The purpose of this research was to study primary science students' conceptual development as it related to their understanding of materials and their properties: in particular, to determine how and why some students changed their concepts while others did not. The participants were thirty-two Grade 5 (10-11 year old) students. An instructional…

Science educators have long been concerned with how formal schooling contributes to learners' capacities to engage with science after school. This article frames productive engagement as fundamentally about the coordination of claims with evidence, but such coordination requires a number of reasoning capabilities to evaluate the strength of…

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…

Tested was the hypothesis that science instruction based on task analysis will lead to the acquisition of the ability to perform certain Piaget volume tasks which have been characterized as requiring formal operations for their solutions. A Test on Formal Operations and a Learning Hierarchies Test were given to fourth- and sixth-grade students in…

The purpose of this article is to outline some of the characteristics of children's notions of physical causality and to relate this to how one might expect the typical five-year-old, eight-year-old, and twelve-year-old to approach a problem in science. (Author)

REPORTED IS THE DETERMINATION OF THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF TWO METHODS OF INSTRUCTION IN TEACHING CLASSIFICATIONAL CONCEPTS OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHANGE TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN. THROUGH TEACHER-DIRECTED DEMONSTRATION-DISCUSSION, STUDENTS IN GRADES 2-6 WERE INSTRUCTED IN THE CONCEPTS OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHANGE WITH THE…

THE EFFECT OF PLANNED GUIDANCE ON THE PROBLEM-SOLVING BEHAVIOR OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WAS INVESTIGATED. FACTORS RELATED TO CHANGES IN PROBLEM-SOLVING BEHAVIORS WERE IDENTIFIED. APPROXIMATELY 50 PERCENT OF THE SIXTH-GRADE STUDENTS INCLUDED IN THE STUDY WERE GIVEN INQUIRY TRAINING 30 TO 60 MINUTES DAILY FOR 3 WEEKS. AN INVENTORY OF SCIENCE PROCESSES…

THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY WAS TO EXPLORE THE PIAGET CONCEPT OF CONSERVATION WITH REGARD TO THE CHILD'S CONCEPT OF THE PROPERTY OF LIQUIDS. AN INVESTIGATOR-CONSTRUCTED CONSERVATION INVENTORY WAS GIVEN TO 45 KINDERGARTEN AND FIRST GRADE PUPILS SELECTED FROM THE PRAIRIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, URBANA, ILLINOIS, TO PROVIDE AN INDEX OF THE CHILD'S…

THE STUDY ASCERTAINED WHETHER VARIOUS TRAINING PROCEDURES CAN INFLUENCE THE ACQUISITION OF THE "PIAGETIAN" CONCEPT OF CONSERVATION OF SUBSTANCE. EQUAL NUMBERS OF MALE AND FEMALE, CAUCASIAN, KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN WERE RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO FOUR EXPERIMENTAL AND TWO CONTROL GROUPS. THE TRAINING CONDITIONS WERE COGNITIVE CONFLICT, LANGUAGE…

Examines the misconceptions of children as indicative of imaginative and perceptive thinking. Anecdotes that illustrate the split between realist and relationalist thinking, and the confusion between fact and metaphor are presented as citations from literary works. (BC)

Speed and acceleration tasks were administered to children in grades three through six. Piaget's results were replicated. Suggestions concerning the appropriate grade level to introduce different types of motion tasks are made. (AL)

This study examines the effectiveness exercises based on the cognitive conflict, existing within the child, between two representational systems related to temperature: the qualitative-verbal one and the quantitative-numerical one as these relate to the advancement of children's understanding of the concept of temperature. (Author/DS)

Students using the Science Curriculum Improvement Study curriculum were informally observed to be incapable of defining a system although they could perform related tasks. A study was performed to determine students' understanding of various aspects of systems. (SD)

Examines the relationships between mental maturity and achievement in three types of science concepts-classificational, correlational, and theoretical. (AL)

Describes a study, involving 120 first grade children, which supports the hypothesis that the rate of attainment of conservation skills is significantly enhanced by experiences made possible by the first grade program of SCIS. Describes the six conservation tasks used for pre-tests and post-tests: number, liquid amount, solid amount, length,…