Describes an approach that motivates preservice teachers to become involved in the scientific experience. The approach involves a science demonstration or activity that is done both in and out of class in which students report observations using a Vee diagram. Includes assessment procedures. (DDR)

Argues that when the subject is the distortion of race and the promulgation of bias and stereotyping, even high-quality books are inappropriate for teaching and developing political debate. How these types of books have actually done more harm than good is explained with particular focus on "The Bell Curve" (Herrnstein and Murray, 1994)…

Argues that misunderstanding about the purpose of the salt bridge probably arises from a lack of explicit and adequate information in textbooks. Suggests a detailed teaching approach that describes the purpose of the salt bridge on the microscopic level. (DDR)

Rebuts Pat Ainsley's claims that an article by Coffield had overlooked the (British) government's new lifelong learning legislation's exclusion of higher education and the Learning and Skills Council's glaring deficiencies. Ainsley ignored eight reservations Coffield had made regarding the program's simplistic, probusiness orientation. (MLH)

Investigates the reasons for data fabrication among undergraduate and graduate students. Presents several examples of getting misled by the candle and tumbler demonstration. Concludes that presented facts, concepts, or principles increase the incidence of data cooking. (YDS)

Weak English-as-a-foreign-language students adopt several mistaken strategies to understand text or to perform text-based tasks. This article describes mistaken strategies, provides examples of each, explains the cause or causes of such mistaken approaches, and suggests possible solutions. (Author/VWL)

Describes materials developed for key stage 4 for the improvement of student thinking skills that are used to explain atomic structure and bonding. Tests student understanding by introducing seemingly plausible, yet possibly incorrect, explanations of situations. (Author/YDS)

Analyzes narrative essays--stories of rock formation--written by pre-service elementary school teachers. Reports startling misconceptions among preservice teachers on pebbles that grow, human involvement in rock formation, and sedimentary rocks forming as puddles as dry up, even though these students had completed a college level course on Earth…

Heather-Jane Robertson's "In Canada" column in the May 1999 "Kappan" demonstrated a wish to discredit an organization for ideological and personal reasons. Comments concerning the homogenization of curriculum and the impetus of the School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP) to standardized curriculum are pure hyperbole.…

Presents activities designed to help children experimentally determine what the dark areas of the moon consist of, and compares primary children's ideas about the moon with those of early scientists. (WRM)

Presents hands-on activities to teach about the causes and consequences of strokes. (YDS)

Musicians hold diverse opinions about the value of scientific inquiry in their field. Although some see music-making as a human behavior that can be studied from, say, a psychological perspective, others maintain that music's subjective and almost magical qualities defy scientific explanation. Even within the field of music education there seems…

Students completing a time calculation exercise identified the International Date Line (IDL) as a conceptual source of confusion and poor performance. From the early 1950s to the present, various geography textbooks have promulgated misstatements involving the occurrence of midnight at the IDL. This condition's persistence and ubiquity manifests a…

In this article, we examine the role of visuospatial cognition in chemistry learning. We review three related kinds of literature: correlational studies of spatial abilities and chemistry learning, students' conceptual errors and difficulties understanding visual representations, and visualization tools that have been designed to help overcome…

Individuals' mental maps of the world are highly misrepresentative of the actual world. Availability in memory partly explains the reasons for this misrepresentation. When asked to place the 50 states in their correct locations, students have difficulty with states not in close proximity to their own because of availability, such that the…