It is a widely held view that students' epistemic beliefs influence the way they think and learn in a given context, however, in the science learning context, the relationship between sophisticated epistemic beliefs and success in scientific practice is sometimes ambiguous. Taking this inconsistency as a point of departure, we examined the…

Discusses Dewey's vision of the scientific mind and analyzes the stereotype of scientific thinking. Explains Dewey's notion of experience and clarifies the difference between ordinary experience and a Deweyan experience. (Contains 27 references.) (YDS)

Uses a constructivist framework in conjunction with an interpretive methodology to investigate the effect of an intervention using the metaphor "learning is constructing" on students' metacognition and learning process. Believes that contextual factors are key determinants of students' propensity towards enhancing their metacognition and…

Proposes the concept of cultural validity as a form of test validity in science assessment. Contends that current approaches to handling student diversity in assessment are limited. Discusses ways in which adopting cultural validity as a criterion for test validity makes it necessary to shift assessment paradigms and adopt new procedures for…

Discusses the notion that scientific knowledge is not dependable and that knowledge is no longer valued as a part of science. Points out that this has led to approaches that aim to teach scientific methods or problem-solving skills rather than scientific knowledge. Contains 19 references. (DDR)

Scientific and everyday knowledge domains are compared so as to reveal the distinctive differences between their goals and the cognitive processes used to attain them. The main goals, working goals, learning difficulties, knowledge structure, concept specification, knowledge organization, role of school science, program-solving instruction, formal…