Students bring prior knowledge to their learning experiences. This prior knowledge is known to affect how students encode and later retrieve new information learned. Teachers and content developers can use information about students' prior knowledge to create more effective lessons and materials. In many content areas, particularly the sciences,…

Conceptual change as the foundation of meaningful learning is discussed and applied to the change in the context of cultural issues among high school students. Cultural issues are envisioned as the repertory of internal cognitive structure of individuals that shapes the foundations of their attitudinal and behavioural functioning. Each one of the…

Describes a study that investigated probabilistic intuitions held by students (N=98) from grade 7 through college through the use of a questionnaire. Of the misconceptions that were investigated, availability was the only one that was stable across age groups. Contains 20 references. (DDR)

Uses interviews and a written questionnaire to probe students' ideas on the origin of earth and life on earth. A significant number of commonly held misconceptions were prevalent in the sample (N=493). Provides guidelines to assist learners in challenging existing views. Contains 64 references. (DDR)

Explores both the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of pupils' ideas related to conservation during state changes of water. Analysis of questionnaire data indicates that qualitative understanding precedes quantitative. Contains 18 references. (DDR)