Analyzes National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) items to assess student understanding of spread as well as center, such as mean and median. Discusses implications for teaching statistics in 5th and 6th grade mathematics. (KHR)

Presents some ideas about concept learning and teaching strategies through which the learner can be guided. Characteristics of curriculum materials that promote concept development are discussed. (Author/MLF)

Explores elementary children's ideas about insects using 20 K-5 students. Investigates what an insect means to children through the use of three different tasks: (1) draw and explain; (2) interview about instances; and (3) formulation of a general rule. (Contains 31 references.) (Author/YDS)

The concepts of friendship, rules, property, obedience to authority, truth, promises, and sharing are appropriate for inclusion in values education materials for elementary students. Interviewers questioned 180 children in grades K-5 about their level of understanding of each concept and their perceptions of each concept's importance to their…

Examines the levels of geometric reasoning commonly exhibited by primary school students, namely visualization, analysis, and informal deduction. Describes open-ended tasks that can be conducted in small groups or in a whole group setting. (KHR)

Summarizes recent ERIC documents in early childhood education and related areas. Topics include the integrated character education model, conflicts and prospects of character education in multicultural education, and the role of the schools in character education. (ET)

The familial understanding and locale relationship understanding of young children was investigated. Findings support the theory that social studies and other learning need to be more concrete for young children. (AM)

Describes a study which concluded that, to restructure the mathematics curriculum, modification of existing teaching practices is required. Recommends that practices be modified to enable students to construct effective knowledge bases and become active learners. Contains 38 references. (DDR)

Tracks five-year-old children's ideas by a range of means during and subsequent to a classroom sequence on evaporation. Explores the relationship between social and individual perspectives on learning, and questions some assumptions underlying conceptual change research. Analyzes the children's explanations of various evaporation phenomena over…

The program of map and globe study skills for elementary social studies contains two parts: primary level for grades 1-2 and intermediate level for grades 3-6. Concepts of the units include maps as geographical representations; maps as symbols; directions; astronomical maps; city and world maps; and scales and measurement, among others. Each…

Suggests that children will be motivated to learn if they are taught by educational games. Games emphasize the importance of the learning process, minimize the humiliation of failure, and capture children's interests. (Author/DB)

Suggests eight criteria for developing instructional materials and approaches to political education in elementary schools. These criteria include enabling children to see political influences in their daily lives, reflecting the diversity which is characteristic of American society, and reflecting the fact that children are becoming citizens of a…

Investigated level of concept attainment of selected energy concepts for possible inclusion in the Nigerian Primary Science Project. Subjects (N=450) were taught energy concepts at descriptive, comparative, and quantitative levels. Suggests the need to describe these levels for particular grades and match curriculum with students' thinking…

This study investigates the development of 5th grade children's understanding of quotient and the classroom norms and practices that constrain or enable that understanding. It reports not only how the children's understandings develop, but also why and under what conditions they develop. The results of this study indicate that children progressed…