This study adopted a quasi-experimental design with follow-up interview to develop a computer-based two-tier assessment (CBA) regarding the science topic of electric circuits and to evaluate the diagnostic power of the assessment. Three assessment formats (i.e., paper-and-pencil, static computer-based, and dynamic computer-based tests) using…

This study investigated whether intuitive, naive conceptions of "living things" based on objects' mobility (movement = alive) persist into adolescence and affect 10th graders' accuracy of responses and reaction times during object classification. Most of the 58 students classified the test objects correctly as living/nonliving, yet they…

The aims of this study were considered under three headings. The first was to elicit misconception that science and physics student teachers (pre-service teachers) had about the terms, "inertial mass", "gravitational mass", "gravity", "gravitational force" and "weight". The second was to understand how prior learning affected their misconceptions,…

Investigates reasoning strategies students use in solving stoichiometric problems and explores the relation between these strategies and alternative conceptions, prior knowledge, and cognitive variables. Results show how stoichiometric relations produce conflicting situations for students leading to conceptual misunderstanding of certain concepts.…