This article explores the conceptual change of students in Grades 10 and 12 in three Australian senior high schools when the teachers included computer multimedia to a greater or lesser extent in their teaching of a genetics course. The study, underpinned by a multidimensional conceptual-change framework, used an interpretive approach and a…

Explores secondary school, undergraduate, and graduate level learners' mental models of bonding with ionic substances through an interview protocol involving the use of physical substances and a focus card containing depictions of ionic bonding and structure. Suggests that teachers and university faculty need to provide stronger links between the…

Describes the development and application of a two-tier multiple choice diagnostic instrument to assess high school students' understanding of inorganic chemistry qualitative analysis. Shows that the Grade 10 students had difficulty understanding the reactions involved in the identification of cations and anions, for example, double decomposition…

Examines the role of practical activities in secondary science from an international perspective and contrasts this to a developing country's perspective. Discusses research studies on training teachers to include physics practical work in Indonesia and the benefits and constraints of implementing practical work in physics classrooms. Contains 37…

Focuses on cognitive and affective changes that occurred in one student during the study of heat and temperature. Initially the student's conceptual framework was undifferentiated with regard to heat and temperature; however, course activities and concomitant use of concept substitution helped the student differentiate these concepts and integrate…

Changes in grade 10 students' (n=79) conceptions of genes during genetics instruction was studied from multiple perspectives. Ontologically, most students moved from passive to active models of genes. Affectively, students were interested in genetics but unmotivated by microscopic mechanistic explanations; however, teaching approaches were…

Comments on the study reported by Lawson, Karplus, and Adi (1978) which indicated that formal schemata and propositional logic are not part of the same structured unity of mental operations proposed by Piaget. (HM)

The purpose of this investigation was to test extensions of a model of concept learning. The investigators examined the applicability of a mathematical model to the learning of selected science concepts. Findings suggest that certain extensions of the model may apply for a complex concept identification task. (Author/MA)

Interview data exemplify students' attempts to integrate the concepts of electrochemistry with related knowledge that they had previously constructed or acquired in other classes. The implications for minimizing potential misconceptions center on the difficulties students experience when using more than one model for explaining scientific…

The presentation of gas properties in terms of the qualitative-quantitative mode and gas law sequence is examined by analysis of 14 chemistry textbooks used in Australia and on questionnaires concerning teaching approaches by 104 teachers. Findings indicate that teaching involves minimal use of qualitative relationships of the gas laws and…

Explored was the relationship between performance and gender for junior- and senior-high students (N=108) on six Piagetian-type tasks developed to measure infralogical spatial groupings. Results indicated a significant relationship between performance and gender on four tasks, in which males outscored females. Implications for science teaching are…

This research used semistructured interviews to investigate students' (n=32) understanding of electrochemistry following a 7-9 week course of instruction. Three misconceptions were identified and incorporated with five previously reported into an alternative framework about electric current involving drifting electrons. Also noted was the tendency…

This case study describes 1 teacher's implementation of a modified version of Glynn's Teaching-with-Analogies model with a grade-10 optics class on refraction of light. (PR)

This study documented the teaching practices of 2 exemplary biology teachers of grades 11 and 12 by means of an interpretive research methodology. Teaching practices are identified that may be considered exemplary and worthy of attention and analysis by other science teachers and science teacher educators. (PR)

Reports an interpretive examination of four teachers' use of analogies to teach chemistry. Suggestions for how science teacher education can be informed by case studies of teaching in context, in this instance of analogy-inclusive teaching by four experienced chemistry teachers, are provided. (ZWH)