A prescriptive model of problem-solving performance is described. The aim of the model is to specify explicitly how problems should be described initially in such a form as to facilitate their subsequent solution. According to the model, the process of initial problem description can be decomposed into two successive stages. The first uses general…

Outlines some recent developments in test-item analysis which are based upon a model of educational measurement developed by the Danish mathematician Georg Rasch. Illustrations of how science teachers in the United Kingdom can use the Rasch model are also included. (HM)

Much has been written about the value of metacognition. However, little research has identified subsumed intellectual factors, logical operators, and cognitive functions; or has established clear relationships between metacognition and science cognition. This paper presents a study to build a strategic metacognitive model of an efficient,…

How science understandings are communicated and how students construct meaning of these communications are central issues in epistemic research. Students' metacognition of the meaning-making process is embedded in this line of research. This paper reports a study to examine children's declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge of science…