Educational reforms fail because they are usually based on certain myths about training, advocacy, theory, knowledge dissemination, complete restructuring, paradigm shifts, and small-scale studies. These misconceptions result in wasted resources for staff development and dissemination, few professional validation standards, repeat cycles of…

Discusses the scheme and findings of a study designed to identify the conceptual knowledge used by high school students to solve a significant problem related to osmosis. Useful tips are provided to teachers to aid students in developing constructs that maximize understanding. (ZWH)

Although the concept of diffusion is thought to be simple and easily understood by most students, research studies revealed that many misconceptions regarding diffusion exist among secondary education students as well as college freshmen. Describes a study designed to seek out the causes for these misconceptions and to find ways to eliminate them.…

Summarizes a study addressing two common misconceptions on U.S. college campuses: that choice of friendships is random and that minorities are given preferential treatment by faculty and administrators. Survey results (with 144 Caucasians and 69 minority students) showed that teachers often had low expectations of minorities and that socialization…

Critiques school reform evaluation and common misconceptions about it. The article warns against using evaluation to sort students in ways that hinder them from gaining quality education or force teachers into implementing school changes that are unresponsive to students' learning problems. Study findings involving school improvement efforts are…

General Motors Corporation's disastrous experiment with robots holds valuable lessons for school reform. Consumer choice can signal when reform is needed, but it identifies no magic bullets for achieving reforms. Market-based initiatives can succeed when based on five principles stressing worker understanding, incentives and problem-solving…

Examines the relationships and development of communities of concepts related to heat and convection among fifth grade students. Discusses the influence of familial and cultural experiences on conceptual development as well as the extent to which competing phenomena affect the development of new conceptual understandings. (Contains 49 references.)…

Researchers have found no stable relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement or other desirable behaviors. In psychological studies, the most self-assured subjects were more likely to want to harm someone. Healthy self-esteem comes from achievement. Schools should support and promote accomplishment over "feel-good"…

Answers a critique of the historical accuracy of the author's previous work. Argues that all science stories provide a source of material for analysis and synthesis of the nature of the scientific enterprise. (WRM)

Describes a study performed in a microbial physiology course to increase students' self awareness of their misconceptions, promote sound research techniques, develop written and oral communication skills, stimulate metacognition, and improve team work and interpersonal relationship skills. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/YDS)

For the past two decades, a growing amount of research has shown that the use of analogies in science teaching and learning promotes meaningful understanding of complex scientific concepts (Gentner, [1983]; Glynn, [1989]; Harrison & Treagust, [1993]; Wong, [1993]). This article presents a study in which multiple analogies were used as scaffolding…

This article describes the activities that fifth-grade students experienced when learning about the moon, its phases, and eclipses. It illustrates how mathematics and science can be integrated to enhance the learning of both. (Contains 3 figures.)

How should a teacher respond when a student makes off-base guesses about meaning in a literary text because that learner is trying to genuinely understand the story rather than find the "right" meaning? Aukerman argues that when teachers jump in to correct students' interpretations, they short-circuit students' processes of reading and thinking.…

The basic theory of Rasch measurement applies to situations where a person has a certain level of a trait being investigated, and this level of ability is what determines (to within a measurement error) how well the person does on each item in a test. This paper responds to frequent suggestions from colleagues that the use of Rasch measurement…

Two astronomy professors, using the Decoding the Disciplines process, help their students use abstract theories to analyze light and to visualize the enormous scale of astronomical concepts. (Contains 5 figures.)