The purpose of the current study is to determine pre-service primary school teachers' cognitive structure regarding communication, cooperation and decision-making skills, which are among the basic life skills addressed in the Life Sciences curriculum. The study employed qualitative research method. The study group of was composed of 111…

These proceedings contain papers of the 3rd International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2019) held in Šiauliai, Lithuania, June 17-19, 2019. This symposium was organized by the Scientific Methodical Center "Scientia Educologica" in cooperation with the Institute of Education, Šiauliai University. The…

The purpose of this study was to create a conceptual awareness in science education for accurate observation of what is happening around us. To correctly understand the conceptual framework of the curriculum currently being implemented and to make us aware of our need to know how to put this framework into practice will serve as a guide for…

School-age children's self-reported risk compensation (greater risk-taking when wearing safety gear compared to when not doing so) was investigated using 6 common play situations. Children responded to hypothetical scenarios by rating intended risk-taking when wearing safety gear and not doing so, and by providing explanations for their behavior.…

Children (n=336) in grades 1-5 were interviewed individually using a Piagetian task to study development from additive to multiplicative thinking. Multiplicative thinking was found to appear early (in 45% of second graders) but to develop slowly (only 48% of fifth graders used consistently solid multiplicative thinking). (Author/MKR)

Argues that a weak form of schema theory (a schema being an abstract set of expectations) gives the best account of the knowledge most people have about ordinary matters. Emphasizes that a person's culture is a principal determiner of what is already known and what can come to be known. (KH)

Teachers of 9 and 10 year olds were found to use varied versions of lessons that increase conceptual understanding. Their effectiveness in supporting conceptual understanding was compared experimentally. Findings and implications for science teaching are discussed. (Author/DKM)

Elementary education majors (n=22) in a science methods course at a small liberal arts college in the U.S. Midwest were asked to write a paper about science in their own lives. Based upon their writings, the students were categorized according to the five ways of knowing described by Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule: silence, received,…

This investigation is part of a combined research/curriculum development project in which children's learning is being examined in the context of developing and testing instructional units on 3-D geometry in grades 3, 4, and 5. There are two components to the article. First, the strategies and cognitive constructions that students utilize to…

Studies knowledge of young children's partitioning strategies by setting out not only to identify new partitioning strategies, but also to develop taxonomy for classifying young children's partitioning strategies in terms of their abilities. Provides taxonomy utilizing children's informal partitioning strategies as the foundation upon which to…

Examines the key role that memory plays in the meaning-making process that children enact as they read and view images in a classroom that respects and encourages their own views and reflections. Discusses the six major categories of children's visual responses, and presents representative examples of children's illustrations. (TB)

Recent research suggests that knowledge is stored in the learner's head as a network of concepts or constructs. Children's mathematical problem-solving strategies become increasingly abstract as they are able to engage in more abstract thinking. An experimental study using an alternative Cognitively Guided Instruction approach is described.…

Reported are early results of a research program that aims to improve children's mathematics learning by developing attitudes and strategies that support processes of interpretation and meaning construction in mathematics. Considerable research shows that many children learn mathematics as symbol manipulation rules, without meaning. Collaborative…

Mathematics is generally regarded as a well-structured discipline by educators and cognitive scientists. This leads to the analysis of the suggestion that practitioners begin investigating possibilities for teaching mathematics as if it were an ill-structured discipline, with more than one interpretation for mathematical statements. The paper 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)…