Background/Context: The theoretical framework of the paper comes from research on problem solving, considered by many to be the essence of mathematics; research on the importance of oral language in learning mathematics; and on the importance of the teacher as the primary instrument of learning mathematics for most students. As a nation, we are…

While the use of ethnographic and qualitative research methods has spread across many fields of educational inquiry, until recently this has had little impact on research in science education. However, there is currently a methodological shift taking place in this area, prompted by the rise of a sociocultural perspective on cognition, which sees…

This article focuses on the impact of schooling on teachers through an exploration of the teaching of Science and English to Year 10 pupils in a metropolitan area in the north of England. Data was collected from 15 case studies through semi-structured interviews with the teacher, a lesson observation, and a post-observation interview with a sample…

This study analyzed graphical solutions of 344 students in grades 4 through college who were administered a 40-item assessment of basic fraction concepts. Of particular interest were six problems that required students to complete the whole given a fractional part presented in area contexts and set contexts. Results indicated that fourth graders…

This paper describes the development of a diagnostic test to assess teachers' understanding of the learning cycle and highlights common misconceptions identified through the administration of the diagnostic instrument. The Learning Cycle Test was administered to 28 undergraduate students enrolled in elementary science methods who had received…

In 1991, after 25 workers died in a fire in a rural North Carolina poultry-processing plant, reporters exposed the exploitation that workers had endured and the company's callous disregard for workers' safety. This paper draws on the story of the fire and its victims to challenge some popular assumptions about poverty in general; rural poverty in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a problem solving based instructional model on earth science students' achievement and alternative frameworks. Students' opinions toward the instructional method were also investigated. The investigations employed a pretest/posttest control group design to detect any significant change.…

People who suffer from body dysmorphic disorder believe that their body is defected and that this defect makes them ugly. Their distorted body image can be precipitated by many internal and external factors and as a result of their imagined defect, these normal-appearing individuals exhibit self-defeating behaviors. The disorder can lead to the…

This research explores the moment-by-moment understanding students exhibit in the learning of a non-physical science domain--the human circulatory system. The goal was to understand how students learn by capturing the nature of their initial mental models (naive conceptions), and by seeing how new information gets assimilated into their mental…

This study presents a quantitative method for scoring concept maps generated by students learning introductory college chemistry. Concept maps measure the amount of chemical information the student possesses, reasoning ability in chemistry, and specific misconceptions about introductory and physical chemistry concepts. They provide a visualization…

This paper examines how temporal and spatial observation variables can drastically alter a visitor's comprehension of the phenomena depicted by a museum exhibit. The focus is on a tornado exhibit at the Exploratorium, a museum of science and human perception in San Francisco (California). Videotaped recordings of 10 children interacting with the…

This paper reports the results of two empirical studies which explored the information seeking behaviour of engineering and law students in Ireland. Findings reveal similar patterns in the information seeking behaviour between students studying to become professionals and information seeking patterns of these groups identified in the Leckie et al.…

The concern of this paper is how people in organizations understand the dynamics of an organization's practices. The way that organizational culture influences advising systems is considered. The focus is on how people understand the function of academic advising and the influence of three concepts of culture (cognitive, symbolic, and…

By studying many observations from recent research dealing with beginning physics students' conceptions about forces and motion, this investigation produced a framework within which this research can be organized. The framework summarizes the mechanisms of force invoked by students in particular situations, and it describes the features of…

This study focused on misconceptions related to light and vision. Researchers administered diagnostic tests about light, vision, and color before and after instruction to 227 fifth-grade students over a 2-year period. They also conducted 11 clinical interviews. The tests and interviews revealed that almost all students shared certain…