Investigates 53 11-year-old children's understanding of the concepts of force and energy using a modified interview-about-instances technique. Identifies three frameworks which appeared to guide the pupil's thinking, only one of which was consistent with the accepted scientific definitions. Reports sex differences related to the frameworks.…

A sample of 144 college students responded to content- and application-based questions derived from popular newspaper and magazine articles on contemporary health topics. Overall rate of reader misunderstanding was nearly 40 percent, with a uniform error rate for each of 16 articles, leading to a conclusion that consumer misunderstanding of…

BASIC programing was taught to 95 undergraduates from a manual emphasizing the language's syntax or from a manual that included additional material on the underlying semantics. Both approaches produced equivalent learning of syntactic features of BASIC; however, semantically trained students developed fewer misconceptions and performed better on…

Explores how some of the work in the history and philosophy of science might develop a more adequate understanding of students' untutored ideas. Describes how students' views can be interpreted. Explains and discusses the merits of commonsense-scientific theory analogy. (YP)

Lists essential information about the Arctic Ocean which should be taught in elementary social studies courses, and which teacher training programs should cover. Discusses popular misconceptions regarding the Arctic Ocean and factors, such as the coloration on maps and globes, which lead to these misconceptions. (LS)

Examines how readers overcome their misconceptions about the principles of motion. Finds that students overcome misconceptions when their prior knowledge is activated, regardless of whether they read text that supports or refutes those misconceptions. Finds that students using several processing strategies have an advantage over students using…

Issues a call to action for educators concerned with African American students' education. Depicts the undemocratic, unjust features of urban children's surroundings and dispels some common misconceptions. City schools can become palaces of learning. Whereas education can open doors, minds, and possibilities, schools seem overly concerned with…

Rather than avoid stress, superintendents need to control and use it to their advantage. They should become familiar with the stress cycle, which progresses from stress traps through perceived stress, coping responses, and consequences (burnout). Superintendents can avoid burnout by focusing on important matters, confronting conflict positively,…

Written questionnaires were given to (n=213) preuniversity students to assess their judgments of association and their solution strategies with contingency tables in statistics. Compares results with previous psychological research. Qualitative analysis found three misconceptions concerning statistical association. Includes questionnaire.…

Discusses Vygotsky's theories about concept formation, his distinctions between everyday and theoretical concepts, and how empirical generalizations can lead to misconceptions. Examines the implications of these theories for mathematics instruction and its relationship to the current mathematics reform. (34 references) (MDH)

This article reports on a study that was designed to describe prospective elementary teachers' prior verbal and diagrammatic knowledge about various aspects of light, seeing, shadows, and mirror images. Data were collected through individual interviews using simple apparatus. Included are some inferences about how students' ideas may have emerged…

Although student achievement in most subjects has not declined over recent decades, there is little room for complacency. This article debunks four myths: there really was no SAT decline; test scores are at all-time highs; the top half of American students are internationally competitive; and the American education crisis is not general but…

Discusses students' understanding of the qualitative conservation of matter and how this understanding is influenced by previous instruction in chemistry and task variables. Results show the influence of group membership, task content, and problem context on students' performance. (ZWH)

Analyzes students' attempts to answer examination questions involving stoichiometry and chemical equilibrium and reports that the majority of the students do not fully understand either concept. Concludes that the main difficulty with these topics is that they are highly abstract and first taught to students before they have reached the stage of…

Presents a simple experiment--a marble rolling on a tilted desk--to introduce students to moving bodies. Makes difficult subjects such as measurement, calculus, modeling, and uncertainty easier to identify by putting them into a simple context. Discusses misconceptions, models, and measurements. (JRH)