Low teacher self-efficacy is an important factor constraining the teaching of science at the elementary level. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of particular sources of efficacy information for enhancing the science teaching self-efficacy of practicing elementary teachers. Twelve teachers participated in an intervention…

Presents results from Singaporean and Australian studies on the relationships between the cognitive variables and problem solving performance in three electrochemistry problems of different degrees of familiarity for comparisons. Concludes that idea association, problem translating skill, prior problem solving experience, specific knowledge, and…

Japanese and Thai kindergarten children were shown the same visual displays of moving objects and asked to compare the speed of those moving objects. The results significantly indicated that Thai children's concept of speed is further advanced than that of Japanese children. (MLH)

Sixty-one Japanese kindergarten children were pretested on their concept of speed; approximately half of the children (experimental group) were then given a demonstration of visual speed, and the entire group was posttested. Concludes that the experimental group could acquire the concept of speed significantly better than the control group. (MLH)

Explores pupils' (n=800) ideas about what scientists do, their more general knowledge about theories and how they change, and their impressions of how theory and experiment interact in the school science that they have experienced. Discusses teacher and out-of-school effects, gender, school work, and development with age. Contains 22 references.…

Assesses the level of intellectual development in proportional, combinatorial, and correlational reasoning and the ability to control variables in beginning sophomore students (N=207) at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Compares this level with their performance on achievement tests in mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics. (CS)

This research assessed Australian high school students' understanding of light, developed materials to conceptual change with respect to the concept, and evaluated the effectiveness of teaching strategies utilizing the materials. After instruction, students were able to construct significantly more scientifically acceptable answers. An appendix…

Examined Australian year-10 students (n=110) for the effects of an instructional sequence in physics on their subsequent physics achievement and their perceived value of instruction aimed at conceptual change in year 11. An appendix outlines the year-10 instruction. (Contains 24 references.) (MDH)

Evaluates the effectiveness of a course using a constructivist approach in reducing Dutch secondary school students (n=190) misconceptions about force. Concluded that the lessons were effective in changing students' ideas in regard to forces in rest situations and frictional forces and that learning effects were equally distributed over student…