Provides an overview of the research concerning students' perceptions of foreign nations. Compares and contrasts the various measurement techniques including the two most commonly used; semantic differential scales and pair comparisons. Suggests methods for alternative analysis and offers recommendations for future research. Includes a sample…

Reports on an innovative program that allowed preservice and classroom teachers to have personal experience with a constructivist approach to learning science. Preservice and classroom teachers collaborated to prepare, implement, and evaluate a simple hands-on science-teaching project that focused on learner acquisition of knowledge through active…

Research says the school-improvement mechanisms favored by policymakers-more certification tests (like the Massachusetts Educator Certification Test that 59 percent of candidates failed in 1998), higher cut scores, and severe penalties for institutions not meeting pass rates-are unlikely to deliver increased accountability and better teachers.…

The Alcohol-related Harm Prevention (AHP) program is a normative education and skill-acquisition program designed to reduce serious, long-term alcohol-related harm in college students. Without admonishing students not to drink, which is likely to fail in many student populations, the AHP program attempts to give students the necessary perceptions,…

Despite the ubiquity of the term "inquiry" in science education literature, little is known about how teachers conceptualize inquiry, how these conceptions are formed and reinforced, how they relate to work done by scientists, and if these ideas about inquiry are translated into classroom practice. This is a multicase study in which 14 preservice…

Research shows that misconceptions about human blood circulation and gas exchange persist across grade levels. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to investigate the prevalence and persistence of blood circulation misconceptions among prospective elementary teachers; and (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of learning activities for…

This study describes high school students' conceptual development of the basic astronomical phenomena during real-time interactions with a Virtual Solar System (VSS). The VSS is a non-immersive virtual environment which has a dynamic frame of reference that can be altered by the user. Ten 10th grade students were given tasks containing a set of…

Examining the "natural" athlete myth and utilizing the recent literature on cultural/social factors in athleticism, this study through survey research examines the myth of the 'natural' African American athlete. Participants consist of 301 university students from a large, traditionally White, midwest institution. The primary research…

School nurses often have the responsibility to ensure that students meet all immunization requirements for school entry and school attendance. In large inner-city school districts, many obstacles exist which make this task daunting and often result in lengthy absences and exclusions for students. It is critical that school nurses find creative and…

Southern California serves as the location for the incidents described in this article. An up-and-coming midsize "Christian" university, noted for its yearly rise in the "U.S. News: America's Best Colleges" to the top twenty-five universities of its size, locates and contextualizes these experiences along the author's journey.…

According to the dichotomy popularized by Levy (1995, 1997), computers may be used in language learning in either tutor or tool roles. Recently there has been a waning of interest in tutorial software for language learning in favor of tool-oriented applications. While we do not dispute the value of the computer as a tool, we argue that it is in…

The aims of this study were considered under three headings. The first was to elicit misconceptions that students had about the terms "solute", "solvent" and "solution." The second was to understand how students' prior learning affected their misconceptions. The third was to determine if students were able to make a…

This article describes the outcome of an exercise carried out with one hundred undergraduate student teachers (preservice teachers) enrolled in a Biology Teaching Methods course, a third year course in a four-year Teacher Education Programme. The students, working in groups of three to four, were assigned to construct a concept map showing their…

This standard lesson on identifying salt and sugar crystals expands into an opportunity for students to develop their observation, questioning, and modeling skills. Although sugar and salt may look similar, students discovered that they looked very different under a magnifying glass and behaved differently when dissolved in water. In addition,…

Written by a prominent array of scholars and practitioners, this book elucidates the complexities, contradictions, and confusion surrounding adolescence in American culture and education. For too long, harmful public myths and lies have portrayed teenagers as a principal cause of our nation's social ills. Similar unfair charges have been lodged…