Found grades in science achieved by tenth-grade general science students correlated with their scores on Propositional Logic Test. The students' ability level was consistently related to the pattern of errors they committed on that measure. Mean scores were lowest on a subtest of ability to use the bicondition and implication, higher on the…

Examines students' (25 low achieving fourth graders) understanding of conceptual features of decimals. Assessment results indicated that students' thinking was influenced by the types of concrete materials used to represent decimals; that low achievers' understanding of some important properties of decimals increased; and that understanding grew…

A primary objective for science education is to impart robust knowledge that has applicability to real-world problems. This article presents research investigating the relationship between adolescents' conceptual understanding of the biological basis of HIV and critical reasoning. Middle and high school students were interviewed about their…

Problem-based learning (PBL), widely employed in medical schools, has much to offer management education as well. This article presents a comparative analysis of PBL's likely benefits for medical and management education. Its considerable value notwithstanding, researchers have argued that PBL does not develop medical students' problem-solving…

The author offers an analysis of the failures and insights she experienced working with adolescents at a progressive school while discussing how the students understood and experienced race and identity -- their own and that of others. While she encountered students who were willing to take her into their worlds, her efforts fell flat when her…

Two studies on students' conceptions/notions about the energy concept are presented. The first (study A) dealt with learning the energy concept during a grades 7/8 instructional unit ("energy, work, force, and power"). The second (study B), using students in West Germany, Switzerland, and the Philippines as subjects, examined outcomes of…

Each of the three parts of this report provides a somewhat different perspective on U.S. students' knowledge and understanding of U.S. history. Part 1 summarizes the assessment performance of approximatley 16,0000 fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress U.S. history proficiency scale.…

Thirty hearing-impaired children at a residential school for the deaf, a day school for the deaf, and a day program for the deaf in a regular public elementary school were shown picture books, asked to tell the story, and asked to respond to specific questions. Results showed that the ability to process questions was related to the structure of…

A teacher at the Von Humboldt Child Parent Center, a unit of the Chicago, Illinois, public schools located in the largely Hispanic Humboldt Park area, implemented a practicum designed to improve disadvantaged Black and Hispanic preschool children's language and auditory skills in a nonbilingual learning environment. To carry out the project, 10…

At irregular intervals, beginning in 1977, Swedish-Finnish conferences on contrastive and applied linguistics have been arranged in Stockholm and Turko/Abo. This volume presents most of the papers given at the 1982 conference. Papers include: "Free Recall of Mixed Language Lists. Error Patterns in Bilingual Memory" (Karin Aronsson, Anja Metsola,…

This descriptive study compared language used by teachers and children in Ausubelian and Piagetian preschool programs during small group instruction and related learning activities. Instruction in the Ausubelian program (AP) was based on Ausubel's subsumption theory of learning while that in the Piagetian program (PP) was based on Piaget's theory…

Two previous papers of the Learning in Science Project recorded the thinking of the project team at the outset of the exploratory and in-depth phases of the project. This paper briefly reconsiders the work done in the in-depth phase and then discusses some central issues and tentative ideas as the project moves into the third and final…

The purpose of this cross-national descriptive study is to measure the extent of children's sexual knowledge and sexual understanding at various ages and to identify what processes of thought children use in trying to explain biological functions and the phenomena of their own bodies as they grow and change. Sexual thinking is defined as thinking…

This study identified and conceptualized evidence of ideas about the nature of science to which elementary school students are exposed and the manner in which teachers provided these ideas. This was accomplished by developing a scheme for observing/analyzing classroom interaction (classroom dialogue and science activity). The scheme is…

The seven working papers in this collection set out the underlying philosophy and research methods of the Learning in Science Project. The project was established in 1979 to identify, describe, and investigate problems and difficulties in the teaching and learning of forms 1-4 science, and to explore possible solutions. The papers describe the…