Although taxonomic proficiency is a prerequisite for understanding ideas central to biology, previous research has established that learners frequently misclassify animals by not following the tenets of accepted taxonomic rubrics. This has immediate relevance with the recently revised English National Curriculum now requiring concepts of animal…

Learning progressions, or representations of how student ideas develop in a domain, hold promise as tools to support teachers' formative assessment practices. The ideas represented in a learning progression might help teachers to identify and make inferences about evidence collected of student thinking, necessary precursors to modifying…

Assessments associated with learning progressions are designed to provide diagnostic information about the level and nature of student understanding. Valid interpretations of such diagnoses are only possible when students consistently express the ideas associated with a single learning progression level. Latent class analysis was employed to…

Although scale has been identified as one of four major interdisciplinary themes that cut across the science domains by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989), we are only beginning to understand how students learn and apply scale concepts. Early research on learning scale tended to focus on perceptions of linear distances,…

In this study we investigated junior high school students' processes of argumentation and cognitive development in science and socioscientific lessons. Detailed studies of the relationship between argumentation and the development of scientific knowledge are rare. Using video and audio documents of small group and classroom discussions, the…

Describes an empirical method of developing learning hierarchies by comparing success on each tested behavior with all other behaviors. Advantages, compared with validation of a particular logical hierarchy, are illustrated by application of density principles to prediction of flotation. (AL)

Comments on a recent article by DeLuca on electronic "measurement of logical thinking" questioning four aspects of the article. DeLuca responds to the criticism on those four aspects in question. (GA)

A sex-related difference, favoring boys, was found on initial performance of two samples (one British, one American) of 10- and 11-year-old children on tasks involving volume and density. After classroom instruction that included opportunities for interaction with appropriate materials, both sexes performed at higher levels but differences…

The paper presents a discussion of a theory of intelligence which postulates that intelligence develops rather than that intelligence is an innate ability possessed in full measure at birth. Discussion of unresolved issues surrounding their theory is presented. The effect of such a theory on science teaching is discussed. (RE)

Examines the transition from concrete to formal thought in Piagetian theory. The questions investigated relate to the abruptness of the transition period, the simultaneity of changes across schemes, and the influence of one scheme of development on another. (SA)

Determined that males (N=70) demonstrate higher level of intellectual development than females (N=70), that males mature intellectually earlier than females, and that there appear to be factors other than age and sex that are related to development of formal operational reasoning. Implications of these and other results are discussed. (JN)

Discussed are the influences of a student's gender, grade level, country of origin, and urban/rural environment in performance of proportional and combinatorial Piagetian tasks. (Author/SA)

In this article, the author gives a general introduction of a few ideas on cognitive development in children. In the first part, he deals with the topic of development, a process which concerns the totality of the structures of knowledge. He reviews the stages of development of operational structures, distinguishes four main stages of development,…

The aim of this study was to develop a model of students' energy concept development. Applying Case's (1985, 1992) structural theory of cognitive development, we hypothesized that students' concept of energy undergoes a series of transitions, corresponding to systematic increases in working memory capacity. The US national sample from the Third…

Analyzes the performance of the Electronic Task (ET), to test for combinatorial reasoning, over a broad range of subject ages and abilities in order to evaluate it as a substitute for the original Chemical Task (CT). (GA)