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Trundle, Kathy Cabe; Atwood, Ronald K.; Christopher, John E. – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2002
Focuses on the conceptual understanding held by (n=78) preservice elementary teachers about moon phases before and after instruction. Compares instructive effect between two groups--inquiry-based physics instruction and no instruction. Reports that without the instruction, most preservice teachers were likely to hold alternative conceptions of the…
Descriptors: Concept Formation, Elementary Education, Elementary School Teachers, Misconceptions

Lehrer, Richard; Schauble, Leona – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1998
Elementary school children were interviewed about how gears move on a gearboard and how they work in commonplace machines. Children's reasoning became more general, formal, and mathematical as problem complexity increased, suggesting that mathematical forms of reason may develop when they provide a clear advantage over simple causal…
Descriptors: Cognitive Development, Cognitive Processes, Elementary Education, Mathematics Education

Bendall, Sharon; And Others – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1993
This article reports on a study that was designed to describe prospective elementary teachers' prior verbal and diagrammatic knowledge about various aspects of light, seeing, shadows, and mirror images. Data were collected through individual interviews using simple apparatus. Included are some inferences about how students' ideas may have emerged…
Descriptors: Educational Research, Elementary Education, Light, Misconceptions

Stahly, Laura L.; Krockover, Gerald H.; Shepardson, Daniel P. – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1999
Examines third-grade students' ideas on the lunar phases prior to, and following, an instructional period designed to promote students' conceptual change. Demonstrates that students are capable of making conceptual changes. Contains 30 references. (DDR)
Descriptors: Astronomy, Concept Formation, Constructivism (Learning), Elementary Education

Ginns, Ian S.; Watters, James J. – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1995
Involves 321 preservice elementary teacher education students in a study designed to investigate their intuitive scientific ideas and understandings. Results reveal that the majority of subjects, with the exception of a high proportion of those who has a successful high school background in physics and chemistry, have misunderstandings regarding…
Descriptors: Classification, Elementary Education, Higher Education, Knowledge Level

Lawson, Anton E. – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1988
Reports on a study in which clinical interviews were conducted with three elementary school children to determine the extent to which they held naive misconceptions about important biological topics, and to determine agewise trends in the development of biological knowledge. (TW)
Descriptors: Biology, Cognitive Structures, Concept Formation, Elementary Education

Dall'Alba, Gloria; And Others – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1993
The ways in which the concept of acceleration is treated in physics textbooks is compared with understandings of the concept demonstrated by final-year secondary (n=30) and first-year university students (n=60). Some students' understanding are shown to be incomplete in ways that parallel misleading or inaccurate textbook treatment of the concept.…
Descriptors: Acceleration (Physics), College Science, Educational Research, Elementary Education

Stavy, Ruth – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1991
This study (n=192) examined the use of analogical instruction to overcome misconceptions about conservation of matter. Students who understood the concept conservation of matter when iodine was evaporated were able to transfer their understanding to the evaporation of acetone. This indicates that teaching by analogy can be an effective tool in…
Descriptors: Classroom Research, Concept Formation, Conservation (Concept), Educational Research

Zembal-Saul, Carla; Blumenfeld, Phyllis; Krajcik, Joseph – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2000
Examines changes in the science content representations of two prospective elementary teachers during their first year in an experimental teacher preparation program. Finds that opportunities to engage in cycles of instruction guided by structured considerations for content representation contributed to improvements in the teachers' science…
Descriptors: Concept Formation, Elementary Education, Knowledge Base for Teaching, Knowledge Representation

Flick, Lawrence B. – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1990
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)
Descriptors: Cognitive Development, Computer Simulation, Computer Uses in Education, Elementary Education

Akerson, Valarie L.; Abd-El-Khalick, Fouad; Lederman, Norman G. – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2000
Discusses the influence of a reflective, explicit, activity-based approach to nature of science (NOS) instruction used in an elementary science methods course on preservice teachers' views of some aspects of the nature of science. Finds that participants made substantial gains in their views of some of the target NOS aspects. Advocates a…
Descriptors: Concept Formation, Elementary Education, Epistemology, Knowledge Base for Teaching

Samarapungavan, Ala; Nakhleh, Mary B. – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1999
Reports on an investigation of young children's (n=15) spontaneously constructed or naive understanding of the particulate nature of matter to any formal instruction in the domain. Speculates that children first develop local frameworks particular to different classes of substances, then slowly expand those frameworks to include a wide range of…
Descriptors: Atomic Theory, Cognitive Development, Cognitive Processes, Concept Formation

Trowbridge, John E.; Mintzes, Joel J. – Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1988
Examined the extent to which students' alternative conceptions changed as a function of age. Reports that many alternative views remain intact throughout the school years. Provides several suggestions for teaching and research within the context of a neoconstructivist view of learning. (Author/YP)
Descriptors: Biology, Classification, College Science, Concept Formation