The most general conclusion from analyzing 702 high school students' answers to questionnaires is that many students confuse different major environmental problems, particularly global warming and ozone-layer depletion. There is also a student linking of radioactive contamination, acid rain, and biodiversity reduction. (PR)

Describes how Connecticut high school students and teachers perceived the role of physics as it is taught in the schools. It also reports student performance on a set of questions concerning mechanics that was designed to test their knowledge of basic principles. (PR)

Describes collaborations of college French classes using electronic mail. Suggests that this type of task-oriented learning through distance-communication is applicable at many different course levels and has considerable merit as an approach to teaching and learning. (PR)

Analyzed questionnaire responses of 152 prospective secondary mathematics teachers, 10 of whom were interviewed, to investigate their knowledge of the concept of function. Results indicated that many did not have a modern concept of function, a limitation that influenced their pedagogical approach. (Contains 45 references.) (MDH)

Middle school students' (n=200) solutions to division-with-remainder story problems and their attempts to make sense of their answers were analyzed for evidence that supported or refuted hypothesized semantic-processing models. The models helped explain students' failure to solve these problems in school settings. (Contains 17 references.)…

Explored relationships between 137 grade-8 cognitive items used in the 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress and selected themes from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics'"Standards." About half the items related to four "Standards" themes, with most of those being related to problem solving and reasoning. (MDH)

Examined cognitive processing and performance of 12 average seventh-grade students during cooperative problem solving. Factors that impeded performance included lack of an experiential framework, imposition of unrequired restrictions, lack of individual monitoring of cognitive activity, and unproductive beliefs. Factors that enhanced performance…

Discusses the contributions in each chapter of the book, highlighting the textbook analyses for each arithmetic topic presented. (MDH)

Describes a program in second-grade Dutch mathematics classes that emphasizes mental addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers up to 100. Deals with a strategy of counting by 10s from any number. (Contains 56 references.) (RLB)

Discusses advances in mathematics education research in relation to recent reform efforts. Proposes a collaborative to build a mathematics education community of people working together to conceptualize and carry out research on mathematics teaching and learning. (MDH)

Annotated listing of research summaries, articles, and dissertations in mathematics education research reported in 1992. Grade or age levels are indicated for each citation. Articles and dissertations are indexed by mathematics education topic. Includes a list of the journals searched. (MDH)

Reports on a study of written protocols by 147 children, ages 7-14. Comparisons were made between those who were asked to debate an issue (formal discourse) and those who were asked to defend an opinion (natural discourse). Finds that older children were able to use different structures for argumentation and write longer arguments. (CFR)

Reviews research on interactive computer learning. Examines the extent to which learner-computer interaction and learner-learner interaction can interfere with or support one another. Finds that viewing collaborative learning as joint negotiation of a common problem helps to define optimal characteristics of educational software. (CFR)

Reports on a study of 12 U.S. and Russian elementary students working with a mathematics computer software program. Finds that students working together learned the program's concepts faster. Discusses implications of the findings and the significance of sociohistorical frameworks on cognitive processes. (CFR)

Reports on a study of 22 pairs of third-grade students and 22 pairs of seventh-grade students who worked on a variety of computer-based tasks. Finds that older students were more likely to focus on internal pattern construction than remaining oriented toward external characteristics of the patterns. (CFR)