Recent research has highlighted the role of science education in reducing beliefs in science-related misinformation and stressed its potential positive impact on decision-making and behavior. This study implemented the Elaboration Likelihood Model to explore how individuals' abilities and motivation interact with the type of processing of…

Changes in children's understanding of experimentation are examined. Sixteen fifth and sixth graders worked on two experimentation problems consistent with an engineering and science model, respectively. The science model was associated with broader exploration, more selectiveness about evidence interpreted, and greater attention to establishing…

Administered questionnaires to 35 science teachers to test the hypotheses that teachers holding constructivist beliefs are more likely to detect alternative conceptions, have a richer repertoire of teaching strategies, use more effective teaching strategies for inducing conceptual change, and report frequent use of effective teaching strategies.…

Carried out an investigation to identify conceptions of some components of worldview held by science student teachers (n=48) in a South African context. Explores relationships among worldviews, student characteristics, and scientific concepts. Reports that students' conceptions of time and distance were nonmechanistic and psychologically bound and…

Discussed are the results of a test administered to nonmajor biology students on the topic of natural selection. The description of student conceptions, effects of instruction, and the effects of a belief in evolution are included. (KR)