Determining the level of difficulty and student development is important in the learning continuum, especially the anatomical and physiological aspects. This study aimed to collect teachers' opinions about the learning continuum of anatomical and physiological aspects based on its difficulty level. This survey research was conducted in the cities…

Purpose: This study explored the relationship of robotics activity with the development of conceptual understanding skills among secondary school students. Method: Forty-four sixteen-year-old Form 4 (Year 10) students in a fully government-aided school who have access to functioning LEGO-Mindstorms sets during physics lessons participated in the…

Science educators have long been concerned with how formal schooling contributes to learners' capacities to engage with science after school. This article frames productive engagement as fundamentally about the coordination of claims with evidence, but such coordination requires a number of reasoning capabilities to evaluate the strength of…

In classrooms, science is usually taught within the cognitive domain while the psychomotor learning domain is achieved through performing science experiments in the laboratory. Although students attend civic and moral education and pastoral care classes where values and life skills are often taught directly, learning experiences in most school…

In his last book, "Toward a Logic of Meanings" (Piaget & Garcia, 1991), Jean Piaget describes how thought can be categorized into a form of propositional logic, a logic of meanings. The intent of this article is to offer this analysis by Piaget as a means to understand the language and teaching of science. Using binary propositions, conjunctions,…

Societal benefit depends on the general public's understandings of biotechnology (Betsch in "World J Microbiol Biotechnol" 12:439-443, 1996; Dawson and Cowan in "Int J Sci Educ" 25(1):57-69, 2003; Schiller in "Business Review: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia" (Fourth Quarter), 2002; Smith and Emmeluth in "Am Biol Teach" 64(2):93-99, 2002). A…

The assimilation and synthesis of knowledge is essential for students to be successful in chemistry, yet not all students synthesize knowledge as intended. The study used the Learning Preference Checklist to classify students into one of three learning modalities--visual, auditory, or kinesthetic (VAK). It also used the Kolb Learning Style…

Answers to questions in a grade 11 physics examination were analyzed to provide information on the cognitive development of Australian science students. Data from questions concerned with volume, mass and weight, levers and proportion, speed and velocity, acceleration and relative speed are compared with Piaget's findings: many of the students do…

Discusses the Piagetian stages of cognitive development and their significance to the science curriculum. Refers to research that indicates that a number of concepts incorporated into the Nuffield O-level physics and chemistry curricula come too early in the courses, before many students have developed sufficiently to deal with them. (JR)

Describes results of a study investigating the nature of Nigerian secondary school pupils' (N=120) difficulties in understanding the biological concepts of growth, reproduction, and transport mechanisms within living organisms. Identifies examples of common misconceptions. (CS)

Discusses Piagetian concepts of cognitive development and the student's ability to understand chemical concepts at the secondary level. (SL)

An evaluation instrument, the Concept Inventory, was designed to be diagnostic, and to be helpful for student self-evaluation. A sample test instrument is shown along with some sample results. A discussion of test results is included. A bibliography is appended. (AJ)

Reviews Piaget's theory of cognitive development and discusses how science concepts can be taught to secondary school students at different cognitive levels. (MLH)

Discusses the challenge of teaching scientific concepts to children whose world view differs from adults. (SL)

This master's thesis reports results of a study that: (1) developed, used, and validated a classification instrument of Piagetian developmental levels of high school science students (N=16); (2) determined the effects of traditional and Piagetian-based instruction of two formal topics, the mole concept and atomic theory, on students not classified…