The study aims to determine education faculty students' cognitive structures regarding professional concepts, and to reveal the views of the students and faculty members about conceptual teaching. The participants of the study, which was designed as a case study, were determined using the criterion sampling method. In the study, which was carried…

The purpose of this study is to present the connections between the concepts in perception and cognitive structures of secondary school 8th grade students for principles of Ataturk. Word association test is used in data collection. The number of the total participants in this research is 190. A frequency table is formed for the data obtained in…

Learners in South Africa lag behind in literacy and numeracy skills relative to their peers in other countries. This is ascribed to a lack of quality education in the preschool and Foundation Phases of schooling, and conditions related to poverty. The Basic Concepts Mediated Learning Programme (BCMLP) aims to promote the conceptual development of…

This paper describes the methods and techniques called Conceptual Analysis (CA), a rigorous procedure to generate (without involuntary omissions and repetitions) knowledge bases for the development of knowledge-based systems. An introduction is given of CA and how it can be used to produce knowledge bases. A discussion is presented on what is…

A category system for organizing six thinking skills and methods for teaching these skills, using the concept of time, are provided. Representing a proposed sequential order of development, the six thinking skills are: (1) imaging--the creating of an internal mental representation of an external thing and the labeling of that representation, (2)…

Using 198 college students, this study investigated the effects on performance of four variables in a concept-learning task. The variables were (1) passive and active learning; (2) contextual specificity and variability; (3) rule-examples sequences; and (4) near and far transfers as critical outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of the…

This paper introduces successive and coordinate intellectual thinking skills, using concepts as a best case example. The attributes and optimal presentation requirements of successive and coordinate concepts are reviewed, and types of errors commonly associated with successive and coordinate skills are delineated. The effects of both of these…

The purpose of this study was to assess structural knowledge change across a two-week workshop designed to provide high-school teachers with training in Java and Object Oriented Programming. Both before and after the workshop, teachers assigned relatedness ratings to pairs of key concepts regarding Java and Object Oriented Programming. Their…

This paper examines research studies that have concluded that elementary school children can learn more difficult and abstract social studies concepts than are taught in the traditional social studies curriculum. Research studies that focus on constraints on cognition, the use of embedded concepts, and understanding knowledge restructuring and…

Concept mapping leads students away from rote learning and toward true understanding of concepts and their relationships. Several sample and student maps on earth science topics are presented and discussed. Applications for science instructors, students, researchers, and teacher educators are also considered. (DH)

Because concept maps are designed to find out what the learner knows about a subject and are, in effect, maps of cognition, this article synthesizes relevant facts, concepts, and principles from cartography and applies them to concept mapping. The metaphor of the map and its applicability for representing scientific concepts are discussed. (PR)

During the last 10 years, cognitive science researchers have produced research findings that have great potential for increasing students' understanding of science. However, commercial publishers continue to produce textbooks and teacher's guides in traditional ways. This project developed a prototype unit which used an alternative approach to…

Investigated was the effect of concept mapping on science achievement. It was concluded that mapping concepts prior to, during, and subsequent to instruction led to greater achievement. (CW)

Discusses the rationality of students' alternative frameworks by considering the role played by their beliefs, their understanding of other views, and the reasons for justification or rejection. Investigates the way in which 14-year-old boys see the effects of classroom learning experience on their ideas. (Author/YP)

Describes the MAOF physics education program which is designed to relate large parts of mechanics and electromagnetism to each other via the key concepts of field and potential, while at the same time treat students' conceptual difficulties. Finds that students who studied with the MAOF program significantly improved their physics knowledge…