Students need a strong understanding of how to represent chemical compounds in order to succeed in organic chemistry. This project set out to gain a better understanding of students' difficulties with symbolic representations, by identifying the specific errors associated with drawing wedge-dash structures. The focus was on how students…

In this study, we test an information-processing model (IPM) of problem solving in science education, namely the working memory overload model, by applying catastrophe theory. Changes in students' achievement were modeled as discontinuities within a cusp catastrophe model, where working memory capacity was implemented as asymmetry and the degree…

Interactive simulations are entering mainstream science education. Their effects on cognition and learning are often framed by the legacy of information processing, which emphasized amodal problem solving and conceptual organization. In contrast, this paper reviews simulations from the vantage of research on perception and spatial learning,…

In this paper we explore students' engagement in a new media enhanced problem-based learning (PBL) environment and investigate the characteristics of these environments that facilitate learning. We investigated both student experiences using a new media enhanced PBL environment and the specific elements students found most supportive of their…

Around 1960, there were quite radical changes in emphasis in many countries in school chemistry education, with subsequent changes in many university courses. Considerable research was undertaken to explore the learning problems students were reporting and the common thread underlying became apparent: it related to the way humans process new…

An electronic portfolio system, designed to serve as a resource-based learning space, was tested in a fifth-grade science class. The control-group students accessed a traditional folder-based information display in the system and the experimental-group students accessed a concept map-based information display to review a science portfolio. The…

The chemists' information needs are for current awareness, selective dissemination, and retrospective search services, of research, development, engineering, production, and marketing information located internally or externally, and contained in journals, patents, theses, reports, data files, information services, and from people. This paper is…

Noting that understanding how science students respond to anomalous data is essential to understanding knowledge acquisition in science classrooms, this paper presents a detailed analysis of the ways in which scientists and science students respond to anomalous data. The paper postulates seven distinct forms of response to anomalous data: ignoring…

Reviews a study which examined the effects of types of feedback and diagnostic testing on learning from text aided by a diagnostic/prescriptive instructional strategy. Significant differences in instructional time and learning efficiency were observed from participating undergraduates (n=150) which were not linearly related to feedback complexity.…

Reported is a study of two instructional strategies: (1) the placement of key questions in text materials, and (2) the use of prescriptive feedback to direct students who missed text questions to appropriate remedial work. Learning that resulted from these two techniques was examined relative to achievement, time-on-task, and efficiency.…

Investigates the role of visuals in the instructional and evaluation phases of a high school biology unit on the human heart. Results indicate that the instructional strategy of implementing visualization in both the presentation and evaluation phases is a viable instructional variable. Forty-four references are listed. (Author/MER)

Presented is an analysis of a concept teaching technique that was developed according to a theoretical perspective which emphasizes the importance of a student's existing knowledge in influencing that person's subsequent learning. Significant differences between an experimental group which was exposed to this instructional strategy, and the…

Examines the relationship of the amount of available short-term memory with the complexity of tasks the subjects mastered. Presents some hints for a better design of instruction. (YP)

Described is how teachers can use the Concept Structuring Analysis Technique (ConSAT) as a diagnostic, learning, and assessment task in teaching science. In essence, ConSAT assists students in organizing concepts on paper so that they may link what they already know to what they have to learn. The technique thus applies the philosophical notion of…

Experienced Physicists solve simple textbook problems differently from beginning students. This paper describes these differences using a computer-implemented model that "learns." The research is set in the the context of modern computer-processing psychology, and is related to other work relevant to help people know and learn…