Developing a constructivist view of scientific inquiry and knowledge is considered to be important to the training of future scientists, as well as to the understanding of scientific information by all citizens. The research reported targets the junior high school grades. Curricular materials that introduce seventh graders to the constructivist…

Past research on political socialization has failed to provide clear implications for educational policy or practice. However, reconceptualizing that research using a framework derived from cognitive psychology can reveal relationships between political socialization and education not previously seen. In this reconceptualization, schema or…

Gender differences were examined on three computer-administered spatial processing tasks: (1) the Intercept task, requiring processing dynamic or moving figures; (2) the mental rotation test, employing rotated asymmetric polygons; and (3) the integrating details test, in which subjects performed a complex visual synthesis. Participants were about…

This study investigated school effectiveness based on recent British and Australian advances in the understanding of student learning processes in natural settings via students' approaches to learning and their perceptions of teaching. The results were derived from a survey of 745 government school students, 380 Catholic school students, and 365…

Empirical findings on the efficiency of memory processes in exceptional children are outlined. Cognitive deficits are considered to be central to many academic and social skill problems of children with mental retardation and learning and behavior problems. In response, educators and psychologists have devised ways of training such students to use…

College and university instructors need to utilize selected principles of learning from the psychology of education. These principles of learning when implemented in the classroom should assist each student to achieve goals more optimally. The five principles of learning recommended to facilitate student progress in the higher education curriculum…

An understanding of the concepts of atoms and molecules is fundamental to the learning of chemistry. Any misconceptions and alternative conceptions related to these concepts which students harbor will impede much further learning. This paper identifies misconceptions related to the fundamental characteristics of atoms and molecules which Grade 12…

An organizational framework consisting of the following four components is useful in exploring questions about improving textbooks: learner characteristics, learning activities, the critical task (for measuring student performance), and the nature of the materials. In considering learning characteristics and the materials, it is important to…

This paper advocates an integrated study of English rather than the traditional approach of studying language, literature, and composition. Its focus is not on designing an integrated curriculum, but on using this approach to develop reasoning skills for secondary students. One integrated curriculum program for the development of reasoning skills…

A study investigated the differences between what advanced and remedial high school readers do while reading a short story. Subjects were three seniors nominated by their literature teachers as being expert high school readers of literature, and three junior level students who were all reading about two grade levels below the junior level…

A study examined the teaching and learning processes in the mother-child interaction that lead to the child's acquisition of the English morphemes for future and past. Data were drawn from transcripts of a mother and daughter's interaction during a period of active acquisition, age 22 to 27 months. Longitudinal microanalytic and macroanalytic…

Over 75 years ago, a British report on education commented on the confusion of aims in English language teaching, citing the quality of teaching, unsuitable textbooks, and lack of a coherent sense of purpose. Experience has shown that undergraduate linguistics has not come far since then. In the experimental, interdisciplinary program at the State…

This paper contends that the science education community would benefit from a three-step, research-based model that would allow science education researchers, in the final step, to make recommendations to classroom teachers. The first step would be to establish an interdisciplinary approach to research on how the brain and mind learn and remember.…

Teachers participating in this study were enrolled in one of two courses developed for high school teachers of physical science. The courses were offered as part of the Summer Institute in Science, an Education for Economic Security Act Title II program funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Behavioral intention, attitude toward…

Conducted in Swaziland in 1984 and 1985, this research study explored children's logical thinking skills. One of the primary elements examined was the relationship between previous preschool experience and the child's ability to perform logical thinking tasks. The study consisted of six Piagetian tasks given to 400 children, preschool through…