Finds that collaborative group work among pre-service elementary teachers stimulated increased levels of discussion and fostered deeper conceptual understanding than did traditional instructional methods. Discusses implications for science education in Fiji and similar places. (Contains 37 references.) (Author/WRM)

A participant in Minnesota's standards-based reform initiative claims Wade Nelson, in his May 1998 "Kappan" article, is misinformed about teachers' exclusion from this movement. The standards constitute a minimal competence level in reading, math, and writing, were developed cooperatively, and have raised teacher expectations of…

Debra Eckerman's response to the author's May 1998 "Kappan" article shows she sincerely, but mistakenly believes that the Minnesota standards-based reform movement will raise academic expectations for all students by attempting to control educational outcomes. Teachers should jettison their complacency to improve professionalism and…

This article evaluates the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary social work and law curriculum for domestic violence. A pretest-posttest control group design with both law and social work students indicates that the course effectively increased: (1) knowledge about domestic violence theory and practice and differential roles, duties, and…

This study investigated the health-related concerns of adolescents living on streets as compared to poor and privileged adolescents living with their families in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The different groups of respondents were similar in terms of individuals' fear of disease and lack of concern about health in old age. AIDS and cancer were feared by…

This study examined students' alternative conceptions of reptiles and amphibians and the extent to which these conceptions remain intact through the elementary (grades 4 and 6), junior, and senior high school years. We administered multiple-choice and free-response instruments to a total of 513 students and interviewed at least 20 students at each…

In this paper I present a pedagogical method called Writing Answers to Learn (WAL) which combines Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Exploratory Writing to address the interrelated pedagogical problems of misconceptions, resistance, retention, and transfer. I analyze the use of this combined method in a course on racial and ethnic relations and…

A troubling aspect of international schools is their dearth of academic discourse. Mark Bray has observed that two characteristics of international schools contribute to such a lack of research: first, the smallness of the sector; and second, and more important, the fact that such schools lie outside the mainstream local education system, serving…

"National Science Education Standards" (1996), published by the National Research Council, recommends that students learn to explain Moon phases and eclipses by the time they graduate from eighth grade. It is clear from the research literature, however, that misconceptions about Moon phases and eclipses are widespread and resistant to change, even…

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of problem-based active learning in science education on students' academic achievement and concept learning. In the study, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were utilized. Quantitative data were obtained via the pre/post-test, treatment-control groups test model. Qualitative data…

This article is the first of a two-part review of research on children's and adults understanding of gravity and on how best to teach gravity concepts to students and teachers. This first article concerns free fall--how and why objects fall when they are dropped. The review begins with a brief historical sketch of how these ideas were developed in…

An administrator's daily life is full of decisions that often involve an "on the spot" solution. This paper discusses some of the principles involved in drawing inferences in research and decision making, and describes how a knowledge of decision-making errors can help administrators. The paper also describes a case study that…

This newsletter includes five articles on immigrant education that focus on successful school programs and educational policy issues. In "Immigrant Education from the Administrators' Perspective" (Pam McCollum, Juanita Garcia), three principals of south Texas secondary schools with successful immigrant programs discuss their views on the…

This book reports on the findings of a 3-year research project, Learning in Science, carried out in New Zealand. It documents the teacher development process for a group of science teachers as they used new teaching activities to take into account students' thinking, constructivist views of learning, and alternative conceptions. The professional…

The Probability Inquiry Environment (PIE) is being designed as a computer-mediated collaborative inquiry environment to aid middle school students in learning elementary probability. This paper reports on a study in which seventh grade students engaged in probabilistic reasoning while interacting with a preliminary version of PIE. By analyzing the…