School organizations need to make changes in the organizational culture of schools in order to achieve excellence. An analogy between cognitive systems and organizational belief systems helps to explain the ways that beliefs and values are structured in school organizations. (MLF)

Discusses what is meant by meaningful learning, the conditions necessary for meaningful learning to occur, the importance of vocabulary instruction to comprehension, and how to insure that vocabulary instruction is meaningful. (HOD)

To assess the teachability of conditional logic structure, the commonly used syllogistic conditional reasoning task was divided into three main components: (1) inductive rule learning; (2) induction of conditional language; and (3) deductive interpretation. When trained on all components, fifth and seventh graders became very competent in dealing…

Presents ethnographic data drawn from observation of three elementary school classes in Kiryah, a development town in Israel. Determines that pupils' classroom seating expresses teachers' behavior patterns, which are said to derive from external social and professional frames of reference. (KH)

In this report, the authors aim to review and advance knowledge of systematic ways of classifying thinking skills. They concentrate on taxonomies and theory-based frameworks, in the belief that studying and using them will promote better understanding of how people think and learn at the age of 16 or above. Their overarching interest is in how…

A longitudinal study of students' developing understanding of decimal notation has been conducted by testing over 3000 students in Grades 4 to 10 up to 7 times. A pencil-and-paper test based on a carefully designed set of decimal comparison items enabled students' responses to be classified into 11 codes and tracked over time. The paper reports on…

This paper considers what physics can offer students, both as physics majors and in other sciences. The recent increases in the technological character of the workplace appear likely to continue, leading to increasing numbers of individuals who should learn something about science. For many of these people, understanding the character of science,…

In the study, a part of longitudinal research focused on the emergence of mathematical knowledge structures in a learner's mind is presented. It concentrates on the analysis of introspective data gained from the author's study of a non-standard arithmetic structure in terms of the model of abstraction in context (Hershkowitz, Schwarz and Dreyfus).…

Concept maps are visual representations of knowledge structure and thought. Not enough attention has been paid to the measurement and influence of preservice teachers' knowledge structure and its development over time. This study implemented instructional scaffolding interventions in order to determine the effect on preservice teachers' knowledge…

This paper focuses on some main distinctions that are necessary to analyze mathematical knowledge from a learning point of view and explain how many students come up against difficulties at each level of the curriculum. From a learning point of view, visualization cannot be used as an immediate and obvious support for understanding, even though it…

Most people know much more than they can communicate because their personal knowledge is so thoroughly grounded in experience that it cannot be expressed in its fullness. This study examines how two superintendents used tacit knowledge to build shattered trust in their school boards. Trust is first examined as a multifaceted aspect of human…

The demise of the behaviorist paradigm and the rise of the social, cognitive, and interactionist models of second language acquisition (SLA) have led to the understanding that constructivist mechanisms are part of the process. Given the variety of empirical findings and understandings research in the field has yielded, this study attempts to offer…

Reports on a study that addresses the implications of instructional strategies that are used to create cognitive disequilibrations to achieve conceptual change. Discusses several difficulties in the application of such conceptual change strategies. Contains 31 references. (DDR)

Presents a study that investigated relationships between gender, interest, and experience in electricity. Also explored the effect of conceptual change text manipulations on learning fundamental concepts of direct current. Suggests that conceptual change text manipulations are likely to be effective for both men and women. Contains 57 references.…

Constructs the philosophical background and underpinnings of the Science Education Portfolio Instruction and Assessment (SEPIA) project. Explains that students must develop skills in order to participate in epistemic interchanges. They must also be provided opportunities and materials to develop those skills. Contains 29 references. (DDR)