Describes a study of high school students' and chemistry teachers' understanding of the gas laws which focused on the application of scientific concepts in practical situations instead of mathematical calculations in theoretical situations. (Contains 13 references.) (WRM)

Describes an assessment of science student teachers' knowledge of biological concepts performed before and after their one-year Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course. Finds little improvement in subject knowledge following training or in subsequent teaching of the concepts during the PGCE year. Suggests ways to improve science…

Presents the results of a study of elementary science teaching methods. Finds that teachers participating in the study always elicit children's ideas prior to science instruction, and thus consider student ideas to be important. Also finds that students perceived that their ideas were important whether or not the teachers addressed those ideas in…

Excoriates a (British) National Educational Research Academy consultation paper for its inadequate representation of educational research and its misconception of research's role and purpose as solely short-term and practical. The paper portends an absolute standardization of research purposes, procedures, reporting, and dissemination. (MLH)

The reform documents of the 1990s stressed that science is not practiced by a rigid scientific method, but science texts continue to describe the process as if it were rigid and linear. The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (a) to explore middle school in-service teachers' perceptions of scientific methodology and (b) to explore ways in…

This article describes a technology-based approach for dealing with a misconception that some students hold concerning the equivalency of geometric transformations. Students can begin to conceptualize transformations in terms of the relationship between preimage and image figures rather than focus on the motion of a figure. (Contains 7 figures.)

The expectations, attributions, and reactions toward children and youth who have contracted HIV/AIDS warrant close attention from parents, teachers, related service personnel, and others who will interact with these students in the schools. Those who are misinformed or unaware of their beliefs may inadvertently discriminate against children and…

While simulations have widely been used to facilitate conceptual change in learning science, results indicate that significant disparity or gap between students' prior conceptions and scientific conceptions still exists. To bridge the gap, we argue that the applications of computer simulation in science education should be broadened to enable…

Although many research studies report students' Lamarckian misconceptions, only a few studies present learning and teaching strategies that focus on the successful development of the concept of natural selection. The learning and teaching strategy for upper secondary students (aged 15-16) presented in this study conducted in The Netherlands is…

We questioned 285 undergraduate students enrolled in human development and educational psychology courses about their perceptions of issues related to giftedness. Participants responded to statements that reflect potential myths or misconceptions related to development, family relations, emotional functioning, and social functioning among…

In the first issue of "Australian Educational Computing," in 1986, Cumming and Abbott reported a controlled comparison of top-down and bottom-up teaching strategies for Grade 5 and 6 students' use of a simple logic programming language. They found that both strategies were rated highly by students and teachers, and gave useful learning;…

In November, 2005, an article entitled "No train no gain" (Thorp, 2005) quietly appeared in "The Australian." In the closing paragraphs of the article, the President of the Australian Computer Society placed the blame for the falling number of students enrolling in IT courses at university on how IT is taught in our schools.…

The relationship between research and policy and practice in education is a long-standing issue in many countries. Focusing on the UK Government, which is responsible for education in England, this paper looks at the criticisms of education research that have been made in recent years by government and related non-departmental public bodies and…

Although electromagnetism is an important component of upper secondary school physics syllabuses in many countries, there has been relatively little research on students' understanding of the topic. A written test consisting of 16 diagnostic questions was developed and used to survey the understanding of electromagnetism of upper secondary school…

This paper sets out to critically challenge five interrelated assumptions prominent in the (human resource development) HRD literature. These relate to: the exploitation of labour in enhancing shareholder value; the view that employees are co-contributors to and co-recipients of HRD benefits; the distinction between HRD and human resource…