Points out the importance of students' pre-existing beliefs on students learning and suggests that if new information does not fit with what the students already knows, he or she may simply choose to reject it outright, leaving classrooms having learned nothing. Presents four choices for addressing new information. (Author/YDS)

Fascination with pedagogical technique has denigrated the intellectual life of K-12 educators and furthered the proliferation of "interdisciplinary" instructional approaches that blur important distinctions among disciplines. An atmosphere that values technique over substance tends to drive out or marginalize educators who enjoy reading and…

Presents an approach that provides a simple and adequate procedure for introducing the concept of rolling friction. Discusses some aspects related to rolling motion that are the source of students' misconceptions. Presents several didactic suggestions. (JRH)

Demonstrates the possible confusion arising from the terms 'weak acid' and 'weakly acidic' in different contexts. Suggests some reasons and possible approaches for overcoming these confusions. (Author/ASK)

Presents a framework that connects concepts such as expert consensus models, target models, intermediate models, preconceptions, learning processes, and natural reasoning skills for thinking about cognitive factors involved in model construction in the classroom. Provides guidance to teachers in the form of instructional principles and reminds…

Currently molecular structure is taught in general chemistry using three theories, this being based more on historical development rather than logical pedagogy. Electronegativity is taught with a confusing mixture of definitions that do not correspond to modern practice. Valence bond theory and VSEPR are used together in a way that often confuses…

Presents a research project in which the nature and extent of the misunderstanding of moles is quantified. Outlines a design and the implementation of a set of activities to promote conceptual change in this area. (CCM)

Explains the concept of mole and presents a teaching approach in which students can experiment with atoms and develop an understanding of mass ratios. Presents 10 examples of chemistry problems involving moles and unit conversations. (YDS)

Many years ago, Arons pointed out the incomprehension science students exhibit of the basic mathematical operations multiplication and division and the need to address the problem in physics classes to assure student understanding of the physical world. McDermott et al.'s Physics by Inquiry program does address this need directly and in detail (by…

For students to develop meaningful conceptions of fractions and fraction operations, they need to think of fractions in terms other than as just whole-number combinations. In this article, we suggest two powerful images for thinking about fractions that move beyond whole-number reasoning. (Contains 5 figures.)

Grounded within constructivist theory, the purpose of this investigation was to investigate knowledge acquisition and developing conceptions of high school-aged students during a unit of instruction in badminton. Six different qualitative methods were utilized: (a) observations, (b) formal interviews, (c) informal interviews, (d) think aloud…

In this article, the author presents and discusses activities that use a phenomena-first, guided inquiry approach to teach important concepts related to plant function, as well as the history and nature of scientific inquiry. These activities are intended for use with students in grades 3-8, as well as in elementary science methods courses. The…

This article details a teaching method for intercultural business communication for ESL students in New Zealand and Australia. These students are often international students, many from Asia. In particular, in the past few years, a significant proportion of them have come from China. The diverse cultural backgrounds in the classroom pose…

K-12 students enter physical education with many naive conceptions or misconceptions of how motor skills are acquired. One goal of physical education is to teach concepts that will help students learn and perform motor skills, but many practitioners don't know how to provide experiences that will teach students to apply their knowledge…

Science is often referred to, particularly in curriculum documents, as one way of knowing, one way of describing, classifying, and understanding our universe. For students to become scientifically literate, they need "to engage in the discourses … about science" (Eastwell, 2002), so developing an understanding of the nature of science…