Attributes learning difficulties in introductory chemistry to the thesis that many students have not reached the formal operations level of intellectual development. Cites instances to support this thesis, outlines an instructional procedure to overcome the difficulty, and presents a list of competencies that can be expected of these students. (GS)

This commentary refers to a recent paper (1975) by Sayer and Ball in this journal concerning the relationships between formal operational thought and science achievement, and requests additional information on the representativeness of the sample and the performance of boys and girls on the Piagetian tasks. The requested information is provided.…

Criticizes the Ring and Novak article in terms of factor identification, conclusion validity, and random nature of fact retention. Indicates that their reported evidence is insufficient to support the conclusions. (CC)

Reviews Piagetian concepts, the identification of student cognitive level of development, and chemistry instruction. (SL)

Following guidelines established in previous summaries of research, this review for the year 1974 portrays "the state of knowledge in science education, describes any existing trends, identifies areas which need to be researched, and provides tentative answers to persistent problems, if any seem to emerge from the research." Accordingly, research…

Discusses and refutes Novak's arguments against Piaget's theory of intellectual development in favor of Ausubel's theory of meaningful verbal learning. (GA)

This paper summarizes what the author considers to be the best advice available at this time for applying Piaget's theory in the chemistry classroom to understand the difficulties that some students have. The identification of students who are operating at the concrete operational or formal operational level is discussed along with the actual…

Suggests a model of human cognition by describing similarities between human and electronic computers. This model might guide the development of software so that it is sufficiently powerful and flexible to be of value to human computers as they construct new knowledge in chemistry. (JN)

Briefly compares/contrasts two learning theories. Purpose of the first is to inform while the second seeks to lead students to adjust understandings held about a field and/or a concept. Each theory is then related to the purpose of education, suggesting that the second is comparable with recent work in cognitive psychology. (JN)

Investigates the attainment of abstract and concrete concepts and the use of pseudoexamples to move concrete thinkers to abstract levels in secondary school chemistry classes. Findings reveal abstract students achieve significantly higher means on both concrete and abstract concept attainment and that pseudo examples have no effect on the ability…

Presents examples of chemical education research that illustrate changes in focus, method, and direction over the past 50 years. Contains more than 50 references. (WRM)