Word problems as used within the culture of mathematics education often promote a suspension of sense making by the students. In the papers in this issue, an alternative conceptualization of word problems is proposed that calls for mathematical modelling that takes real world knowledge into account. (SLD)

A study of 90 children in third, fourth, and fifth grade investigated the students' ability to detect the idioms embedded in 12 humorous items and their ability to explain the idioms. Results showed that idiom comprehension improved significantly between the ages of 8 and 11 years and that idiom detection was easier than idiom explanation. (CR)

Chest pain was identified as a specific medical problem space, and disease classes were modeled to define it. Results from a test taken by 628 medical residents indicate a second-order factor structure that suggests that chest pain is a multidimensional problem space. Implications for medical education are discussed. (SLD)

Studied the efforts of Hong Kong to embrace information technology (IT) in education, focusing on a survey of IT skills and attitudes among four cohorts of incoming college freshmen. Findings for 2,330 students over the 4 years show that in each successive year freshmen report higher levels of computer skills and greater confidence in using…

Agricultural communications students (n=330) from 11 universities were most aware of biotechnology effects on food, less aware of effects on health and the environment. They were somewhat accepting of genetic modifications for plants, not humans. Sources of biotechnology knowledge were science classes, labs, and university professors' beliefs.…

Reviews the framework of the original Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, a scheme for classifying educational goals, objectives, and standards, describing how the revised Taxonomy differs from the original. The paper discusses the newly developed Taxonomy Table, examining its two dimensions (cognitive processes and knowledge) and illustrating how…

Examines communication about contraception and specific knowledge of oral contraceptives (OCs) in a sample of Norwegian high school students. More females than males discussed contraception at least monthly. Discussions were predominantly held with peers and not adults. Females were far more knowledgeable about OCs than males. The most significant…

The complex relationship between cognitive developmental research and children's science curricula is explored, focusing on the tendency to attribute shortcomings in performance to the child's age, the confounding of weak knowledge with developmentally based deficiency, and emphasis of stage-based constraints on children's thinking. (SLD)

Three experiments involving 350 undergraduates addressed whether implicit learning is sensitive to a subject's entire range of learning or whether explicit knowledge is an important factor in the more complex learning of an artificial grammar. Results suggest that implicit learning occurs only at the simplest level of complexity. (SLD)

Researchers administered surveys to college zoology students prior to, and immediately following a study of evolutionary theory, to assess their understanding and acceptance of evidence supporting the theory. Results showed students had many misconceptions about the theory. Their beliefs interfered with their ability to objectively view scientific…

Uses survey data from a 1994 United States Senate campaign in Missouri to show that using TV news for political and government information is positively associated with knowledge about candidates and not associated with cynicism toward politicians. Notes that results run counter to the popular notion that television news causes declines in…

Assessed the risk, protective, alcohol and other drug (AOD) knowledge and attitudes, and AOD behavior of 1,797 high-risk youth ages 12 to 19. Results from the survey suggest that the more protective the behavior, the greater the AOD knowledge and positive attitude, and the lower the risk of AOD behavior. (SLD)

Studied the informal knowledge of 36 seven-year-old children of a variety of physical angle situations represented by physical models. Children had an excellent knowledge of all the situations presented, but specific features of each situation strongly hindered recognition of the common features that define the angle concept. (SLD)

Reports a study that examined how knowledgeable certified athletic trainers were about HIV/AIDS and that investigated their attitudes toward treating the injuries of HIV-positive athletes. Surveys indicated that they were moderately knowledgeable and had constructive attitudes. Their major concern was fear of HIV transmission. (SM)

Two experiments examined how 5- and 10-year-olds revised their category representations when exposed to exemplars that were congruent or incongruent with existing knowledge. Findings indicated that judgments about feature co-occurrent within the learned category were influenced by both stereotypical beliefs and exemplar observation. Stereotypical…