In this article I aim to explore some philosophical issues involved in teaching religion in Cyprus and suggest some preconditions in order for this teaching to be sensitive to the multicultural character of the island and conducive to the vision of reconciliation and reunification. First, I shall clarify some particularities of the political…

In the international community of mathematics and science educators the intuitive rules theory developed by the Israeli researchers Tirosh and Stavy receives much attention. According to this theory, students' responses to a variety of mathematical and scientific tasks can be explained in terms of their application of some common intuitive rules.…

When we consider the gap between mathematics at elementary and secondary levels, and given the logical nature of mathematics at the latter level, it can be seen as important that the aspects of children's logical development in the upper grades in elementary school be clarified. In this study we focus on the teaching and learning of "division with…

Students were surveyed to determine their beliefs and expectations prior to taking their Principles of Marketing class. The students were surveyed on the first day of class before any introduction to the course. The students were asked eight open-ended questions to determine their knowledge and awareness about marketing as a field of study. The…

Students need to enter the interconnected global community with an understanding of how different cultures perceive the world, how the cultures and societies of today evolved from those of the past, and how all peoples impact the development of future societies. Unfortunately, time constraints or lack of resources in schools cause many social…

The myths and misconceptions about Tourette's Syndrome (TS), as illustrated by the collective title of these three parts of this article, have far-reaching implications for the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. The aims of the articles are to address and rectify misconceptions, to create an awareness and better understanding of the…

The aim of this study was to identify the type of conceptual change (assimilation or accommodation) that can be induced by a refutational text. Individual interviews were carried out with a stratified sample of eighty-seven grade 9 students. Forty-four percent of them were found to have a misconception about the concept of ecological role--they…

In a rebuttal of Easterlin (1995), Hagerty and Veenhoven (2003) analyze data for 21 countries and conclude that "growing national income does go with greater happiness." But the U.S. experience does not support this conclusion, which they obtain only by mixing together two sets of noncomparable surveys. Moreover, the result of studies of European…

Several years ago, an interaction occurred in a classroom at the Arlitt Child and Family Research and Education Center, University of Cincinnati. It startled the teacher into an awareness of the fears, stereotypes, misconceptions, and biases that young children continue to harbor about American Indian people, a half century after her own…

As a post-9/11 society in the United States, people live in a complex and pluralistic world that pushes to rethink how to approach education. People want to know what is right and good, but how to discern this in a world where consensual understandings of meaning are missing, even within the nation's borders? Those in the northern, and…

In order for the sociological study of disability to enable, then it must be ready to conceptualize complex terrains of knowledge and activism. Research has to work alongside disabled people, their allies, their practices, their resistances and their theorizing. This paper makes a case for a framework of understanding that situates such work.…

The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) on eleventh grade students' understanding of "The effects of temperature, concentration and pressure on cell potential" and also their social skills. Stratified randomly selected control and experimental groups with 20 students each were used in…

This study aims to better understand the construction of the meaning of physics concepts in mechanics during a teaching sequence at the upper secondary school level. In the teaching sessions, students were introduced to the concepts of interaction and force. During this teaching sequence the models called "interactions" and "laws of…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) (In)formative Assessments: New Tests and Activities Can Help Teachers Guide Student Learning (Robert Rothman); (2) Recent Research on the Achievement Gap: How Lifestyle…

This study explores the effectiveness of conceptual change oriented instruction and standard science instruction and contribution of logical thinking ability on seventh grade students' understanding of heat and temperature concepts. Misconceptions related to heat and temperature concepts were determined by related literature on this subject.…