This article by David Aldridge concerns the promise of knowledge "insertion." The promise can be elucidated as follows: knowledge could be inserted by a less time-consuming (and possibly in many senses less expensive) technological process than traditional learning, whereby, for example, some relatively swift procedure of implanting or…

This study introduces a learning environment integrating annotations with a dual-slide PowerPoint presentation for classroom learning. Annotation means a kind of additional information to emphasize the explanations for the learning objects. The use of annotations is to support the cognitive process for PowerPoint presentation in a classroom. The…

An educational assessment embodies an argument from a handful of observations of what students say, do or make in a handful of particular circumstances, to what they know or can do in what kinds of situations more broadly. This article discusses ways in which research into the nature and development of expertise can help assessment designers…

Change and complexity are creating a need for increasing levels of literacy in science and technology. Presently, we are beginning to provide students with clear contexts in which to learn, including clearly written text, visual displays and maps, and more effective instruction. We are also beginning to give students tools that promote their own…

This paper reports on a case-study design experiment in the domain of fraction as number-measure. We designed and implemented a set of exploratory tasks concerning comparison and ordering of fractions as well as operations with fractions. Two groups of 12-year-old students worked collaboratively using paper and pencil as well as a specially…

Recommends the use of an instructional strategy that is ideal for examining students' conceptions of the nature of science. Defines cooperative controversy as a situation in which one person's ideas, information, conclusions, theories, or opinions are incompatible with those of another. (DDR)

Argues for the use of the archaeological metaphor as an apt one when examining the historical layers and foundational bases underlying much of the current thought and practice in science education. Suggests some sort of correspondence between archaeological and science education processes. (DDR)

Focuses on the general history, educational developments after 1923 and after 1960, primary science education developments, and a summary of the developments and changes in science education in Turkey. (DDR)

Suggests that knowledge organization must encompass theories that focus on the more fundamental and less technical view and raises the questions of epistemology and general linguistic theory. Focuses on the meaning aspect of language and the terminological aspect of knowledge organization. Considers theories of terminology, language and meaning,…

Discusses a model that describes how knowledge is obtained in environmental microbiology. Suggests that constraints on knowledge will yield to relationships between methodological innovations and their iterative application. Contains 132 references. (DDR)

This comment attempts to identify different "semiotic perspectives" proposed by the authors of this special issue according to the problems they discuss. These problems can be distinguished as problems concerning the representation of mathematical knowledge, the definition and objectivity of meaning, epistemological questions of learning and…

A discussion of the papers, "Representation, Vision and Visualization: Cognitive Functions in Mathematical Thinking. Basic Issues for Learning" (Raymond Duval) and "On the Development of Human Representational Competence from an Evolutionary Point of View: From Episodic to Virtual Culture" (James J. Kaput), is presented. Kaput…

Examines the purpose of scientific teaching, proposes a model for an interdisciplinary approach that can be applied in teaching and in real life, and provides guidelines that can be used in teaching as well as in concrete situations. Contains 46 references. (DDR)

The theoretical perspective outlined here offers an alternative to explanations of knowledge transfer that posit its source in the construction and application of abstract, context-independent knowledge structures. A case study analysis of an undergraduate student's attempt to solve a series of problems related to an elementary statistical…

Shares perspectives on the history and current status of ethnomathematics. Speculates as to whether this field is revisionist and discusses the features of ethnomathematics that distinguish it from mathematics. (DDR)