Examined fifth-grade students' survey responses to investigate incorrect rules that derive from children's efforts to interpret decimals as integers or as fractions. Regarding fractions, difficulties arise because only the whole-part approach to fractions is presented in elementary school. (Author/MDH)

Reviews the radical constructivism movement in mathematics education. Benefits identified include learner ownership of mathematical learning; importance of social interaction; and identification of principles for improving mathematics teaching and learning. Weaknesses identified include overzealousness of some radical constructivists; downplaying…

Discusses the importance of instruction in metacognition, the mental process of observing, evaluating, and making adjustments in one's own thinking behavior to enhance comprehension during a learning activity. Reviews educational programs which have taught metacognitive behaviors and charts a model instructional approach for use in the college…

Explores high school students' and preservice teachers' knowledge of light, vision, and related topics before and after commonly practiced instruction. Suggests a hierarchical structure to represent the collective conceptual knowledge of students and teachers in terms of facets and schemes of knowledge. Makes suggestions for designing instruction…

Maintains that region familiarity is an important prerequisite in the instructional use of cartograms. Cartograms are value-by-area maps that increase or decrease areas in order to illustrate various data (e.g. book reading in the western United States). Discusses necessary cognitive processes for the visualization of data. (MJP)

Analysts predict that the knowledge economy of the near future will require people to be both computer literate and print literate. However, some of the reading and thinking habits of current college students suggest that electronic media such as web browsers may be limiting the new generation's ability to absorb and process what they read. Their…

The Great Khan's atlas contains also the maps of the promised lands visited in thought but not yet discovered or founded: New Atlantis, Utopia, the City of the Sun, Oceana, Tamoe, New Harmony, New Lanark, Icaria. Kublai asked Marco: "You, who go about exploring and who see signs, can you tell me towards which of these futures the favouring winds…

Although science centres and museums are important educational resources, school trips to these places are not often conducted in a manner that could maximise learning. In addressing this issue, a Framework for Museum Practice (FMP) is proposed, derived from the perspectives of Cultural Historical Activity Theory, theories of intrinsic motivation,…

An administrator's daily life is full of decisions that often involve an "on the spot" solution. This paper discusses some of the principles involved in drawing inferences in research and decision making, and describes how a knowledge of decision-making errors can help administrators. The paper also describes a case study that…

This paper addresses the evidence that secondary school students use to imply that they understand something in mathematics. As part of a larger study, an open-ended questionnaire probing several aspects of metacognitive self-knowledge, was administered to students (N=72) in four schools. Two previously identified types of understanding were…

This paper describes the actions of one secondary school mathematics teacher in establishing a community of mathematical practice within which students acquire not only knowledge and skills, but also the epistemological values of mathematics. Classroom observations over a period of 18 months, together with interview and questionnaire data, are…

New electronic technologies provide powerful tools for managing and processing the rapidly increasing amounts of information available for learning; teachers, however, have often been slow in integrating computers into the curriculum. This study addresses the question of how prospective teachers construct affective and cognitive models about…

This study assessed the relative value of Bandura's (1977, 1982, 1986) self-efficacy theory and Rotter's (1966) locus of control model in predicting the career maturity of college students. A sample of 113 undergraduates (83 women and 30 men) completed a demographics questionnaire and measures of career decision-making (CDM) self-efficacy (Taylor…

This study examined the use of writing as an instructional methodology for enhancing Afro-American preservice teachers' knowledge of and attitudes towards teaching during their year-long field practicum experience. Data are presented relative to the interrelatedness of writing competence and cognitive complexity. Subjects (n=81) included 27…

Western European forms of discourse have been foisted upon the world as the universal value-neutral reference point. External standards have been used to assess aboriginal discourse, particularly in public contexts such as schools and courtrooms. These standards assume that there is one single correct way to proceed (to talk, write, argue, teach),…