Reports on a cross-cultural study into science teachers' awareness of potential culture clashes in their classrooms where their students' home culture differed from the culture of Western science being taught. In one setting, Canadian teachers taught mainly Aboriginal students. In the second setting, Japanese teachers taught Western science to…

Focuses on the implementation and evaluation of instructional strategies in a core science education methods course within a Bachelor of Education preservice program. Examines how a collaborative learning experience that incorporated components of problem based learning was implemented and how students reacted to and reflected upon this approach.…

Identifies the factors influencing K-12 science teachers' implementation of constructivism in their classrooms. Specifically examines the implementation of five subcomponents of constructivism: personal relevance, critical voice, scientific uncertainty, shared control, and student negotiation. Also assesses the relationship between these belief…

Describes how one instructor used science education methodology in a language arts methods course. The purpose was to understand how preservice teachers might improve their science teaching through language arts methods. Discusses one preservice teacher and her use of the methodology in the science methods course in which she was currently…

Argues that existing accounts of theories within philosophy of science and developmental psychology are either less precise than is ideal for the task or cannot capture everyday theorizing of the sort that children--if they theorize--must do. (Author/CCM)

Analyzes recent work in psychology on the nature of the representation of complex forms of knowledge with the goal of understanding how theories are represented. (Author/CCM)

Outlines an account of conceptual learning in terms of the conceptions that people hold, the status they award to their conceptions, and the conceptual ecology containing the criteria they use in determining status. (Author/CCM)

Presents a compelling argument for the use of effective indicators to assess and extend the "theory theory" research agenda. (Author/CCM)

Discusses the nature of explanations and the nature of models and the relationship between them. Reviews the explanatory value of major models of change in science. Models the characteristics of everyday thinking and the effect of attempts to change that thinking on scientific thinking. (Author/CCM)

Argues that a theory consists of a mental model, laws that specify parameters of the model, and one or more explanatory schemas. (Author/CCM)

Focuses on one point of difference regarding the distinction between scientific and everyday theorizing that fundamentally separates the approaches of differing scientists. Discusses the increasingly popular term "model." (Author/CCM)

In science teaching, Aristotelian physics is often presented in a fragmentary and oversimplified way which distorts the true meaning of Aristotelian concepts. Discusses some mistakes that originate from a partial reading of Aristotle's work. Contains 32 references. (Author/WRM)

Discusses the various conflicting trends in mechanics education that have appeared over the past two decades, especially as related to conceptual change teaching and learning. Proposes the theory of schemata as a means to resolve the conflict that exists within the literature. Contains 82 references. (Author/WRM)

Describes teaching considerations related to the nature of science and scientific knowledge in an elementary-science methods course. Discusses instructional strategies used to develop preservice elementary teachers' understandings of the nature of science and scientific knowledge. Presents the results of these strategies on teacher learning and…

A greater role for the history and philosophy of science in science education can only be realized if it is based on both a credible analytical approach--such as that of Lakatos--and if the evolution of a sufficient number of major themes in science is known in suitable detail. Considers chemical kinetics as an example topic. Contains 62…