Due to its abstract, theoretical nature, the mole concept has been recognized as one of the most difficult topics to teach and learn within the chemistry curriculum. The purpose of this study was to chronicle the development of high school students' conceptions of the mole following a period of instruction in a chemistry class. This investigation…

This study surveyed faculty at an elite private research (Ivy League) university on their attitudes toward teaching and their teaching practices. A total of 115 faculty from several schools within the university completed a 68-item questionnaire on how they learned to teach, what motivated them to invest time and effort in their teaching, what…

Researchers from BBN Laboratories and Lesley College (Massachusetts) have begun exploratory studies to build an understanding of the learning that occurs when middle school students interact with science-based simulations. Sixty hours of discussion among eight middle school students were videotaped as they used the simulations from the…

ChemSource is designed as a strategy to help preservice and inservice high school chemistry teachers promote student learning more effectively. Its major premise is that well-designed laboratory investigations are an important avenue for cultivating student interest, engagement, and meaningful learning in chemistry. The SourceBook component of…

This report, presented in nine parts, contains an executive summary and recommendations, historical background, the national context, a description of physics programs in Virginia for physics majors and those in other majors, a description of students' experiences in physics programs including alumni, an explanation of distribution of faculty…

Action research is one of the more increasingly popular and innovative techniques for engaging teachers in shaping change in the classroom. The research in this monograph was conducted by teachers in classrooms in Florida and Georgia. Papers were selected from 65 action research papers written in fulfillment of one of the requirements of the…

This implementation manual has been developed to describe four model mathematics and science programs designed to increase African-American students' interest in mathematics and science. The manual will help affiliates of the Urban League to mobilize existing community resources to achieve the goals of the national education initiative. The four…

This guide is one of a set of 10 science guides, each covering a separate grade in Manitoba, together covering kindergarten through grade 9. The guides have been designed to provide a framework for building scientific concepts and developing the learning of process skills. They replace an earlier set of guides dated 1979. Each guide is essentially…

This paper attempts to create a vision of what it would be like to teach for understanding, to adopt the view of learner as constructor of his or her own understanding, and to share in the creation of an environment for reconstructing students' understanding and reasoning. Such a program is based on assumptions about the cognition of learners,…

This book describes how theater can create an impetus for productive learning across the curriculum. Dorothy Heathcote's "mantle of the expert" approach is discussed in which teachers and students explore, in role, the knowledge they already have about a problem or task while making new discoveries along the way. The book also presents a…

Included in this publication are abstracts of papers presented at a meeting on science teaching. Also included are: an index of authors and the sessions in which they presented papers, a strand index listing sessions that pertain to that strand, and an address list of all the authors. Strands include alternative assessment; approaches to research;…

This research examines the performance, achievement, and attitudinal effects of a dissection alternative, an interactive videodisc-based (IVD) simulation in two ways: as a substitute for dissection and as a preparatory tool used prior to dissection. Sixty-one high school students enrolled in three general ability high school biology classes…

This paper discusses the relationship between the work that takes place in science laboratories and the science curriculum that is presented in the schools. The introduction asserts that although science education identifies itself with the scholarly disciplines of science, science educators should devise curricula that fairly represent these…

This book is composed of the following: materials used before and during a conference on evolution education, a proposed agenda for evolution education research, and related recommendations for evolution education research that arose from the conference. Abstracts of seven articles on evolution education, a literature review, and a section…

Students enter teacher education programs with pre-existing beliefs about the teacher's role, what constitutes effective teaching, teacher planning, and knowledge structures. This case study examines the changes in one preservice science teacher's attitude and beliefs towards the teaching of creationism as a result of her personal inquiry. The…