Examines the growth in students' understanding about the nature of astronomy in a one-semester college course. Discusses how students respond to instruction with regard to the extent to which they demand and examine evidence used for justifying claims, integrate scientific and religious views, and distinguish between scientific and nonscientific…

Argues for using "conflict maps" as a way of enhancing science teaching and learning. The conflict map emphasizes not only the use of discrepant events, but also the resolution of conflict between students' alternative conceptions and the scientific conception. Discusses the conflict map as an instructional aid for teachers or as a…

Proposes a revised learning cycle model termed the Metacognitive Learning Cycle which emphasizes formal opportunities for teachers and students to talk about their science ideas. Analyses two different pedagogical classroom approaches, the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) approach and the metacognitive approach, and observes changes in…

Discusses English acquisition in children with severe to profound hearing impairments. Components that should be integrated during language acquisition are discussed and include phonology, semantics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics. The mixture of learning conditions that influence the progress of language development in sign, speech, and text…

Addresses the importance of bringing "brain compatible teaching" to the classroom. Suggests a model to develop critical-thinking processes of students to help them deal with a diverse and technologically advanced society. (PA)

Presents a case study, through observation of a child named Hawk Weisman, that demonstrates a child's use of drawing to find meaning. Discusses Hawk's motivations for drawing, the recurring themes that encompass both humanistic and scientific concepts, and his homemade books. Addresses the educational implications. (CMK)

Gives practical examples of multiple intelligences in the English classroom. Discusses Howard Gardner's "radicalism,""teaching" intelligence, teaching literature and multiple intelligences, and how a student developed strength in his own intelligences through poetry. (RS)

Considers the relevance of human-computer interaction (HCI) guidelines for educational interface design, including why educational software is different from other products; differences in goal focus; performance and learning; and experiments that investigated transfer of learning, including implications for the design of educational technologies.…

There is no contradiction between effective standards-based instruction and differentiation. Curriculum tells teachers what to teach; differentiation tells how. Teachers can challenge all learners by providing standards-based materials and tasks calling for varied difficulty levels, scaffolding, instructional styles, and learning times. (MLH)

A survey of 1,427 students (grades 4 through 7), 176 teachers, and 9 administrators in a Connecticut district revealed that children learn about computers from more experienced persons, enjoy independent exploration, and believe computers are for everyone, especially workers. Teacher expertise varies greatly. (MLH)

Describes the development of the Classroom Systems Observation Scale (CSOS), which assesses preschool through sixth grade classroom functioning from a systems perspective using a theoretical framework based on the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. Discusses influences of home environment and parental support on learning; and…

Proposes an alternative account of the child's learning of nouns and adjectives that relies on properties of the semantic categories to be learned and of the word-learning task itself. In five experiments, a simple connectionist network was trained to label input objects in particular contexts; the network learned categories resembling nouns…

As one Illinois district found, using educational technology cannot guarantee that students will learn any better. Educators must first change the classroom/school ambience, work within the new high-tech environment, apply appropriate tools for using technology effectively, and connect student achievement and technology usage. (MLH)

Summarizes content analyses of verbatim transcripts of secondary chemistry lessons. Finds that the use of words with a metacognitive and metalinguistic function was generally limited in extent and simple and colloquial in expression and that the language of the enacted curriculum did not match the terminology of the official curriculum document.…

Examines the relationships and development of communities of concepts related to heat and convection among fifth grade students. Discusses the influence of familial and cultural experiences on conceptual development as well as the extent to which competing phenomena affect the development of new conceptual understandings. (Contains 49 references.)…