Considers research that shows very poor student understanding after the teaching of electricity and draws two broad conclusions of central relevance to the teaching of electricity: (1) there is an absence of any systemic consensus as to what models are appropriate for students at different year levels and for different intended learning outcomes;…

Explains the distinction between the concepts of melting and dissolving. (Contains 15 references.) (YDS)

Focuses on the overgeneralization of the linear model--the so-called illusion of linearity. Reports on two follow-up studies investigating the effects of problem presentation and formulation on the strength of the illusion of linearity. Shows that including visual scaffolds and making comparison problems has a positive effect on students' ability…

Reports the results of an investigation on student understanding of selected topics in heat and temperature, particularly thermal equilibrium, giving evidence for a number of misconceptions about heat and temperature and the relationships between specific heat, heat capacity, and heat transfer. Subjects represented diverse groups with widely…

Recommends ways that teachers can scrutinize and modify their science teaching to avoid student misconceptions by focusing on clarifying conceptions, analyzing understanding, and making changes. (YDS)

Reports on a study in which anchoring probability situations that are conceptually analogous to misconception-prone target probability situations were generated and tested with secondary mathematics students. Reports that a follow up test showed that 65% of the reconstructed knowledge was retained after six months. (Author/MM)

Explains studies on the idea of taking children's ideas seriously and when and how this notion took place in the curriculum. Describes the common characteristic of children's ideas and discusses what teachers should do with these ideas. (YDS)

The misconceptions regarding the nature of ATP hydrolysis and bond breaking are discussed. The students' knowledge in this area is quantitatively measured by a survey of over 600 biochemistry and physiology students.

During the coming years the number of older adults will increase dramatically, which will require a corresponding increase in the number of social workers who have accurate knowledge of this population. This article reports the impact focus groups with older adults and with service providers who work with older adults and their families have on…

The potential of many African American students is undetected due to misperceptions about their intellectual ability and achievement. These misperceptions cause inadequate instructional responses, which in turn perpetuate the cycle of underachievement. This article analyzes the bases for many of these misperceptions, explores the impact of culture…

When survey respondents' answers include pauses, stammers, and hedges, does this indicate that they are in danger of misinterpreting the survey question? Or are disfluencies so common in ordinary discourse that they are nondiagnostic? We analyzed respondents' first utterances after survey questions in a corpus of 42 laboratory-based telephone…

The misinformation effect refers to the impairment in memory for the past that arises after exposure to misleading information. The phenomenon has been investigated for at least 30 years, as investigators have addressed a number of issues. These include the conditions under which people are especially susceptible to the negative impact of…

Children's literature is an important vehicle through which to expose students to environmental issues. Because children are curious about their surroundings, the environment supplies a perfect avenue for their learning to read, write, and make sense of their world (Kupetz and Twiest 2000). Children tend to respond better to children's books than…

In her work as a literary consultant--first in private practice and now at Georgetown University--this author has worked with many scholars who would like to adapt their research for a trade audience. Many shared a set of core beliefs about how the rules of publishing change when one writes for a larger, more general audience in order to publish…

Based on the conceptual change literature, this study assessed factors influencing change in students' misconceptions about psychology. We expected students' ability and their critical thinking to predict whether they would change their misconceptions following completion of an introductory psychology course. GPA, scores on a test of critical…