Knowledge concerning continuously improving branches of science such as biotechnology in particular is difficult to be understood properly by students, or they learn it incorrectly. One of the most important reasons for this is that students cannot associate in their mind the relevant concepts. The aim of this research is to determine prospective…

This report describes a model for mapping cognitive structures related to content knowledge for teaching. The model consists of knowledge elements pertinent to teaching a content domain, the nature of the connections among them, and a means for representing the elements and connections visually. The model is illustrated through empirical data…

This article examines pre-service secondary school teachers' responses to a learning situation that presented a student's struggle with determining the area of an irregular hexagon. Responses were analyzed in terms of participants' evoked concept images as related to their knowledge at the mathematical horizon, with attention paid…

This study explored preservice teachers' (n = 25) knowledge structures and their mastery of content knowledge in relation to their ability to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of a fourth grader's videotaped explanations of a scientific phenomenon, i.e., molecular kinetic properties of air. Participants' knowledge structures were analyzed…

Explores high school students' and preservice teachers' knowledge of light, vision, and related topics before and after commonly practiced instruction. Suggests a hierarchical structure to represent the collective conceptual knowledge of students and teachers in terms of facets and schemes of knowledge. Makes suggestions for designing instruction…

This paper addresses the evidence that secondary school students use to imply that they understand something in mathematics. As part of a larger study, an open-ended questionnaire probing several aspects of metacognitive self-knowledge, was administered to students (N=72) in four schools. Two previously identified types of understanding were…

This paper describes the actions of one secondary school mathematics teacher in establishing a community of mathematical practice within which students acquire not only knowledge and skills, but also the epistemological values of mathematics. Classroom observations over a period of 18 months, together with interview and questionnaire data, are…

This study examined the subject-pedagogical content knowledge transformation process associated with middle school physical education teachers' curricular decision making. Findings indicated that teachers shared a common subject content knowledge base but demonstrated personalized pedagogical content knowledge repertoires. Classroom curriculum was…

Examines changes in knowledge structures and beliefs related to class management experienced by middle school preservice teachers (n=23). The study charts changes in concerns, skills, and attitudes through the initial, middle, and concluding student teaching stages. A framework of change for class management concepts is reported and influences…

A "Motivation" eliciting the "Aim" of each lesson initiates each lesson in the orthodox "developmental lesson-plan" that has dominated classroom instruction in NYC public schools for at least the past half-century. An action-research study of 38 lesson-plans (over 5 each from 5 teachers) drawn from student-teaching…

Elementary school teacher candidates typically enter their professional training with deficiencies in their conceptual understanding of the topics of elementary school mathematics and with a reliance upon procedural (algorithmic) approaches to the solutions of mathematical problems. If elementary school teacher candidates are expected to teach…