Summarizes recent findings of empirical research in science education concerning students with disabilities. Discusses learning characteristics of disabled students, effective instructional strategies including text-based interventions and inquiry-oriented interventions, and inclusion practices. Contains 70 references. (WRM)

Reports the existence of patterns of reasoning that are common to students' conceptions in different areas of mechanics. Finds that the common frameworks between different ideas have a generality level that lies between Piaget's stage theory and the approach of alternative conceptions. Contains 30 references. (Author/WRM)

Explores African students' use of traditional Sotho cultural metaphoric reasoning in classifying everyday situations as "hot" or "cold" in order to document the extent to which such metaphoric reasoning is related to science misconceptions of heating. Finds that university students were able to distinguish between types of…

Favored explanations for the achievement gap between black and white students reflect experts' positions on the ideological spectrum, while overlooking fundamental problems with the educational delivery system. The situation of black students is not hopeless, thanks to new research that abandons whites' academic performance as the norm and…

Describes the difficulties that high school and university students have in thinking about force, identifying forces, and drawing force diagrams. Finds that students using a computer tutoring program made limited progress in learning to construct free-body diagrams because of their alternative conceptions and faulty teaching methods. Offers…

Organizes a reading of the conceptual change literature that brings into view a collection of design specifications for a conceptual change apparatus. Analyzes one such apparatus in the particulars of a science education demonstration program produced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Private Universe Project. (Contains 114 references.) (Author/WRM)

Explores the tension between subject knowledge and pedagogic content knowledge in elementary teacher education by documenting students' and inservice teachers' learning about forces in the context of floating and sinking. Describes significant features of the learning process and examines subject-specific aspects of learning by demonstrating how…

Investigates 5th and 6th grade students' learning when taught with the aid of dome and computer planetaria. Finds both planetaria equally effective with female pupils. Recommends the use of planetaria, which might enable females to catch up with males in areas that place heavy demands on spatial ability such as astronomy. (Contains 16 references.)…

Describes the MAOF physics education program which is designed to relate large parts of mechanics and electromagnetism to each other via the key concepts of field and potential, while at the same time treat students' conceptual difficulties. Finds that students who studied with the MAOF program significantly improved their physics knowledge…

Two national reform movements--one focused on creating small, autonomous schools, the other fixated on a standardization agenda--are basically in conflict. The standards movement is touting the traditional, top-down, centralized, bureaucratic system modeled after Frederick Taylor and his efficiency experts. Progressive, decentralized initiatives…

Describes an exhibition on radiation and the environment. Reviews students' and lay people's conceptions and how conceptions and constructivism can guide exhibition development. Considers whether such an exhibition can facilitate cognitive change and aid in the understanding of environmental matters using data from 16-year-olds' use of the…

In Boston, City on a Hill Charter School's commitment to civic education challenges the notion that charter schools are inherently privatizing forces in public education reform. Through expanded choice, inclusive decision making, and localized accountability, charter schools can be a democratizing force that serves multiple publics, including…

A study examined beliefs about language acquisition among seven Spanish-speaking Mexican American mothers with young children (24-37 months) receiving early intervention services for language disabilities. Emerging themes included mothers'"alternative" explanations for children's communication difficulties, mothers' efforts to help…

High-stakes tests seriously threaten excellence and national standards. Unchecked, they will stifle many excellent schools and drive gifted teachers from classrooms. Bad tests, used to make high-stakes decisions, will lead to unnecessarily low standards, undesirable educational practices, shortchanged students, and underprepared citizens.…

Overload and fragmentation combine to reduce educators' motivation for working on reform. Since educational change is essentially nonlinear, existing school cultures and structures are antithetically opposed to systemic reform activities, including networking. The lesson of systemic reform is to adopt strategies that mobilize large numbers of…