Disagreements exist among textbook authors, curriculum developers, and even among science and mathematics educators/researchers regarding the meanings and roles of several key nature-of-science (NOS) and nature-of-mathematics (NOM) terms such as proof, disproof, hypotheses, predictions, theories, laws, conjectures, axioms, theorems, and…

The primary goal is to explain the theory, and further, to expand a scheme of instruction and classroom procedures that arise as a consequence of his theory. Whenever possible, these ideas will be put forth using examples in physics context in an effort to elucidate difficult ideas. (DF)

Clarifies the difference between the Piagetian Conservation of Liquid Quantity task and the Conservation of Volume task and provides an alternative test for the presence of formal operational thought. (JR)

Twenty-three high school biology students using the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) Blue Textbook were administered a weight conservation and two volume conservation tasks. A majority performed below formal-operational level, indicating that these students would be likely to encounter difficuluty with BSCS Blue Version materials. (MLH)

Reported is a study to assess the Piagetian level of performance of males and females on two manipulative tasks of concrete and formal reasoning abilities and a written examination of concrete and formal reasoning abilities. Sixty-two high school students, 31 males and 31 females, were randomly selected from a biology course at Delphi High School…

Presents the results of two Piagetian conservation tasks administered to high school students. It was found that not many were at the formal operations level. Similar evidence is presented for college students. Concludes that development of formal thought must be a focus of all teachers. (DF)

Cites shortcomings of typical physics homework problems and encourages the assignment of open-ended problems to extend and combine patterns of reasoning. Provides examples of thought-provoking problems. (CP)

Three Piagetian tests of formal reasoning were administered to 65 high school biology students after half of this group had been exposed to a training session involving the control of variables. Among the results of this study was that the concrete operational students benefited more from the training session than did the formal operational…

Discussed and questioned is the credibility of the widely-held view concerning the role of impartiality and crucial experiments in science as exemplified by the 18th century controversy between Spallanzani and Needham. Science teachers are cautioned to remember that performing investigations and conducting experiments are tasks not entirely devoid…

Students were classified as formal or concrete-operational using a battery of Piagetian tasks, a biology content examination, and a nonscience content examination. Based on the results it was concluded that Piagetian tasks are relatively content-free and can serve as realistic indicators of concrete and formal thinking abilities. (MLH)

Reports a procedure for training fifth and seventh grade students to substantially improve their understanding and use of controlled experimentation procedures. (SL)

Secondary science students were tested, using Piagetian tasks to determine their level of intellectual development, and then tested on scientific concepts classified as concrete or formal. Results showed significant multiple correlations between the scores on the tasks and the subject matter tests. (MLH)

Two Piagetian tests which require manipulation, two conservation tasks, and the Longeot pencil and paper formal reasoning test were administered to 62 high school biology students. For all measures the males' mean level was higher than that of the females. (MLH)

Describes an investigation of 35 secondary school students to examine the relationship among scores on 10 Piagetian tasks used to assess levels of concrete and formal reasoning and problem solving abilities and scores on a standardized reading examination used to measure reading ability. (Author/GS)