There have been many practical obstacles for teachers to implement evidence-based educational technology, especially in STEM classrooms. By implementing learning principles related to Cognitive Load Theory, we developed an innovative Technology-Assisted Guided Learning (TAGL) approach and its web-based instructional tool, combining expertise from…

College freshmen chemistry students who performed best on the course examinations possessed both relevant facts and relevant subsuming concepts. This conclusion supports Ausubel's theory of learning. The presence of facts unorganized by subsumers had little facilitating effect on learning of new materials. (AL)

A technique of multidimensional scaling was applied to student perceptions of similarities in difficulty of twenty mechanics concepts presented in random pairwise combinations. Two distinct dimensions, one relating to motion and the other to the vector nature of some of the concepts, appeared in three separate groups, when either four or five…

Studied the effectiveness of using a Piaget-based structured program to enhance correlative thinking of fifth, seventh, and ninth grade children. Concluded that ninth grade students profited from learning of logical operations although some had difficulty with the equivalence and reciprocal exclusion operations. (CC)

Presents an elaboration of the theory on levels in learning with special emphasis on the relationships between the cognitive and the affective aspects of the learning process. Outlines an illustration of this theory based on empirical results and demonstrates how this theory can be integrated with other learning principles such as constructivism.…

Points out the fact that Piaget's objections to tests as ways of identifying cognitive structures and processes have been largely ignored in most of the replication studies conducted by English and American psychologists. (PEB)

A mathematical model of information acquisition is presented and empirically evaluated in comparison to evidence obtained from experimental studies of science content acquisition. Implications of the model for human information acquisition and future research are discussed in the context of the unique theoretical framework of the model. (Author/JN)

This paper examines how some fundamental mechanisms of nervous system activity can explain human information processing and the acquisition of knowledge and provides additional theoretical support for constructivist applications to science education reform. The implications for scientific epistemology and conceptual change processes in science…

A model of memory developed by information processing psychologists is described, illustrating how such a model could be used to guide science education research on learning and problem solving. (Author/SK)

Presents a progress report on some methodological advances made on certain facets of the problem of the learning of a structure of a subject matter. (PEB)

Studied the effectiveness of using a structured set of exercises to help sixth and eighth grade students in learning compensatory tasks. Concluded that students in the formal operations stage could benefit from training on logical operations. (CC)

Comments on the study reported by Lawson, Karplus, and Adi (1978) which indicated that formal schemata and propositional logic are not part of the same structured unity of mental operations proposed by Piaget. (HM)

Presented is a paradigm for science education research. The paradigm advances the reception learning theory, where regularities to be learned are presented explicitly to the learner. A tool for the study of knowledge production in science education, the Gowin "V," is presented. (RE)

Tests the hypothesis that two general developmentally-based levels of hypothesis-testing skills exist. Finds a positive relationship between level of hypothesis-testing skill and performance on a transfer problem involving the test of a hypothesis based on unobservable entities. Also finds a positive relationship between level of…

Studied the effects of aptitude variables on learning from programed science material preceded by three differently structured advance organizers. Concluded that the structural properties could benefit low ability fourth-grade students in developing an adequate conceptual scheme for organizing material. (CC)