagogical practice in cognitive neuroscience research. This paper reviews current cognitive neuroscience research findings and critically discusses what they can potentially add to educators' pedagogy. It argues that there is a need for the development of…

This paper reports on the learning of difficult and complex concepts, the characteristics of these concepts that make them difficult for students to learn and understand well, the kinds of misconceptions students acquire, and the difficulty of changing these mistaken beliefs. A scheme, the Conceptual Stability Scheme, is presented for analyzing a…

Educators often presume that all children prenatally exposed to crack or cocaine will be out of control in classrooms and doomed to failure. This article debunks five popular myths concerning such children. Educators should forgo the notion that these children exhibit similar behaviors. They should consider the variables affecting behavior and…

Beliefs about learning and physical difficulties were explored in 50 younger children (M = 5.6, SD = 1.0 years) and 50 older children (M = 9.5, SD = 1.1 years). Participants were asked why they thought some children had learning or physical difficulties and whether children with these difficulties would always have them. The majority of older…

Abolishing direct-instruction and skill-practice opportunities could have serious consequences for special-needs learners. Teachers should provide explicit and focused, even isolated instruction as needed and integrate it into the larger literacy context. This means conducting ongoing assessments of each student's abilities, skills, and progress…