Despite the intense focus on the achievement gap that exists between African American, Latino, and other students of color and their White counterparts, the achievement gap discourse keeps us locked in the deficit paradigm. This article challenges us to look at the inherent fallacies of the achievement gap discourse and place students' academic…

Science educators have generally agreed that understanding the atom concept is the basis of science education. However, the numerous research studies have shown that many students at all educational levels have difficulties understanding this concept. This study was developed under three headings. The first was to identify misconceptions that…

Beliefs about learning and physical difficulties were explored in 50 younger children (M = 5.6, SD = 1.0 years) and 50 older children (M = 9.5, SD = 1.1 years). Participants were asked why they thought some children had learning or physical difficulties and whether children with these difficulties would always have them. The majority of older…

Central to the argument about the influence of media on learning is how this influence is measured or ascertained. Conventional methods which comprise the use of true and quasi-experimental designs are inadequate. Several lessons can be learned from this observation on the media debate. The first is that, conventional methods of ascertaining the…

By charter, national Greek organizations (ie, fraternities and sororities) place an emphasis on upholding personal integrity, academic scholarship, and development of campus leaders. Recent concerns, however, assert that the drinking behaviors of members of Greek organizations are antithetical to the mission of their universities. Objective: The…

This keynote address suggests that the rural sector of Australia is, and will remain, absolutely essential to the well-being of the entire nation. There are misconceptions that the rural economy is no longer important to the nation as a whole and that rural people and communities are marginal to society. Australia's entire economy is heavily…

The main objective of the study reported in this paper was to construct a Lakatosian teaching strategy that can facilitate conceptual change in students' understanding of chemical equilibrium. The strategy is based on the premise that cognitive conflicts must have been engendered by the students themselves in trying to cope with different problem…

The underlying theme of this book illustrates how constructivist ideas can be used by science and mathematics educators for research and the further improvement of educational practice. Authors from various parts of the world describe their work investigating students' conceptions, improving teaching and curricula, and enhancing teacher education…

The intent of this paper is to open for consideration the relationship between metacognition and the promotion of conceptual change within the classroom. This goal is achieved through a brief description of present research by the authors, drawing from the existing literature a summary of what is meant by conceptual change learning, defining the…

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of eighteen 11th grade high school chemistry students' prior mathematical knowledge on their understanding of certain chemical concepts (symbol, formula, and equation). It also investigated students' ideas about the meaning of plus sign, reaction sign, and the relationships between subscript, and…

The term "statistical significance" is often misunderstood or abused to imply a large effect size. A recent example is in the work of J. P. Rushton (1988, 1990) on differences between Negroids and Caucasoids. Rushton used brain size and cranial size as indicators of intelligence, using Pearson "r"s ranging from 0.03 to 0.35.…

This study investigates the relationships between student beliefs about the nature of science, student attitudes, and conceptual change about the nature of forces in a traditional high school physics classroom. Students (N=28) in the study were junior-level high school honors students in an introductory physics class. The physics instruction was…

This paper examines the nature and evaluation of creative behavior, tracing the origins of creativity research and developing an interdisciplinary framework for such research. The first part of the paper is devoted to identifying the nature of some common misconceptions regarding the nature and evaluation of creative behaviors, and tracing their…

Misconceptions, shown to be prevalent in students even at the college level, may affect the cognitive process of making predictions in biology. The purpose of this study was to: (1) identify students' misconceptions about important biological concepts; (2) identify students' cognitive behaviors associated with making predictions about these…

This handbook offers background and suggestions for developing programs in which parents learn how to actively participate in their children's education. It is based on 42 participating projects throughout the country. It contains the following seven chapters: (1) "The Hispanic Profile"; (2) "Misperceptions and Misconceptions"; (3) "The Elements…