Teaching conceptions in higher education, or so-called academics' conceptions of teaching (ACTs), are essential in informing teaching behaviors and influencing students' learning. Consequently, several attempts have been made since the 1990s to understand what ACTs represent and how they can be developed towards student-centered teaching. However,…

The difference between students' ideas and scientific conceptions, is called misconceptions. Physics learning needs to be designed by teachers to eradicate misconceptions. This paper provides a review of 72 international journal articles on diagnosis methods, causes, and ways of remediating misconceptions that have been published between…

In this article, we present the question of our didactic research on the relative conceptual evolution and transition from high school to university in Morocco. We focused on the difficulties encountered by students in the first year of the Physics Sciences using a questionnaire which aims at evaluating the evolution of the concept of…

Critical thinking pedagogy is misguided. Ostensibly a cure for narrowness of thought, by using the emotions appropriate to conflict, it names only one mode of relation to material among many others. Ostensibly a cure for fallacies, critical thinking tends to dishonesty in practice because it habitually leaps to premature ideas of what the object…

The measurement and representation of the electrical activity of muscles [electromyography (EMG)] have a long history from the Victorian Era until today. Currently, EMG has uses both as a research tool, in noninvasively recording muscle activation, and clinically in the diagnosis and assessment of nerve and muscle disease and injury as well as in…

The authors conducted a qualitative interview-based study to reveal students' misconceptions about state in sequential circuits. This paper documents 16 misconceptions of state, how students' conceptions of state shift and change, and students' methodological weaknesses. These misconceptions can be used to inform and direct instruction. This study…

The present paper raises questions about the use of the concept of reputation in sociological studies of the relationship between higher education and the labour market. Sociologists of education have yet to subject the concept of reputation to sustained critique and evaluation. This situation is unsatisfactory because a number of critical…

Argues that a confusion of craft and technology is responsible for the erosion and splintering of the discipline of educational technology. Describes the positive and negative qualities of craft and technology and gives examples of the consequences of emphasizing one over the other and recommends a greater blending of the two approaches. (PEN)

This paper introduces issues related to the role of intuitive knowledge in physics learning. Phenomenological primitives, which form the base level for intuitive explanations in the research, are discussed. Three primary questions are the focus of this paper: (1) What role, if any, does intuitive knowledge play in physics problem solving? (2) How…

Reviews perspectives on student resources for learning with an emphasis on the practical benefits to be gained for instruction. Explains that physics education research has focused almost exclusively on student difficulties and misconceptions. This work is limited in what it can tell about student knowledge and learning. (Author/MM)

Compares resistance by scientists to new ideas in scientific discovery with students' resistance to conceptual change in scientific learning. Studies the resistance by students to abandoning their misconceptions concerning scientific topics and the resistance by scientists to scientific discovery. (Contains 64 references.) (Author/YDS)

Describes a computer-assisted personalized assignment system used to prepare and present conceptual, qualitative questions to large introductory science classes. Several sample questions are included and discussed. Contains 18 references. (DDR)

Explores faulty models that students have for physiological processes. Undergraduate students (N=393) in three different research universities predicted the changes in heart rate, strength of cardiac contraction, breathing frequency, and depth of breathing under conditions that result in increased cardiac output. Contains 23 references. (DDR)

Reports that many students do not believe Newton's law of action and reaction and suggests ways in which its plausibility might be enhanced. Reviews how this law has been made more plausible over time by Newton and those who succeeded him. Contains 25 references. (DDR)

Addresses the possible connection between misconceptions of energy in biological phenomena and adherence to scientifically oriented conceptions of biology. Makes recommendations for basing the biology curriculum on the second law of thermodynamics. Contains 31 references. (DDR)