Explores the perceptions held by practicing engineers of what is involved in learning to solve technological problems and examines their pedagogical approaches to technological problem-solving in elementary-classroom contexts. Concludes that recognition of the nature of each occupation is needed to realize a potential of collaboration between…

Describes a study of Taiwanese 14-year-olds' (n=48) cognitive structures derived from the instruction of basic atomic physics. Finds that even academically above-average students tended to use relatively lower-level modes of knowledge construction, focusing on reciting or describing specific factual knowledge in physics. (Contains 27 references.)…

Describes the Creative Thinking in Technology (CTT) program in which creative thinking is presented as a synthesis between lateral thinking and vertical thinking. Analyzes student projects in light of this definition of creativity, and explores the role technology can play in developing students' higher order thinking skills. (Contains 37…

Summarizes the views of a sample of primary and high school teachers on the application of gene technology to human medicine. In general, high school teachers are more positive about these developments than primary teachers, and both groups of teachers are more positive than interested lay publics. Highlights ways in which this topic can be…

Describes the development of English, Welsh, and Israeli preservice secondary science teachers from immediately before to immediately after their initial teacher education courses. Finds that all students passed through a dynamic process of transformation and changed their perceptions about teaching, but the British students' ideas were more…

Describes a process by which technology education students negotiate a contract with the teacher, then develop a plan to fulfill the contract and meet specific criteria for assessment. Concludes that this process provides a mechanism for the individualization of learning, accommodates the development of independence and self-direction, and…

Applies three distinct analyses to recorded and transcribed student conversations (n=240) about brine shrimps. The complementary analytic methods provide information on the content of pupils' conversations in terms of the observations made, the ways in which pupils make sense of their observations, and the ways in which students use conversation…

Describes the development of a new measure of attitude towards science for use among secondary school pupils which operationalizes the affective attitudinal domain. Scale norms demonstrate that males record a more positive attitude towards science than females, and that younger pupils record a more positive attitude than older pupils. (Contains 78…

Authors were conducting research in different disciplines and carrying it out by apparently different methods. This combined paper is a reaction to their mutual discovery that the theories used by each to examine the data have interesting similarities. The two projects studied encouraged creative strategies and evaluative reflection in the…

Investigates the extent to which a new general science curriculum reflecting a constructivist view has influenced the science classroom learning environment in Korea. Results from a validated Korean Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) indicate that grade 10 students perceived a more constructivist learning environment than grade 11…

Uses structural linguistics to offer an impartial frame of reference to analyze science education in the non-Western world. Outlines the associative relation proposed by Saussure and investigates how it works in science education. Examines the problems peculiar to science education in Japan and argues that science education should be identified…

Outlines the distinction between science (as knowledge) and scientific culture and provides a description of how one obtains membership in that culture. Concludes that including the contributions of many different groups to scientific culture when teaching the history, philosophy, and sociology of science, is a good way to emphasize that everyone…

Outlines the social and cultural background, education, and scientific contributions of Percy Lavon Julian, an African American natural product chemist. Presents and analyzes traits and abilities relevant to his growth, development, and survival and some of his thoughts on the nature of science, the relationship between science and the humanities,…

Analyzes textbooks on thermodynamics with the aim of showing that several mental representations of this subject matter are present in scientific literature. Outlines divergent attitudes towards the definition of fundamental concepts and also towards the epistemological status of thermodynamics. Highlights the importance of historical…

Provides further details regarding a philosophical reconstruction of the structure of Classical Genetics Theory that can facilitate problem-solving instruction. Describes how that reconstruction can facilitate realistic problem solving on the part of students. Contains 60 references. (DDR)