Describes the validation and use of English and Chinese versions of the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) in a study of high school science classrooms in Australia (n=1081) and Taiwan (n=1879). Data analysis supported each scale's internal consistency reliability, factor structure, and ability to differentiate between classrooms,…

Explores high school students' and preservice teachers' knowledge of light, vision, and related topics before and after commonly practiced instruction. Suggests a hierarchical structure to represent the collective conceptual knowledge of students and teachers in terms of facets and schemes of knowledge. Makes suggestions for designing instruction…

Explores the tension between subject knowledge and pedagogic content knowledge in elementary teacher education by documenting students' and inservice teachers' learning about forces in the context of floating and sinking. Describes significant features of the learning process and examines subject-specific aspects of learning by demonstrating how…

Attempts to find connections and bridges between social constructivism and Piagetian constructivism so that both may be enriched, to the benefit of science teaching. (Contains 95 references.) (Author/WRM)

Documents Swazi students' written explanations of everyday actions in terms of an awareness of the social and economic implications of science, their skills in designing experiments to solve everyday dilemmas, and their abilities to draw on relevant science concepts to solve everyday problems. Finds that considerably less than half of the students…

Discusses students' (n=10,058) problems with naming oxo salts following a given formula. Many students incorrectly named oxo salts as oxides, and the students' own names for the compounds were more helpful to find the correct formula than the common names. Concludes that high school students are more interested in intellectually challenging…

If science education is to be related as closely as possible to science, then Thought Experiments (TEs) must play an appropriate part. Presents a typology of TEs with examples drawn from the history of physics and addresses their various uses in bringing about students' conceptual development. Finds appropriate use of TEs is lacking in physics…

Argues for using "conflict maps" as a way of enhancing science teaching and learning. The conflict map emphasizes not only the use of discrepant events, but also the resolution of conflict between students' alternative conceptions and the scientific conception. Discusses the conflict map as an instructional aid for teachers or as a metacognitive…

Explores the successive and progressive changes in the structural complexity and propositional validity of knowledge held by students enrolled in an advanced undergraduate university-level biology course. Finds that in general, a significant amount of weak restructuring occurs and that the most radical type of strong restructuring occurs during…

Examines the impact of the national curriculum on secondary school science teachers' work in England and Wales. Finds that, in a significant number of schools, less time is spent on practical activities in the laboratory and students are presented with a narrower range of laboratory activities. Concludes that many teachers judge the national…

Examines the nature of discourse in which students talk with each other about what they think. Analyzes student-generated inquiry discussions in which students engage in extended student-student interactions without much intervention from the researcher. (Author/CCM)

Develops various strategies for an approach to physics instruction that should improve girls' and boys' attitudes toward and achievement in physics. Discusses implications for the teaching and learning of physics. (Author/CCM)

Forms a preliminary theory from the shared reflections of Scottish teachers at a symposium on the teaching of investigative science. (Author/CCM)

Investigates the knowledge and understanding among 482 students nearing the end of compulsory education of genetics. Finds a poor understanding of the processes by which genetic information in transferred and a lack of basic knowledge about the structures involved. (Author/CCM)

Addresses the influence that science and learning concepts have when teachers are submitted to assessment in an academic program. Reports changes shown by teachers in their epistemological and learning conceptions during the process of instruction. (Author/CCM)