Describes the difficulties that high school and university students have in thinking about force, identifying forces, and drawing force diagrams. Finds that students using a computer tutoring program made limited progress in learning to construct free-body diagrams because of their alternative conceptions and faulty teaching methods. Offers…

Organizes a reading of the conceptual change literature that brings into view a collection of design specifications for a conceptual change apparatus. Analyzes one such apparatus in the particulars of a science education demonstration program produced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Private Universe Project. (Contains 114 references.) (Author/WRM)

Explores the tension between subject knowledge and pedagogic content knowledge in elementary teacher education by documenting students' and inservice teachers' learning about forces in the context of floating and sinking. Describes significant features of the learning process and examines subject-specific aspects of learning by demonstrating how…

Investigates 5th and 6th grade students' learning when taught with the aid of dome and computer planetaria. Finds both planetaria equally effective with female pupils. Recommends the use of planetaria, which might enable females to catch up with males in areas that place heavy demands on spatial ability such as astronomy. (Contains 16 references.)…

Describes the MAOF physics education program which is designed to relate large parts of mechanics and electromagnetism to each other via the key concepts of field and potential, while at the same time treat students' conceptual difficulties. Finds that students who studied with the MAOF program significantly improved their physics knowledge…

Two national reform movements--one focused on creating small, autonomous schools, the other fixated on a standardization agenda--are basically in conflict. The standards movement is touting the traditional, top-down, centralized, bureaucratic system modeled after Frederick Taylor and his efficiency experts. Progressive, decentralized initiatives…

Describes an exhibition on radiation and the environment. Reviews students' and lay people's conceptions and how conceptions and constructivism can guide exhibition development. Considers whether such an exhibition can facilitate cognitive change and aid in the understanding of environmental matters using data from 16-year-olds' use of the…

In Boston, City on a Hill Charter School's commitment to civic education challenges the notion that charter schools are inherently privatizing forces in public education reform. Through expanded choice, inclusive decision making, and localized accountability, charter schools can be a democratizing force that serves multiple publics, including…

A study examined beliefs about language acquisition among seven Spanish-speaking Mexican American mothers with young children (24-37 months) receiving early intervention services for language disabilities. Emerging themes included mothers'"alternative" explanations for children's communication difficulties, mothers' efforts to help…

High-stakes tests seriously threaten excellence and national standards. Unchecked, they will stifle many excellent schools and drive gifted teachers from classrooms. Bad tests, used to make high-stakes decisions, will lead to unnecessarily low standards, undesirable educational practices, shortchanged students, and underprepared citizens.…

Overload and fragmentation combine to reduce educators' motivation for working on reform. Since educational change is essentially nonlinear, existing school cultures and structures are antithetically opposed to systemic reform activities, including networking. The lesson of systemic reform is to adopt strategies that mobilize large numbers of…

Examines the myth of motivational differences in black and white children's success in achievement tasks. Task performance outcomes from 145 children show that when tasks were systematically controlled across age, sex, and race substrata for interest value, racial differences in motivation disappeared. Implications for motivational theory and…

Addresses the relationship of education and training to employment and how this discourse shapes policy and programs for public assistance recipients and dislocated workers. Problematic assumptions about how education and training affect employment are discussed, along with statistical data that raise questions about these assumptions. Race,…

Presents the application of decision-theoretic technique to a computer-based tutoring system for elementary mechanics. Uses sound probabilistic reasoning and a student model to identify learners' misconceptions. Focuses on the integration of Bayesian belief networks, item response theory, decision analysis, and database management systems in…

"All children can learn" has become a simplistic mantra leading to practices that can be harmful to students and unfair to schools. Unintended consequences include establishing accountability based on state-developed tests, downplaying poor children's need for early intervention, and using punishment to motivate school improvement. (MLH)