The purposes of this study were: to compare students' performance on conceptual and algorithmic chemistry problems; to investigate the relationships between learning orientation, formal reasoning, and mental capacity and students' performance on conceptual and algorithmic problems; and to investigate interactions among learning orientation, formal…

We seek to demonstrate how digital video technology can contribute towards our understanding of the process of development of conceptual understanding in physics. We use digital video to analyze 4 brief Physics by Inquiry sessions with 2 groups of preservice teachers. The instances include independent group work and instructor-student…

Educational programmes should promote an ethos of lifelong learning and develop in graduates the capacity for long-term personal and professional development through self-learning and reflection. A business degree programme should seek to produce graduates who are confident, creative thinkers with the capacity to solve problems, think creatively,…

At a time when college administrators, faculties, and parents are debating the purpose and value of higher education, the rising cost of a baccalaureate degree, and the role education plays in the twenty-first century, a major in theatre, theatre studies courses, and theatre activities have not received much interest. It is not uncommon to hear,…

This article examines why cognitively oriented technology innovations, designed to foster deep thinking and learning, have not become widespread in K-12 schools. We argue a key reason is that most design-based research does not explicitly address systemic issues of usability, scalability and sustainability. This limitation must be overcome if…

As part of a discussion of cognition-based assessment (CBA) for elementary school mathematics, I describe assessment tasks for area and volume measurement and a research-based conceptual framework for interpreting students' reasoning on these tasks. At the core of this conceptual framework is the notion of levels of sophistication. I provide…

Using WebQuests for inquiry-based learning represents a higher-order use of technology requiring students to exercise information seeking, analyzing, and synthesizing strategies. This research was designed to obtain a better understanding of how to enhance the pedagogical effectiveness of WebQuests and of how students interact with the various…

Because technology is more prevalent and accessible for use in assessment, this article highlights what counselors and educators need to know when considering the use of computers and the Internet for that purpose. The article concludes with some predictions on how technology might influence assessment and accountability in the future. This…

This study examined 10th-grade students' use of theory and evidence in evaluating a socio-scientific issue: the use of underground water, after students had received a Science, Technology and Society-oriented instruction. Forty-five male and 45 female students from two intact, single-sex, classes participated in this study. A flow-map method was…

In a sample of 74 university students studying early childhood and pre-kindergarten education, researchers assessed the relationships between child development knowledge, complexity of reasoning about development, prior work experience with children, and teacher-preparation content courses and laboratory courses. There was no statistically…

The purpose of this study was to identify common problems students that experience in proof writing. Toward this end, the authors videotaped groups of students in a bridge course as they worked to construct mathematical proofs. They report on their observations and offer suggestions as to how teachers of transition courses might enhance the…

Many instructors appreciate the importance of developing the critical thinking skills of their students yet are unfamiliar with pedagogical approaches for teaching critical thinking. These instructors rely on instructional support from teaching and learning centers or online resources. It can be time consuming, however, for instructors to…

Previous research (e.g. "Cognition" 64 (1997) 73) suggests that the privileged level for inductive inference in a folk biological conceptual hierarchy does not correspond to the ''basic'' level (i.e. the level at which concepts are both informative and distinct). To further explore inductive inference within conceptual hierarchies, we examine…

Cognitive, home, and family factors that theoretically could influence whether or not preschoolers' interests were focused on domains characterized by the acquisition of knowledge concerning object concepts (e.g., dinosaurs, horses) were assessed in a short-term longitudinal investigation of 211 4-year-olds. Boys were six times as likely as girls…

Two important sources of information for social judgments are personality dispositions (traits) and social norms. Existing research suggests that young children do not find traits salient. To what extent might they rely on a different source of information? Two experiments explored how information about preferences (what someone likes) and rules…