Recent research has challenged traditional assumptions that scientific practice and knowledge are essentially individual accomplishments, highlighting instead the social nature of scientific practices, and the co-construction of scientific knowledge. Similarly, new research paradigms for studying learning go beyond focusing on what is "in the…

In this study, we analyzed the quality of students' written scientific explanations found in notebooks and explored the link between the quality of the explanations and students' learning. We propose an approach to systematically analyzing and scoring the quality of students' explanations based on three components: claim, evidence to support it,…

In this study we examined curriculum integration in new ways by exploring the link between classroom context, the implementation of community-based, integrated science projects, and the subsequent student learning. The literature is inconsistent regarding the benefits of an integrated approach to curriculum. The research design was a multiple case…

This study aims to add to the growing research related to the implementation of non-traditional writing tasks in classrooms to encourage science literacy. A secondary reanalysis methodology was employed to review student interviews collected as a part of several individual studies during a ten year research program. This method established an…

Effects of performance objectives on achievement of black inner city pupils were studied. Two groups of trained and untrained teachers in preparing performance objectives were formed. Results showed positive effects of teachers trained in the use of performance objectives. (PS)

After being trained in writing acceptable laboratory reports for 10 weeks during which all reports produced were graded, ninth grade students in an elective science course were as likely to complete all future reports when they were aware that only a random quarter of the reports would be graded as when all reports continued to be assessed. (AL)

Explores the nature of the changes in students' explanations (n=50) of evolutionary scenarios. Teleological and Lamarckian explanations accounted for over half of the students' explanation on the pretest but dropped to less than 20% on the posttest. (ZWH)

Outlines a narrative method for the study of classrooms. The main feature of the method is the reconstruction of classroom meaning in terms of narrative unities in the lives of classroom participants. The work's theoretical character is introduced by comparison and contrast with Schon's "The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in…

Describes a method with data analyzed from two lessons on the quantitative assessment of content structure in classroom dialogue. Kinetic structure analysis was used and the fundamental coefficient of structure was calculated for each lesson. The method should provide new directions for looking at verbal interaction in classrooms. (PS)

Tracks classroom research on a technology-rich inquiry weather program with six urban science teachers. Investigates students' achievement of content and inquiry as well as technology's contribution to inquiry science and positive learning values. (Contains 30 references.) (Author/YDS)

Teachers who are classified as humanistic'' were perceived by students as using different teaching styles than those classified as custodial.'' The humanistic'' teachers tended to be perceived as using techniques more compatible with the recommendations of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study writers. (AL)

Reports a study of science classroom environments and student attitudes toward science. Cluster analysis of 27 high school science classes resulted in three clusters based on factors in the classroom environment. One cluster's classroom environment was significantly different from the others, and its students had more positive attitudes.…

Study compared patterns of teachers' verbal explanations of physics problems with patterns of scientific explanations evident in philosophical literature. Fourteen high school physics teachers were observed in micro-teaching situations and all verbal utterances analyzed. Results showed that constructs and lecturing are the most frequently used…

This study investigated teacher-child interaction within small-group science activities in a fourth-grade classroom. This qualitative study revealed three "zones of interaction," or teacher-child interaction categories: Individual Zones of Interaction, Multiple Zones of Interaction, and a Collective Zone of Interaction. Each zone was further…