The impulse to investigate the natural world is deeply rooted in our earliest childhood experiences. This notion has long guided researchers to uncover the cognitive mechanisms underlying the development of scientific reasoning in children. Until recently, however, research in cognitive development and education followed largely independent…

Investigated the role of "a priori" ideas in planning experiments and data processing leading to inferences. Thirty-one students (ages 11-13) observed a "combustion/candle in a closed container" experiment and were asked to interpret sets of measurements. Findings, among others, show that children preferentially experiment on…

Performance on five logical, spatial, and formal tasks was used to make inferences about the reasoning structures of 101 middle and high school students. Findings (obtained during interviews) include grade level differences in performance and sex differences in performance on one of the tasks. Implications for instruction are proposed. (Author/JN)

Research on propositional reasoning is summarized. Retrieval of facts and concepts, linkages, short-term memory limitations, and the processing advantages are discussed. Suggestions for maximizing teaching are presented. (CW)

Describes how discrepant events can be employed as a viable teaching strategy. Reviews the theory of cognitive dissonance and provides examples and approaches in its resolution. Offers samples of discrepancy events and unexpected situations. (ML)

Identifies and discusses the epistemological roots of various terms that have been used to describe student conceptions in the literature with a view to suggest which term science eductors should adopt. Argues that "alternative conceptions" is preferable to "alternative frameworks" for use in describing student conceptions in…

This study compared the effects of cooperative learning groups to traditional instruction in remediating students' misconceptions about temperature. Students from grades 3, 4, and 5 in two rural elementary schools participated in the study. Students completed a pretest, a cognitive conflict laboratory activity and a posttest that measured…

This document reports on a study of 48 kindergarten children in Israel regarding their concepts of "solid" and "liquid." Children were asked to classify a set of 30 materials into two groups (a group of 9 liquids and a group of 21 solids). About 65% could classify liquids correctly, 50% could classify rigid materials correctly,…

Examined are two aspects of science education--the nature of science and curriculum reform. Contemporary views on the tentative nature of science and a generative model of learning are synthesized. (KR)

Examined is the hypothesis that an important intellectual acquisition during adolescence is the ability to generate arguments that involve reasoning to contradiction. Implication for hypothesis teaching at the elementary grades is discussed. (KR)

This study develops and employs the construct, personal orientation to science learning, to study the processes by which children construct meaning as they learn science in school. The theoretical bases of the thesis are the commitments of a constructivist view of learning and the psychological framework of George Kelly's Personal Construct…

Misconceptions are systematic, intelligently conceived, and quite reasonable theories that have been constructed on the basis of experience. Research studies on misconceptions have indicated that students develop intelligently conceived and sophisticated concepts of science. Although some of these are compatible with the principles of modern…

An overview is presented of the epistemology of the three types of constructivism. Criticized is another interpretation of constructivism; it is stated that this interpretation is trivial, cognitively abridged, and disrespectful of students' capacities, creativity, and imagination. Constructivism has to go beyond saying that knowledge is…