Through a series of four papers, this dissertation investigates developmental mathematics students' experiences with relearning, or the experience of learning about content one has already tried to learn in a previous mathematics course. Developmental math courses typically focus on K-12 algebra, and are required for graduation but notorious for…

Recent reforms in science education emphasize having students develop and refine core disciplinary ideas through participation in science knowledge--building practices. Supporting students' meaningful participation in these practices is challenging, in part because our understanding of how this kind of participation develops is underexplored. This…

The purpose of this phenomenographic study is to examine students' knowledge progression in a three-year Bachelor program in Business Administration. Theoretical sampling was used to select nine students from a group of 200 university students admitted to the program. The students were interviewed on three occasions: Year 1, after their Management…

Scientific learning in schools requires not only students' ability to understand concept, but also critical thinking abilities of the students. However, the current scientific learning process is still focused on only cognitive aspects. Therefore, a teaching model or strategy that is able to support students to understand concept as well as…

Longitudinal studies can provide significant insights into how students develop competence in a topic or subject area over time. However, there are many barriers, such as retention of students in the study and the complexity of data analysis, that make these studies rare. Here, we present how a statistical framework, discrete-time survival…

Recent accounts by cognitive scientists of factors affecting cognition imply the need to reconsider current dominant conceptual theories about science learning. These new accounts emphasize the role of context, embodied practices, and narrative-based representation rather than learners' cognitive constructs. In this paper we analyse data from a…

This longitudinal study investigated the progression in junior high school (JHS) students' conceptions of the structure of matter while studying a new instructional approach dealing with "Materials." In particular, we studied the progression of students' learning along two dimensions: (a) the conceptual model; and (b) the context of application.…

In order to develop successful teaching approaches to transformations of matter, we need to know more about how young students develop an understanding of these processes. In this longitudinal study, we followed 25 students from 7 to 13 years of age in their reasoning about transformations of matter. The questions addressed included how the…

An understanding of student learning and of the reasons for differential student performance is crucial to improving teaching and learning practices in tertiary education. This article aims to contribute to that understanding by reporting on an empirical study which examined two sets of student texts on the topic "What is law?", written…

Young children were studied in tasks that required them to select one object as "different" from another. Children systematically selected maximally similar objects until about 3 years of age, and thereafter performed correctly. Additional data derived from the children's verbal justifications and refusals to select suggested a 4-stage model in…

A group of 161 kindergarten and first grade children were instructed in mathematics using exercises in linear measurement to increase understanding of unit-quantity relations. A comparison group made up from two adjacent and comparable middle-class schools was taught mathematics without intervention into the mathematics content. Treatment and…

A longitudinal case study focused on the process of conceptual change in science of a young girl. The subject, the researcher's granddaughter, was 6 years and 6 months old and in first grade when the first of 19 hour-long sessions began. Sessions were spread over a two-year period. A concurrent case study was being conducted with the researcher's…

Explores changes in students' (n=250) thinking about basic chemical ideas during a context-based curricular approach. Suggests that 16- to 18-year-old students enter chemistry courses with a wide range of misunderstandings about chemical reactions, but understanding improves steadily as the course progresses. Concludes that even misunderstandings…

This study tested certain implied predictions regarding conceptual learning at each of four sequential levels of development: concrete level, identity level, classificatory level, and formal level. For this purpose, scaled batteries to assess the level of conceptual development of children, kindergarten through high school, were constructed and a…

TWO STUDIES DEAL WITH THE THOUGHT PROCESSES CHILDREN DISPLAY WHEN FACED WITH PROBLEMS INVOLVING THE CONCEPTS OF QUANTITY AND NUMBER. INVOLVING CHILDREN IN KINDERGARTEN, FIRST GRADE AND SECOND GRADE, THE STUDIES USE PIAGET'S THEORIES IN BOTH A CROSS-SECTIONAL AND A LONGITUDINAL APPROACH TO STUDY CHILDREN'S THINKING IN AN EDUCATIONAL SETTING. TO…