Describes recent developments in brain science with implications for persons whose research interests are in science education. Discusses new conceptual models, useful methods and techniques, and how neuroscience paradigms and technologies can be applied to teaching and learning. (JM)

The effects of a teaching program in probability devised for students in grades five to seven were analyzed. Most of the notions were too difficult for fifth graders; 60-70 percent of the sixth graders and 80-90 percent of the seventh graders were able to understand and use correctly most of the concepts. (MNS)

Archimedes' shoemaker's knife problem is interesting in its own right and also allows the demonstration of heuristic teaching ideas and a different method of doing a routine construction. The focus in the article is on the thought processes involved and questions asked when attempting proofs with the problem. (MNS)

Emphasizes the importance of psycholinguistic research in enabling us to discover phenomena which will later be seen to have representations in the brain. In addition, the different ways a second language is learned and used, as well as the differences in the actual language structures themselves, will participate in determining brain organization…

Results from a large-scale study of sixth-form and college students' understanding of elementary calculus and mathematical ideas underlying calculus are presented. Difficulties with speed, tables, linear graphs, curves and differences, the tangent as the limit, and the average rate of change are each discussed. (MNS)

Two experiments used fifth grade students to test the hypothesis that conjointly presented verbal/spatial information facilitates retrieval from either stimulus format. Results support the notion of conjoint retention which assumes that related verbal/spatial arrays are stored in a fashion which allows separate use of both formats during…

The effects of verbal mnemonics on mathematics achievement were investigated using 100 Japanese seventh graders. All students received 10 weeks of mathematics instruction, but the experimental subjects were taught with the aid of verbal rhymes. Significant differences favoring experimental subjects were found on both the immediate and delayed…

Divided into poor readers and good readers, 144 Swedish students (13-14 years old) participated in an experiment in which oral reading speed, free recall, and summarization of narrative stories presented on videotex were studied as a function of reading skill, text structure, and physical factors. Good readers outperformed poor readers. (BRR)

Describes activities designed to improve the critical reading skills of young readers. (FL)

Argues that the current trend toward abandoning teacher education comes at an inopportune time, since recent research creates opportunities for meaningful reform. Discusses findings concerning instructional and classroom management techniques and their effects on student achievement, the classroom applications of such findings, and consequent…

Reseach on use of questioning in classroom teaching reveals that recitation is a poor method, but teachers use it anyway because it is effective in teaching curriculum that is largely textbook based. Teacher educators may be advised to help teachers learn to use recitation well. (MD)

In three experiments, differences between good and poor writers were examined on six cognitive-processing tasks: ordered letters, ironic memory, letter reordering, word reordering, sentence reordering, and paragraph assembly. Both college and high school students were studied. Significant differences were found in abilities to hold and…

Three experiments exploring the relationship of cognitive effort to the differences in word recall between skilled and learning disabled readers are described. Results suggest the amount of cognitive effort that can be effectively expended to produce a distinctive memory trace is related to individual differences in attentional capacity.…

Three major views of intelligence are compared and evaluated: the psychometric, the Piagetian, and the information-processing. The educational implications of each view for training content knowledge and intellectual skills are considered. How each view would approach training students in solving verbal analogies is discussed. (Author/BS)

Building on Bloom's, and subsequent educational taxonomies, a larger, synthetic, theoretical basis, called the process hierarchy theory, is developed. Its relationship to general systems theory and its metatheoretical context are described. A general methodology for empirically testing aspects of the theory using mathematical modeling is explored.…