Teachers' professional knowledge is assumed to be a key variable for effective teaching. As teacher education has the goal to enhance professional knowledge of current and future teachers, this knowledge should be described and assessed. Nevertheless, only a limited number of studies quantitatively measures physics teachers' professional…

What makes a discourse coherent? One potential factor has been discussed in the linguistic literature in terms of a Question under Discussion (QUD). This approach claims that discourse proceeds by continually raising explicit or implicit questions, viewed as sets of alternatives, or competing descriptions of the world. If the interlocutor accepts…

The effect of knowledge on memory generally is processing. However, both conceptual and empirical reasons exist to suspect that the organizational account is incomplete. Recently a revised version of that account has been proposed under the rubric of distinctiveness theory (Rawson & Van Overschelde, 2008). The goal of the experiments reported…

The use of summative testing to evaluate students' acquisition, retention, and transfer of instructed material is a fundamental aspect of educational practice and theory. However, a substantial basic literature has established that testing is not a neutral event--testing can also enhance and modify memory (Carpenter & DeLosh, 2006; Hogan &…

A course design for first-year science students is described, where the focus is on the skills necessary to do science. The course uses original research projects, designed by the students, to teach a variety of skills including reading the scientific literature, hypothesis development and testing, experimental design, data analysis and…

It is claimed by the company NitroFill and the GetNitrogen Institute that filling car tires with nitrogen improves gas mileage considerably. The reason given is that oxygen leaks out of tires so that the increased rolling friction causes a reduced gas mileage. Because it is hard to do an actual road test, we report on a simple visual test of…

Two experiments with the inductive generalization procedure tested whether 16- and 20-month-old infants understand that animals and not vehicles follow a rational path to reach a goal. Infants were tested with four different events and the model exemplar was either an animal or ambiguous block. Results showed that infants at 20 months of age, but…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the new Zambian high school physics syllabus and practical examinations for levels of inquiry and inquiry skills. Several inquiry skills are explicitly emphasized in the introduction, aims, content objectives and assessment sections in the national high school physics syllabus. However, the syllabus is less…

College-level chemistry questions and satisfactory answers are provided. (CP)

Establishes the extent to which practical work in South African high schools varies with respect to factors such as gender of student, type of school, medium of instruction, and examination board. Investigates the relationship between experience of experimental work and pupil attainment as measured by matriculation grade. (Author/GA)

This book consists of four sections: (1) "Supplemental Materials"; (2) "Supplemental Investigations"; (3) "Test Item Bank"; and (4) "Blackline Masters." The first section provides additional background material related to selected chapters and investigations in the student book. Included are a periodic table…