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…

Discusses the correctness of the directions of acceleration at various points in a pendulum problem shown in Reif (1987). Provides the author's responses to the comments on the problem. (YP)

Investigates the remediation of misconceptions through application of Gagne's hierarchical learning theory. Uses stoichiometry, food levels, and conservation of mechanical energy as the target concepts. Reports that there was no treatment effect in analysis of covariance using pretest scores as a covariant. (YP)

The question of how children solve force and motion problems in computer simulations without explicit knowledge of the underlying physics was investigated. Keystroke sequences made by children were saved and analyzed, and children were interviewed to understand their perception of the relationship between keyboard input and on-screen action. (CW)

Investigated skills needed for critical reading of physics texts, their separability and hierarchical ranking, and relation to problem solving ability. Reports that skills required to comprehend texts in continuous format and discriminate unreported statements are respectively of higher level than and separable from those required to comprehend a…

Surveys most important intellectual abilities for physics students. Found four factors: visualization; mathematics; logic; and problem solving. Explores the variations between respondent classification (researcher, teacher) and student goal (physicist, scientifically aware layman) on the ratings. (Author/YP)

Reports on the analysis of science curricula carried out across Canada within the framework of the Second International Science Study by: (1) describing the background to the study and the research methodology employed; (2) showing how data were organized; and (3) discussing meanings derived from the data analysis. (JN)

At ages 11-15, 25 intellectually highly-able youths studied high school biology and 12 studied chemistry intensively for 3 summer weeks, after which their median score on the College Board's achievement test was 727 (biology) and 743 (chemistry). Implications of these and other results for science instruction are discussed. (JN)

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)

A remedial instructional strategy (developed and implemented in ninth-grade physics classes) was found to significantly affect low/mixed ability students' achievement. The method was developed on the basis of a needs assessment of students' backgrounds and a detailed task analysis of the physics course's cognitive demands. (JN)

Investigated preservice physics teachers' ability to make judgments of observed teaching during one of two courses. Students in an inductive course (N=24) engaged in peer teaching before receiving instruction in theory. Students in a deductive course (N=26) received instruction in theory before peer teaching. (JN)

Investigated the influence that changing the form of the learning cycle's exploration/expansion phases had on the content understandings developed by students and their attitudes toward the learning procedures used. The naturalistic data presented show that students believed learning physics is enhanced by the regular-form learning cycle (which…

Determined if providing feedback to students had any impact on the correlation between performance in physics and a test of simple, mechanistic mathematics skills. Also determined if students who drop out of the physics course demonstrated any identifiable difference in performance on tests involving a variety of reasoning and problem-solving…

Student perceptions of the behavior of physics teachers in relation to selected variables in the classroom setting were investigated. High correlations between student perceptions of teacher behavior and affective outcomes are reported. (CW)

Reports on a study of Canadian upper secondary science students' achievement of the concept of proportion. Results indicated that, in classes where the proportion content was emphasized by the teachers, higher achievement was demonstrated. (TW)