Discusses Dewey's article on the reflex arc concept as critique of mechanistic approaches to psychology and suggestion for an approach based on evolutionary assumptions. Maintains that the resulting psychology gave an integrated way of understanding the relation between organism and environment, and cognition and behavior; the work anticipated…

Examined the impact of a teaching intervention on preschoolers' concepts of the day/night cycle. Found that most children readily accepted that the sun and earth are separate spherical objects, but fewer attributed the day/night cycle to rotation of the earth on its axis. Most were puzzled by simultaneous movements of the earth around the sun and…

Shows that it is possible to use an electric balance to measure Coulomb's force in a simpler way. Describes a demonstration set up to measure the repulsive force between two electric charges. (CCM)

Describes an activity in which students are introduced to the concept of food webs through a role-playing tag game. (Author/CCM)

Describes the water-repelling behavior of "magic sand". Suggests some demonstrations and activities to compare the properties of magic sand with those of regular sand. (WRM)

In response to Kavale and Forness (EC 630 380), this article presents a differing view of science and politics in learning disabilities in which the importance of practical knowledge is stressed and the importance of scientific knowledge or "scientism" is diminished. Recommendations stress the need to hold practitioners accountable and to provide…

In response to Kavale and Forness (EC 630 380), this article suggests that doing "science" is not without philosophical and ideological values. Sections address the different worlds of scientific communities and critically analyze the political side of learning disabilities from the scientific side. The article concludes with a call for diverse…

Addresses some of the problems inherent both in traditional didactic science teaching and in approaches based on theories of conceptual change. Argues for helping students to acquire a better understanding of science (through an anthropological approach) and a better understanding of themselves as learners and science initiates. (Author/MM)

Shows how discussions drawing on bilingual students' non-school experiences contribute to scientific understanding. Features an example from Haitian Creole. (MM)

The National Science Education Standards (NSES; National Research Council [NRC], 1996) include Science and Technology as one of the eight categories of content standards. The science and technology standards establish connections between the natural and designed worlds and provide students with opportunities to develop decision-making abilities.…

This paper re-centres the discussion of student learning in physics to focus on context. In order to do so, a theoretically motivated understanding of context is developed. Given a well-defined notion of context, data from a novel university class in electricity and magnetism are analysed to demonstrate the central and inextricable role of context…

In this article, the author shares her experiences with science journaling, and finds it a valuable resource in discovering how well students have grasped the concepts of each lesson. The journal has also been a valuable tool in helping students to evaluate themselves, and write their comments on their own strengths and "weaknesses" or areas of…

During inquiry activities, teachers need to ensure their students are making progress toward learning goals. The informative questioning cycle can help teachers and students achieve these goals through simple techniques that can redirect and improve the quality of students' learning while it is in progress. The informative questioning cycle…

In this article the author presents a model that shows how inquiry-based instruction and creative classroom assessment can be used to teach the concepts and principles on which standardized test items are based. To successfully implement this model, the teacher must have a clear understanding of: (1) The ways that the NSES link to instruction and…

Designing assessments to effectively probe students' understanding of science concepts is a challenge that requires having an overall assessment strategy and well-designed assessment instruments. For assessments to be most effective they need to be continuously woven throughout teaching and learning, and the results need to be used to inform…