As the shock of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was drawing down, the author decided to peruse the International Relations (IR) textbooks on his home and office shelves to determine what students would find to help them make sense out of the events that so stunned the nation. Consulting ten different textbooks, he found "sloppy…

This report focuses on school superintendents--those currently in the position and those in the pipeline. The report reaffirms the importance of the superintendency, raises concerns about the lack of national data collection on school superintendents, and concludes that Americans need more demographic information about, and increased understanding…

This paper focuses on lexical ambiguity. With respect to mathematics classrooms, polysemy has been mentioned as one of the principal concerns, namely certain words having different but related meanings. It may also happen when different meanings of a word are presumed in everyday context and in another environment, in this case in mathematics…

Explains the myth and the reality surrounding the source of the cloud produced from the reaction of dry ice with water. (DKM)

Home economics is often denigrated for requiring little intellect. There is a strong cultural bias that undervalues sewing and relegates it to "handedness" instead of the loftier "headedness." According to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, the two do not stand in opposition. Handiwork is a spatial intellectual…

Describes a constructivist approach to teaching about the phases of the moon. Addresses student misconceptions and encourages students to focus on the causes of the phases of the moon. (JRH)

Introduces Sense-Making, an alternative methodology which allows an insight into a person's perception of reality. Interviews science teachers following a viewing of "Jurassic Park" to investigate the relationship of the movie to their ontological view of science, society, and self. (Author/MVL)

Discusses the value of journal assignments for diagnosing and trouble-shooting misconceptions and for helping with lesson plans. Examples of assignments are included as well as student responses. (AIM)

Reports on discussions with a year 10-group, following their first lesson on heat energy transfer, that revealed they still had not realized that insulation acted as a barrier; instead they saw it as an active warming agent. Describes a teaching method based on a woollen hat that challenges their naive ideas. (Author/JRH)

Highlights five unsupported but popular notions about homework and offers five reality-based perspectives on the subject. It explains that homework is not the panacea to schools' problems, that it does not foster discipline and personal responsibility, and that parents do not always want their children to receive homework, particularly in the…

Examines whether first-grade students adopted misconceptions about temperature from the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and whether they could make conceptual changes when presented with activities that challenged the misconceptions. Results indicate that students adopted misconceptions embedded in the story but made conceptual…

Investigates students' changes in conception about diffused shadows during Nussbaum and Novick's suggested sequence of teaching. Reports that (a) students'"entering" ideas were unstable, (b) language and materialistic views of light influenced students' ideas, (c) students' ideas were influenced by group concepts of the nature of light,…

Addresses Lawson's (2002) interpretations of Galileo's discovery of the moons of Jupiter and other cases that exhibit historical errors. Suggests that such cases can distort history and lessons about the nature of science. (SOE)

Describes interesting problems encountered when building a model of the solar system in an elementary classroom. Uses mathematics and technology to help solve problems and answer questions. Finds that investigating misconceptions can lead to exciting science lessons. (NB)

Examines students' misconceptions and proposed mechanisms related to current flow in electrolyte solutions and the salt bridge. Confirms reported misconceptions and identifies several new ones. Discusses probable sources of misconceptions and some methods for preventing them. Contains 27 references. (JRH)