Investigated the claims made by science teachers as to how they write and use worksheets, validating these claims against an analysis of worksheets collected from these teachers. Some weakness of readability theory in terms of validity and reliability when applied to these materials are discussed. (JN)

Ability to distinguish between causal (cause-effect) and teleological (means-ends) explanations was measured in 1905 twelfth-grade biology students and found to be dependent on student knowledge. Although the inability to make these distinctions contributes to misconceptions in biology, appropriate instruction can easily remedy the problem. Sample…

Examined job specifications found in advertisements in "The Times Educational Supplement." Results indicate that in a large number of cases information supplied was inadequate. In addition, many advertisements did not indicate the academic specialty required (biology, chemistry, physics) of potential candidates. (JN)

Eleven-year-old secondary school students (N=2065) were given a variety of attitude and achievement tests. Although both boys and girls had positive attitudes toward science, boys preferred studying physical science while girls preferred studying biology. Implications of these and other findings are discussed. (Author/JN)

Determined whether secondary science teachers (55 males and 25 females) displayed sex bias in their subjective evaluations of students' written work. Preliminary results revealed that both male and female teachers tended to differentiate between the work of boys and girls in similar ways. (JN)

Describes an attempt to teach electronics to disadvantaged high school students in Israel through an instructional method based on guided individual learning combined with laboratory experiments. Discusses the successes of the program in terms of academic achievement, self-learning competencies, laboratory skills, and attitudes. (ML)

Reports a study's findings of which factors influence Nigerian secondary school students' choice of science subjects. Variables considered were sex, age, group of study (arts or science), attitudes, intelligence (IQ), and personality. Results from 1240 students indicated that attitude to science was most important factor followed by IQ. (ML)

Good problem solvers and poor problem solvers in advanced physics (N=8) were significantly different in their ability in translating, planning, and physical reasoning, as well as in problem solving time; no differences in reliance on algebraic solutions and checking problems were noted. Implications for physics teaching are discussed. (DH)

Surveyed 170 English schools (for 13- to 16-year-olds) to determine the extent to which industrially relevent materials were adopted in science classes and attitudes of science teachers toward these materials in science syllabi. Indicates that although teachers believe the industrial materials should be emphasized, traditional science courses…

Assessed and compared the attitudes of a national random sample of students who were in junior high school during 1976-77 with the attitudes of a national sample of this same cohort in 1981-82. Implications of findings (related to various attitude categories) for science curriculum development are addressed. (JN)

Investigated use of overhead transparencies containing a sequence of diagrams to represent a three-dimensional structure at different stages during a rotation. Significant learning occurred among 120 Bahraini boys (aged 15-16) when the transparencies contained multi-colored diagrams which were exposed simultaneously or individually in a cumulative…

This investigation showed no sex difference between boys and girls with regard to practical work at the end of their first year of secondary school and no difference between schools and groupings (all boys, all girls, mixed schools with mixed science classes, and mixed schools with single sex science classes). (JN)

Describes the development and validation of an instrument to test the biology-related attitudes of science students in grades 10-12 in Indonesia. Validation procedures included use of latent partition analysis to examine the conceptual structure of the instrument. (Author/JN)

This study assessed the achievement of 14/15 year-old pupils related to technology. The total mean score for the boys was significantly higher than that of the girls. Father's education was significantly related to achievement. (Author/CW)

Investigated the effect on student performance of changes in question structure and sequence on a GCE 0-level multiple-choice chemistry test. One finding noted is that there was virtually no change in test reliability on reducing the number of options (from five to per test item). (JN)