The hypothesized relationship between an individual's age, educational background, and ability to understand aspects of semantic ambiguity was investigated in this study. The 90 subjects included ten students in each of grades two, four, six, eight, and ten, as well as ten college undergraduates, ten graduate students, ten high school graduates,…

A control group of 31 received traditional microeconomics instruction; 20 experimentals viewed the Economics U$A telecourse with lecture, discussion, and textbook. Pre/posttest data demonstrated no significant differences in comprehension of content or in cognitive level, although the video group did do better in the area of implicit application.…

Approximately 500 nonscience major university chemistry students were surveyed to record their interpretations of specific chemical symbolism before presenting modern concepts of atomic and molecular structure, in an attempt to understand the thought processes entering students use as they interpret symbolism. Results are reported and discussed.…

The processes of photosynthesis and respiration are basic to the understanding of many other aspects and functions of biological systems. Because of their curricular significance, these processes served as the focal point in an investigation of student conceptions and instructional effectiveness. In this study, students in a college nonscience…

This paper reports on research designed to examine relationships among analogical reasoning, Piagetian level, and physics achievement. A sample of 37 college students enrolled in a physics course participated in a three-day study and were given tasks designed to measure analogical reasoning ability and Piagetian level. Course achievement was…

A study was undertaken to measure the effect on reading comprehension of forcing attention to different levels of analysis. The assumption was that since texts can be analyzed at a variety of levels, comprehension requires a basic strategic coordination of processing activities. Forty second grade, fifth grade, and college students read and…

Examined six- and eight-year-old children's use of contextual expectations to detect inconsistencies in story information and their ability to discriminate between information that resolved or was irrelevant to these inconsistencies. Results showed that six-year-olds frequently detected inconsistent events but that they failed to discriminate…

An experiment was conducted to determine whether tutoring is a learning activity from which the tutor, as well as the tutee, gains cognitively. Undergraduate students (N=80) participated in the study. Half of the subjects studied selected material to tutor another subject. The other half studied material to prepare for a test that they would take.…

This study, conducted over a period of three weeks at the University of Kansas, attempted to determine whether knowledge of musical structure would effect greater understanding and, eventually, enjoyment of music. Experimental and control groups comprising freshmen who were not enrolled in a music course listened repeatedly to excerpts of…

Describes the development of an instrument which is: (1) is capable of administration to students in grades 6-14; (2) requires the examinee to construct a conceptual answer from information provided; (3) requires the examinee to use the seven major logical operations (classification, seriation, logical multiplication, compensation, ratio,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between student conceptual level and attitudes toward four methods course components: theory, content, method, and experience working with children. Research findings have indicated that a match between student conceptual level and course instructional mode result in significant…

Physics learning involves a change in the habitual perception of the everyday world. In order to describe the real world scientifically, an individual must develop perception and cognition capable of reconstructing the world from raw sensory data and incorporating acquired knowledge of the scientific community. The introductory physics student…

These papers provide summaries of the most important discussions, conclusions, and issues from papers presented at a conference on reflective inquiry in teacher education. The following areas are covered: (1) new images for reflecting about teacher education; (2) reflecting on reflection in teacher education; (3) research on reflection in teacher…

An extensive bibliography on teaching thinking skills is presented. This bibliography incorporates from an earlier one (1989) the available relevant references in the field of cognitive education as well as new references that have appeared since early 1989. This field of cognitive education is expanding at such a rapid rate that no bibliography…

Interactions between metaphor comprehension and level of operational thought were examined to determine what advantages individuals at the formal operational level had in natural language tasks such as the understanding of figurative language. After 30 undergraduate students were classified as either late concrete, early formal, or late formal…