To meet the need for factual and objective information relating to public schools, this report examines the following perceptions about American education: (1) trends in SAT scores show a decline in the quality of public education; (2) schools are costing more and producing less; (3) reducing the educational bureaucracy will free much money needed…

This study explored the effect of experiential and experience-based approaches to learning and instruction on transitional first grade students' (a) acquisition and use of economic concepts and (b) economic reasoning ability as indicated by the presence or absence of misconceptions about economic concepts. A pretest-posttest control group design…

I wrote the "Myths and Realities About Technology in K-12 Schools" article (Kleiman, 2000) in 1999. Looking back at it 5 years later as it is appears as a "seminal article" in "Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education," I find myself reflecting about what has changed and what has remained the same with…

The purpose of this study was to discover what teachers believe about problem solving in mathematics and to what extent their beliefs are reflected in the beliefs of students. Ten 5th-grade teachers in a large rural school district volunteered to participate. Each teacher identified one student perceived as successful and one perceived as…

A great number of misconceptions in diverse subject areas as well as across age levels have been documented and described. Photosynthesis is one of the more intensively studied areas in biology. The purpose of this research was to carefully select and define misconceptions about photosynthesis needing remedial efforts. To achieve this, a specially…

Selections of papers from the seventeenth annual conference of the Australian Science Education Research Association are presented in this volume of Research in Science Education (RISE). A diversity of themes are addressed and include new topic areas as well as concerns that have been cited in previous issues of RISE. The papers focus on such…

Perspectives on concept mapping and its benefits to students in the learning of scientific concepts are presented in this paper. A concept map is defined as a two-dimensional heirarchical representation of concepts which indicates the relationship between the selected concepts. Aspects of concept mapping addressed in this review include: (1) its…

In this paper examples of the role of analogical reasoning in expert problem solving are presented. These are intended to show that using an analogy can change an expert's understanding of a problem situation by changing the conceptual model he or she uses to think about the situation. This suggests that using a good analogy may allow students to…

In this study 34 spontaneous analogies produced by 16 college freshmen while solving qualitative physics problems are analyzed. A number of the analogies were invalid in the sense that they led to an incorrect answer from the physicist's point of view. However, many were valid, and a few were powerful in the sense that they seemed not only to help…

The concept of probability is not an easy concept for high school and college students to understand. This paper identifies and analyzes the students' alternative frameworks from the viewpoint of constructivism. There are various interpretations of probability through mathematical history: classical, frequentist, and subjectivist interpretation.…

The purpose of this study was mainly to: (1) assess the competencies of pre-service biology teachers in identifying and correcting student misconceptions about photosynthesis; (2) search for relationships which might exist between each competency and a set of four independent variables, namely, background knowledge about photosynthesis,…

This paper reviews several studies on aptitude treatment interaction, the interaction between the learners' individual differences and methods of instruction. Specifically, it investigates the relationship between previous knowledge, including previously held misconceptions, and instructional methods. It is suggested that significant interactions…

Discusses the need to consider students' pre-existing conceptual schemes when teaching chemistry. Reports on a study done in Spain which indicates that the existence of adolescents preconceptions about gases is important to consider when teaching the principles of conservation of substance, mass, and weight. (TW)

Reviews the purposes, underlying assumptions, and curriculum development model for the United Kingdom's "Children's Learning in Science Project." Explains the general features and phases of the constructivist approach to learning that the program advocates. Identifies theoretical developments on children's ideas, the constructivist view…

Describes a program for sixth grade students developed by the Methacton School District (Norristown, PA) Planetarium staff. Provides brief outlines of eight teaching units designed to provide students with hands-on activities in astronomy. Includes a reproducible worksheet for an activity which involves students in creating and decoding…