Researchers and practitioners alike express concerns about the conceptual difficulties associated with the concepts of momentum and kinetic energy currently taught in school physics. This article presents an in-depth analysis of the treatment given to them in 44 published textbooks written for UK secondary school certificate courses. This is set…

This Study was conducted to determine if women in the sciences were as accurate in spatial abilities as male counterparts. An experiment was also conducted to find if an intervention would improve the visuo-spatial awareness of women as rapidly as men. Data indicated that while women tended to start at a lower level, they were able to learn…

Reports on an analysis of secondary school physics teaching with respect to three aspects of curriculum. Indicates that limited but significant relationships exist among intentions, translations, and achievement in the teaching of physics in Canadian secondary schools. (TW)

Examines achievement in individually competitive and cooperatively reward-structured environments during a seven-week class period. Reports no differences between the two treatment groups at posttest. (Author/YP)

Determined is the logical reasoning necessary to construct line graphs including a straight line with a positive or negative slope and an exponentially increasing curve. The responses of subjects (grades 6-12) were classified into one of nine categories fitting with Piagetian operational structures. (Author/YP)

This was an experiment to test the extended discretion laboratory approach versus a guided-inquiry approach for teaching biology in a university setting. Among three criterion variables (examination, reports, and quizzes), only the laboratory report scores showed differences between groups and group-by-instructor interaction. (Author/YP)

Indicates statistically significant increases for participants in three-week institute involving measures of their acceptance of theory of evolution, measures of their understanding of both applied evolutionary principles and nature of applied science, and measures of their reduced anxieties regarding teaching of evolution. Further, participants…

Explains a study that proposed and tested how graphical representations influence what is learned and recalled from text. Results highlighted the importance of graph-focusing strategies for text learning and support the creative use of interactive computer presentation. (ML)

Examined the effect of matching learners' cognitive styles with science learning activities on changes in science knowledge and attitudes. Fifty-six elementary education majors, identified as Sensing Feeling types on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, participated in the study. Results revealed no significant differences between matched and…

Reported the development and validation of an integrated model of performance on chemical concept-volumetric analysis. Model was tested on 265 chemistry students in eight schools.Results indicated that for subjects using algorithms without understanding, performance on volumetric analysis problems was not influenced by proportional reasoning…

Reviews a study which examined the effects of types of feedback and diagnostic testing on learning from text aided by a diagnostic/prescriptive instructional strategy. Significant differences in instructional time and learning efficiency were observed from participating undergraduates (n=150) which were not linearly related to feedback complexity.…

Explores the relationships between seventh-grade students' misconceptions of genetics and natural selection and four cognitive variables: reasoning ability; mental capacity; verbal intelligence; and cognitive style. Reports that only the reasoning ability was significantly related to the number of misconceptions. (Author/YP)

Examines the effect of verbalization on the formation and retention of mental images in children in kindergarten, first, and fifth grades. Reports no self-generated verbalization effect with gender or ability level and no retention effect. (Author)

Reviews an investigation of the effects of problem format and the number of independent variables on the responses of students to a control of variables reasoning task. Results indicate that adding independent variables to a control of variables reasoning problem leads to an overload of working memory which affects performance. (ML)

Determines how the use of a science education program affected selected ninth-grade students' comprehension of science reading material. The different effects of the program depended on students' reading and mathematics scores. (Author/YP)