Introduces the concept of synergy and synergy research conducted in the context of a water quality project and CILT2000, a meeting of the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT). Shares ways in which synergy research addresses methodological questions, promotes collaborative partnerships, and contributes to equity. (Contains 16…

Features comments on the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) conference held in 2000 and addresses the five thematic areas around which the conference was organized, namely assessment, professional development, visualization and modeling, ubiquitous computing, and equity. (Author/YDS)

This paper describes findings from a study to explore Singapore A-level (Grades 11 and 12, 16-19 yr old) students' understanding of ionisation energy, an abstract and complex topic that is featured in school chemistry courses. Previous research had reported that students in the United Kingdom commonly use alternative notions based on the perceived…

A longitudinal study has been conducted to explore the impact of a new language policy for Hong Kong secondary schools on science learning. According to this policy, only schools that recruit the best 25% of students can teach science in English, the students' second language, while the other schools have to teach science in Chinese, the students'…

This study concerns the question of how teachers can help pupils to perceive the concept of weight (gravitation). Fifth and ninth graders were asked in a paper-and-pencil test to compare the weight of two objects suspended in a pulley-in-balance half a year after the learning intervention consisting of three successive pulley-in-balance…

In this paper, we report on an international study of undergraduate mathematics students; conceptions of mathematics. Almost 1,200 students in five countries completed a short survey including three open-ended questions asking about their views of mathematics and its role in their future studies and planned professions. Responses were analysed…

In this work, we propose to identify the knowledge that Tunisian grade 10 students build up concerning acids and bases. Thus, after learning, we have proceeded by giving a paper and pencil task to students of two levels of teaching. The results obtained allow us to say that the assimilated knowledge is transitory; that the students have a worse…

This study compares the views of teachers and professional development facilitators about effective professional development (PD). We analyzed interviews with 72 teacher participants and 23 PD facilitators involved in nine science and mathematics PD projects. The teachers' themes for characterizing effective PD included classroom application,…

The present study explores pupils' constructed definitions of the concept of function in relation to their abilities in dealing with tasks of functions involving different forms of representations and problem solving tasks. A major concern is also to examine the interrelations between these three ways of thinking about or dealing with the concept…

This study is a secondary analysis of six previous studies that formed part of an ongoing research program focused on examining the benefits of using writing-to-learn strategies within science classrooms. The study is an attempt to make broader generalizations than those based on individual studies, given limitations related to sample sizes,…

Large-scale assessments of student achievement provide a window into the broadly defined concepts of literacy and generate information about levels and types of student achievement in relation to some of the correlates of learning, such as student background, attitudes, and perceptions, and perhaps school and home characteristics. This paper…

Students' mathematical problem-solving experiences are fraught with failed attempts, wrong turns, and partial successes that move in fits and jerks, oscillating between periods of inactivity, stalled progress, rapid advancement, and epiphanies. Students' problem-solving journals, however, do not always reflect this rather organic process. Without…

Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) was the foundation for this study that explored the effect of science text and image integration on grade 9 students' reading comprehension. Two texts in Chinese on the moon phase with different print and image integration were compared--a traditional textbook (TT) used in Taiwanese junior high schools and a…

In this qualitative study of mathematical discourse between elementary teachers, we examined linguistic invention and semantic warrant production as participants made successive attempts to communicate mathematical ideas. Linguistic invention is a creative practice of describing mathematics in terms of personal experience. We introduce semantic…

A model of reading comprehension of geometric proofs (RCGP) has recently been proposed by the authors. This article further investigates students' development of such comprehension based on this model, looking at the relationship between students' reading comprehension and their prior knowledge and logical reasoning. The results show that (1)…