Periodic assessment and scrutiny of the discipline's measurement practices, instruments, and research findings are necessary to provide clarity and direction by revealing what we know, how we know it, and where the knowledge gaps exist. Reflective reviews have produced ample appraisals of the theory, research, and methods employed in the conduct…

This document reports the results of two studies performed to determine the effectiveness of special lessons in facilitating the attainment by children of the basic concept "tree." The first study, which utilized 103 fifth-grade students, also investigated the effects of pretesting. Results showed no significant effects of pretesting and…

Piaget's developmental theory is discussed and several research findings that involve Piaget's theories are reported. The understanding of reasoning patterns is presented as a means for the science teacher to identify the conceptual emphasis and demands of the subject matter and to help students develop more advanced reasoning patterns than they…

Reported is an Aptitude Treatment Instruction (ATI) Study designed to evaluate the aptitude of verbal comprehension in terms of two unitary complex science diagram types: a single complex block word diagram and a single complex picture word diagram.. ATI theory and research indicate that different effective instructional treatments tend to help…

This thesis reports a study of the effects of two types of advance organizer instruction, expository (EO) and guided self-discovery (GSDO), in teaching hierarchical classification or relations to preschool children. In the study, four experimental and one control group received three 25 minute instructional sessions. Using the same materials,…