Presents an activity that investigates the reflections on a mirror. Focuses on the relationship between a person's height and the mirror's height. (YDS)

Reports on the use of a non-traditional approach to constructing a geological timeline that allows students to manipulate data, explore their understanding, and confront misconceptions. Lists possible steps to use in engaging students in this constructivist activity. (DDR)

Reports on research into the cognitive basis of children's alternative conceptions regarding light and sight. Highlights three factors that were found to interfere with effective teaching in science and suggests ways teachers can modify their approaches to circumvent them. Discusses ambiguity and the role of language, experience and concepts, and…

Discusses the success myth and the American multicultural heritage and education's unintentional perpetuation of this myth. Argues that the roots of this misconception are found in most white educators' failure to understand the differences between the immigration of white Europeans and the forced immigration of Africans. Society's assimilation…

Presents an activity investigating what happens when a decimal point is in the wrong position or used at all. (YDS)

Integrates story telling into a science activity on the density of liquids in order to increase student interest. Shows the relationship between mass and volume ratio and how they determine density. Includes teacher notes. (YDS)

Investigates 53 11-year-old children's understanding of the concepts of force and energy using a modified interview-about-instances technique. Identifies three frameworks which appeared to guide the pupil's thinking, only one of which was consistent with the accepted scientific definitions. Reports sex differences related to the frameworks.…

A sample of 144 college students responded to content- and application-based questions derived from popular newspaper and magazine articles on contemporary health topics. Overall rate of reader misunderstanding was nearly 40 percent, with a uniform error rate for each of 16 articles, leading to a conclusion that consumer misunderstanding of…

BASIC programing was taught to 95 undergraduates from a manual emphasizing the language's syntax or from a manual that included additional material on the underlying semantics. Both approaches produced equivalent learning of syntactic features of BASIC; however, semantically trained students developed fewer misconceptions and performed better on…

Explores how some of the work in the history and philosophy of science might develop a more adequate understanding of students' untutored ideas. Describes how students' views can be interpreted. Explains and discusses the merits of commonsense-scientific theory analogy. (YP)

Lists essential information about the Arctic Ocean which should be taught in elementary social studies courses, and which teacher training programs should cover. Discusses popular misconceptions regarding the Arctic Ocean and factors, such as the coloration on maps and globes, which lead to these misconceptions. (LS)

Examines how readers overcome their misconceptions about the principles of motion. Finds that students overcome misconceptions when their prior knowledge is activated, regardless of whether they read text that supports or refutes those misconceptions. Finds that students using several processing strategies have an advantage over students using…

Issues a call to action for educators concerned with African American students' education. Depicts the undemocratic, unjust features of urban children's surroundings and dispels some common misconceptions. City schools can become palaces of learning. Whereas education can open doors, minds, and possibilities, schools seem overly concerned with…

Rather than avoid stress, superintendents need to control and use it to their advantage. They should become familiar with the stress cycle, which progresses from stress traps through perceived stress, coping responses, and consequences (burnout). Superintendents can avoid burnout by focusing on important matters, confronting conflict positively,…

Written questionnaires were given to (n=213) preuniversity students to assess their judgments of association and their solution strategies with contingency tables in statistics. Compares results with previous psychological research. Qualitative analysis found three misconceptions concerning statistical association. Includes questionnaire.…