Presents the Chemical Concepts Inventory (CCI), an inventory that faculty can use to judge the extent of several common alternate conceptions among their students. Demonstrates that students come to general chemistry with a variety of the alternate conceptions described in the research literature. Shows that a traditional general chemistry course…

Relatively little is known about students' conceptions of research and, in particular, whether there are conceptually discrete patterns of variation that can be used to model this phenomenon in terms of research-as-learning outcomes. The present study explores the dimensionality of students' conceptions of research from two complementary research…

A good understanding of dimensional analysis is a needed prerequisite to adequately perform and report quantitative chemical analyses in support of chemical processes. Some common teaching and learning misconceptions related to the volumetric dilution equation are discussed.

Although errors in reasoning about conditional probability have been the focus of interest of psychologists for a long time, the development of conditional reasoning in school students has received little attention. This paper considers the responses of 69 students across grades 3 to 13 in an attempt to model the development of appropriate…

Six unsuccessful attempts at replicating a key finding in the linguistic relativity literature [Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought?: Mandarin and English speakers' conceptions of time. "Cognitive Psychology," 43, 1-22] are reported. In addition to these empirical issues in replicating the original finding, theoretical issues…

Many myths about adolescence have been refuted by research, but similar myths have grown up in recent years around emerging adulthood. This essay addresses three of those myths: the claim that they suffer from a normative "crisis"; the accusations that they are "selfish"; and their alleged reluctance to "grow up" and become adults. For each issue,…

In this article, the author talks about pseudoscientific quack, or a big science story in a national newspaper and explains why science in the media is so often pointless, simplistic, boring, or just plain wrong. It is the author's hypothesis that in their choice of stories, and the way they cover them, the media create a parody of science, for…

Many envisage electricity as the "power" to "do things." They know that electricity needs "circuits" and that something is "flowing" in the circuits, but they are not sure what or why. Words such as "current" and "voltage" are part of electricity but their meaning, and the difference between them, is not always clear. In this article, the authors…

Faithful Christian engagement in education means both being at home and at odds with dominant culture. This stance of critical participation should produce an unbearable tension: can one both live in solidarity and dissent? Yet this unbearable tension is often not present in Christian experience--why? This article suggests four reasons: the…

The rates of overweight in infancy and childhood are rapidly growing. One contributor to the rising tide of childhood obesity, and a target included in many obesity prevention and intervention programs, is television (TV) use. This article examines the amount of media to which young children are exposed, and considers the evidence for the…

The current study addressed how the timing of interviews affected children's memories of unique and repeated events. Five- to six-year-olds (N = 125) participated in activities 1 or 4 times and were misinformed either 3 or 21 days after the only or last event. Although single-experience children were subsequently less accurate in the 21- versus…

Gunther and Diekema (2006) have described a controversial intervention they provided to Ashley, a 6-year-old girl with profound and multiple impairments, which they refer to as "growth-attenuation therapy." This intervention, approved and apparently promoted by the parents, consisted of high doses of estrogen to bring about a permanent attenuation…

This study analyzes the short-term consequences of visitors' use of different types of exhibits (i.e., "exemplars of phenomena" and "analogy based") together with the factors affecting visitors' understanding of and their evaluation of the use of such exhibits. One hundred and twenty five visitors (either alone or in groups) were observed …

Students obtain much misinformation from TV and movies. Teachers can use the analysis of science fiction to correct misconceptions about biology and spur students' interests in the subject. Suggestions for discussions and assignments based on literary-quality science fiction works are included.

This article analyses the varied characteristics of histories of education in Hong Kong and discusses the perspectives that an acquaintance with them can provide. Such a focus encourages consideration of the use of incomplete sources by historians of education, as well as attempts to make sense of past educational developments through…