Responds to three articles from this issue on universalists versus multiculturalists. Explores the idea of an effective teacher as a culture broker. (SAH)

Comments on three articles in this issue on universalists versus multiculturalists. Supports teaching culturally relevant science. The three papers share the goal of improving the teaching of science to minority and non-minority children and increasing the participation of children of color in science. (SAH)

Comments on three articles in this issue on universalists versus multiculturalists. Discusses the importance in the United States of universalism versus relativism with regard to science. Discusses whether indigenous knowledge or traditional ecological knowledge should be considered with regard to science education. (SAH)

Comments on the responses to the original article in this journal issue concerning universalism and multiculturalism. Indigenous science offers important scientific knowledge that western modern science has not yet learned to produce. (SAH)

Examines the state of science education in an urban elementary school in detail. Triangulates observations made from the perspectives of a science education specialist, an educational psychologist, and an expert elementary teacher to provide a set of perspectives from which elementary science instruction could be examined. (Author/SAH)

Examines the extent to which a high school physics course prepares students for college physics success. In this study of 1,933 introductory college physics students, demographic and schooling factors account for a large fraction of the variation in college physics grades at 18 colleges and universities from around the nation. (Author/SAH)

Examines the work of one teacher who taught the topic of sound to grade 8 students over a period of three weeks. Presents the findings of the study as five assertions using interpretive research methodology. Concludes with a discussion on the current reforms, which support that the integration of teaching with assessment leads to improvement of…

Based on research on the effect of preinstructional knowledge on students' learning of chemical phenomena, this study explores individual learning processes in an introductory chemistry course. Focuses on four common conceptions about two basic chemistry concepts: changes of substances and the particle model of matter. (Author/SAH)

Aims to fine-tune a grounded theory scheme originally proposed in this journal by Costa (1995). Costa categorized students according to the ease with which they succeed in school science in five categories. Presents an additional category for student success. (Author/SAH)

Teaching units were developed by the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology for visiting students. Using these units as an evaluation instrument, students' written responses were analyzed to gain insight into student understanding and attitudes toward radiation issues and to explore whether the exhibition may successfully convey scientific…

Introduces three articles that appear in this issue on universalism and multiculturalism. Describes the articles as having moved beyond the debate of multiculturalism and universalism by accepting that all systems of knowledge about nature are embedded within the context of a cultural group. (SAH)

Explores aspects of multicultural science and pedagogy and describes a rich and well-documented branch of indigenous science known to biologists and ecologists as traditional ecological knowledge. (Author/SAH)

Summarizes the case for a universalist approach to science education. Examines the weaknesses of universalism within the limits of human cognitive capabilities in constraining what we understand about nature, a description of reality as a flux, and the disunity of science and the role of culturally different forms and social organization of…

Examines the definition of science put forward from multicultural perspectives in contrast to the universalist perspective of science. Argues that good science explanations will always be universal, even if indigenous knowledge is incorporated as scientific knowledge. (Author/SAH)

Discusses the need for science in developing countries. The development of the Western industrialized countries is a persuasive argument for the role of science and technology in development. Western modern science knowledge and indigenous knowledge are both necessary in science education. (SAH)