Explores how teachers conceptualize self-esteem and related curricular practices, using survey data from 68 midwestern urban teachers. Relying on assumptions and intuitions, teachers believed that low self-esteem is endemic to most urban children, reinforced by kids' urban context, and tantamount to being at risk behaviorally and academically.…

Data from First in the World Consortium (group of 20 suburban school districts that paid to have students take the Third International Mathematics and Science Study tests) and TIMSS dispel pervasive myth that only 1% of American students score as well in math as average Japanese student. Before copying Asia, American educators should examine…

Educators wishing to help low-achieving children must discard the concept of learning disabilities entirely and adopt a new way of thinking about children's learning problems. Learning-disabilities specialists should become learning specialists who understand the cognitive processes typically involved in acquiring academic skills, ways the…

Success of programs aimed at teaching racial tolerance depends on ability to confront three misconceptions about racism: life is good for racial minorities; racism is declining; and America can be a color-blind society. These myths have been absorbed into beliefs and attitudes of well-educated, open-minded people. Today's Gallup Polls actually…

Getting schools to leap onto the Information Highway is the latest in a series of corporate forays marked by ignorance, self-interest, and marketing madness. Educational implementation of computer-based technology is highly experimental, despite the billions spent annually. The competitive jockeying for position to build and fill the…

Investigated DIALOG's RANK command to generate a list of prominent authors in biodiversity for use in cocitation studies. Concluded that RANK did not retrieve a quality set because highly cited authors of general texts presented a misaligned picture of specialization. Suggests that limiting citations to journal articles would present a more…

Describes an experiment that uses a bottle, a cork, and a wooden match to study students' explanations of what they observe to reveal misunderstandings about pressure and to produce some incorrect interpretations such as creation of a gradient of pressure. (DDR)

A Minneapolis superintendent presents diary excerpts of his three-year experience and dispels myths about improving education. He argues the futility of believing that more, less, or private is better; that educators are nincompoops; or that money talks. Transforming education requires core goals, customer support, consequences (accountability),…

Develops a "theory of stretched analogies" to explain limitations of student-as-customer and athletic motivational notions. Schools are neither shopping malls nor knowledge factories; for unengaged students, there will be nothing to purchase. Also, caring teacher-coaches must decide how high to set the bar. The goal is helping all…

Explains how students' alternative conceptions about curriculum topics interfere with classroom learning. Describes the Royal Society of Chemistry's Teacher Fellowship Project entitled "Challenging Misconceptions in the Classroom," which develops classroom materials to diagnose and challenge specific alternative conceptions. Uses key…

Presents an account of one teacher's path to realizing the depth of intuitive beliefs about science. Organizes chemistry misconceptions into eight patterns of reasoning that include thinking rules and alternative conceptions. (DDR)

Multicultural education has focused on increasing academic achievement and promoting greater sensitivity to cultural differences. Unfortunately, achievement-oriented programs stressing culturally based learning styles, bilingual or bicultural approaches, selective cultural programs, or minority- or gender-based grouping for math and science have…

Provides teachers with some ideas about the development of physical knowledge to make them more receptive to the differences between their own and their students' thinking. Illustrates an adapted version of Piaget's model of the growth of physical knowledge using the development of classical mechanics. Contains 12 references. (Author/JRH)

Argues that doing and learning science are not the same thing. Suggests strategies involving active learning of a nonpractical nature which encourage discussion of science by children working in small groups. Presents examples of less familiar practical alternatives. (JRH)

Examines 9th grade students' explanations of chemical reactions using two forms of open-ended essay questions, those providing students with key terms to be used as "anchors" on which to base their essay, and those that do not provide terms. Results indicate that more misunderstandings were elicited by the use of key terms as compared to…