Over the past several years, an increasing number of educators have come to believe that teaching should acknowledge the transactional nature of knowledge and suggest that a shift be made to focus on social practice, meaning, and patterns. This style of teaching proposes that it is important to permit students to construct knowledge meaningfully…

This document consists of the three issues of this newsletter published in 1990. Designed to assist teachers at the secondary and college level in designing and presenting instruction on the topic of astronomy, typical articles in this newsletter include: (1) "Introductory Astronomy Glossary," which presents the definitions of 42 different terms;…

Student knowledge in a subject area prior to and after instruction has traditionally been assessed by administering a pre- and post-test, usually multiple choice, though recent studies criticize the use of even the best-constructed multiple choice tests. This study assessed college freshmen's knowledge before and after a laboratory experience in…

Characteristics of disciplines that affect undergraduate lecturing and teaching approaches were studied in the fields of the physical sciences, life sciences, humanities, and social sciences. A 1981 questionnaire on the lecture method of instruction was completed by a random sample of 820 teachers in the undergraduate liberal arts divisions of…

The Panel on Technology Education was one of four panels established by the Committee on the Education and Utilization of the Engineer of the National Research Council. This panel's task was to investigate the technology aspects of the preparation of engineers in the United States. This report deals with: (1) "The History of Technical…

The nature of undergraduate enrollment in engineering has raised questions about the ability of the United States to retain the leadership necessary to provide for a healthy economy in a technological age. Also, some people are concerned that new graduate enrollments are not keeping pace with the near-doubling of the number of engineering…

Participation by women in scientific and technical careers is still low despite gains made by women in the United States job market. Consequently women's earning power and job opportunities as a group are diminished. Another effect is a loss of talent in the American work force. The objectives of this study were to: (1) study the rates of…

This report covers the general issues involved in nuclear safety research and points out the areas needing detailed consideration. Topics included are: (1) "Principles of Nuclear Safety Research" (examining who should fund, who should conduct, and who should set the agenda for nuclear safety research); (2) "Elements of a Future…

Reported are the discussions and votes on issues related to engineering education. Sections included are an introduction to the National Congress on Engineering Education and an overview of the meeting including 79 resolutions related to the four areas of broad-academic issues, faculty issues, curriculum issues, and issues on laboratories,…

This study compared the process skill achievement of students (N=107) completing traditional laboratory exercises with students (N=127) not only completing the same exercises but also receiving instruction in such integrated process skills as identifying variables and stating hypotheses. The relationships among process skill achievement, cognitive…

Presented are descriptions (with photographs) of demonstration equipment purchased, assembled, developed, and used at William Jewell College (Missouri) during the past 25 years. The descriptions are organized into the following topic areas: (1) mechanics; (2) heat; (3) waves, sound, and acoustics; (4) electricity; (5) optics; and (6) atomic and…

The goal of this project was to devise new methods of producing tactile facsimiles of microscopic images for the blind and visually impaired biology students at the secondary and college level. The numerous raised-line images that were produced were assembled along with brailled and large print student instructions, audio cassette tapes describing…

The present study was designed to test how well the measures of the cognitive constructs of M-space, cognitive style, and short-term storage space (STSS) could predict the amount of practice needed to induce successful problem solving behaviors, the ability to transfer behaviors to different contexts, and the readiness to abandon unsuccessful…

Teachers' perceptions about the nature of their discipline are important factors in their curricular decisions, behavior in the classroom, and interpretations and reactions to classroom events. It is not an easy task to access one's beliefs nor stimulate genuine dialogue about them. Errors can provide both the motivations and the means for…

Little attention has been paid to the topic of science education in liberal arts colleges and seminaries during the 3 decades following the Civil War. This paper argues that Mount Holyoke College (Massachusetts) made a place for itself in the scientific community in the last decades of the nineteenth century by developing a curriculum which…