Involving students in scientific modeling practice is one of the most effective approaches to achieving the next generation science education learning goals. Given the complexity and multirepresentational features of scientific models, scoring student-developed models is time- and cost-intensive, remaining one of the most challenging assessment…

Using self-generated analogies has been proposed as a method in a constructivist tradition for students to learn about a new subject, by use of what they previously know. We report on a group exercise on using self-generated analogies to make sense of two thermodynamic processes, reversible adiabatic expansion and free adiabatic expansion of an…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whole classroom discourse during modeling-based learning in science, seeking to describe the discourse's characteristics, its relation to the micro-context in which it took place and to the student-constructed models, and to ascertain when it becomes productive. Additionally, we aimed to describe how…

Analyzes using path analysis models, student attainment of the objectives of a first year university physics course. Four aspects of physics attainment are identified: (1) theoretical; (2) applied; (3) experimental; and (4) attitudinal objectives. (HM)

Two instructional approaches and a control group were used in this study. Metric instruction in a college introductory physical science course was divided between: a) Approach A in which volume instruction followed that of length and area; b) Approach B in which volume was stressed but area was not introduced; and Approach C, the control (no…

Presents results of a study suggesting that prior mathematical ability is a primary influence on performance in an introductory, preprofessional physics course and that it has a secondary influence on the tendency of college students to drop out of the course. (CS)

Investigated whether dropouts and other students having difficulty with physics could be identified by including mathematics reasoning items along with mathematics skill items on a 13-item mathematics pretest and by using records of past performance in conjunction with the pretest. Sample included 483 students in an introductory, noncalculus,…

Presents the procedures, results, and conclusions of a study designed to see if mathematical deficiencies can be inferred from PSSC students' performance by using a hierarchical model of requisite skills. Assuming inferences were possible, remediation was given. No effect due to remediation was observed but analysis indicated incidental learning…

In this study we investigate how prior knowledge influences knowledge development during collaborative discovery learning. Fifteen dyads of students (pre-university education, 15-16 years old) worked on a discovery learning task in the physics field of kinematics. The (face-to-face) communication between students was recorded and the interaction…