The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) what effect the use of interactive computer-based simulations (ICBSs), the use of laboratory inquiry-based experiments (LIBEs), and the use of combinations of an ICBS and a LIBE, in a conceptually oriented physics course, have on science teachers' beliefs about and attitudes toward the use of these…

College physics students' understanding of the process of science, as measured by the Science Process Inventory, was better for students in a traditional, structured laboratory than in an inquiry laboratory that covered the same experiments. (MLH)

Describes how student responses to 26 bipolar adjectives describing laboratory studies are used at a New Zealand university to modify the content of laboratory experiments in physics. (MLH)

Analyzed are university instructor behaviors in introductory and advanced level laboratories of botany, chemistry, geology, physics and zoology. Science Laboratory Interaction Categories--Teacher (SLIC) was used to assess 15 individual categories of teacher behaviors in the areas of questioning, giving directions, transmitting information,…

Analyses the ways in which university-entrant science students carry out and communicate experimental activities, and identifies a model to explain characteristic communication practices. Observes the investigative strategies of participant students who have a lack of experience with laboratory work and scientific writing. Uses laboratory reports…

The study investigated specific student behavior in introductory and advanced college laboratories in botany, chemistry, geology, physics, and zoology. Behaviors were observed, described, and classified with no effort made to induce change, detail underlying conditions, or identify correlates. (Author/RE)

Reports a study (n=27) concerning the knowledge about image formation exhibited by students following instruction in geometrical optics in an activity-based college physics course for prospective elementary teachers. Student diagrams and verbal comments indicate their knowledge can be described as an intermediate state: a hybridization of…

Homework gives students an opportunity to practice important college-level physics skills. A switch to Web-based homework alters the nature of feedback received, potentially changing the pedagogical benefit. Calculus- and algebra-based introductory physics students enrolled in large paired lecture sections at a public university completed homework…