Both students and teachers have misconceptions about Force and Motion, often caused by teachers not being well-prepared to teach the accepted scientific theory. Besides, teachers rarely or never use a cognitive conflict strategy in their teaching. The present study is aimed at investigating the use of a discrepant event to facilitate preservice…

Mastering the ability for learning to learn is the most ambitious goal of modern educators. A distinction is made between two relatively independent components of this expertise: (a) the reflective component of the learning to learn ability that allows a person comprehend what knowledge and skills he or she lacks to act in the new situation; (b)…

The process of developing concepts of time continues from age 5 to 11 years (Zakay, 1998). This study sought the representation mode in which children could best express time concepts, especially the proper arrangement of events in a logical and temporal order. Usually, temporal order is examined and taught by 2D (2-dimensional) pictorial scripts.…

Children learn better when their own curiosity is given free rein. (CK)

High among the many purposes of education is the conjecture that higher-levels of cognitive activity are important to learning and intellectual development. One of the most exciting educational implications is the leverage that one may expect by enhancing learning at the cognitive and metacognitive levels. Despite the relatively rich history in…

The authors suggest that simply by changing the method of questioning, a teacher can change not only the intellectual demands in the classroom, but also the range of thinking strategies that provide for understanding and competence. (KC)

Learning how to teach depends on the dynamic inter-relationships among many parts and people; however, research on learning how to teach has typically focused on confined aspects of teacher education (e.g., a specific methods course) over short periods of time (such as one semester). In response, Wideen, Mayer-Smith, and Moon (1998), in their…

The objective of this study was to investigate how two application lessons at the end of an earth science curriculum contributed to two different types of classroom: generative and authoritative. This study used Vygotsky's views to interpret earth science learning in the elementary classroom. The research questions were: How do fifth grade…

Investigates procedural and conceptual aspects in preservice elementary school teachers' understanding of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. Participants' responses indicated that a possibility of alternative prime decompositions was often not overruled, and this influenced students' ability to make inferences regarding factors and divisors of…

A schema is best understood as a statistically defined concept. Schematic concept formation consists of abstracting the common elements or properties of a defined class in a schema. Thereafter, both discrimination and retention are facilitated, since only deviations from the schema need be processed for any particular class exemplar. In the…

Three experiments were conducted to determine the effectiveness of verbal and imaginal rehearsal strategies in children's discrimination learning. With verbal materials, imaging the referent of the correct item was more facilitative than vocalizing the correct item, as long as the former strategy was defined in a manner conducive to effective…

Fourteen third graders were given numerical computation and division-with-remainder (DWR) problems both before and after they were taught the division algorithm in classrooms. Their solutions were examined. The results show that students' initial acquisition of the division algorithm did improve their performance in numerical division computations…

This paper describes the rule-assessment approach to cognitive development. The basic question that motivated the rule-assessment approach is how people's existing knowledge influences their ability to learn. Research using the rule-assessment approach is summarized in terms of eight conclusions, each illustrated with empirical examples.…

A discussion of the computer "glass box", which is a bold new approach to teaching children concepts using A Programing Language. (Author)

The first part of this research study examines how elementary students discover and understand certain relationships in nature. The second part investigates how pupils operate with overlapping concepts. (Author/RM)