With the pervasiveness of digital technology, elementary students almost instinctively begin inquiry-based instruction with a bias. Visual information from digital devices competes with elementary science inquiry. To counteract this effect, teachers can use advance organizers. The advance organizer is a tool or a mental learning aid to help…

In order to develop successful teaching approaches to transformations of matter, we need to know more about how young students develop an understanding of these processes. In this longitudinal study, we followed 25 students from 7 to 13 years of age in their reasoning about transformations of matter. The questions addressed included how the…

Investigates what questions elementary students would ask when presented with various situations relating to the natural environment. Findings reveal the extraordinary range of questions that elementary students have concerning the solar system and space. (JRH)

In part 1 (SE 532 193) an outline of Ausubel's learning theory was given. The application of the theory to elementary school science is addressed in this part, clarifying what elementary science means and indicating how it relates to what may be expected to be already known by elementary school children. (Author/JN)

Argues that there should be no equation between modern methods of teaching science and discovery methods, suggesting that the emphasis on discovery has resulted from confused thinking among science educators. Also, describes research-based developments promising better theoretical/practical perspectives for improved science teaching, focusing on…

Tested Ausubel/Novak hypothesis that primary grade students can learn meaningfully certain aspects of science concepts in the "reception learning" model. Revised audio-tutorial instruction unit on earth based on understanding children's misconceptions; assessed impact of revised units with second graders; and compared results to concept…

Presented are analytical abstracts, prepared by science educators, of four research studies classified as relating to science curricula, four studies about learning, and one study on the evaluation of an instrument designed to measure students' orientation toward science. Three of the curriculum studies each relate to a specific curriculum project…

Studied was the effect of advance organizers, as defined by Ausubel, on the learning of concepts in science. Sixth grade classes studied two sequences of major concept-centered learning tasks developed by the investigator. The first had 12 lessons about energy forms and transformations; the second had five about photosynthesis and respiration as…

An attempt to train concrete operational fifth-grade students (N=32) and seventh-grade students (N=32) to perform at the formal operational level on tasks demanding the control of variables are reported. The training was conducted in four individual sessions of approximately 30 minutes each. The training sessions were designed to represent a…

Reported is a study based on the summary findings of a series of studies which indicated that many children who receive organized instruction designed around the few major concepts of science do, in fact, use scientific models to explain their observations of natural phenomena. The instruction that children in the study received was delivered by…

The research reported was associated with an early stage of developing a subunit of a curriculum within the framework of the Audio-Tutorial (A-T) Elementary Science Project at Cornell University. The research consisted of two parts: the development of an instructional unit for second-grade pupils and the formative evaluation associated with it.…

These proceedings include abstracts of the formal papers presented during a conference in Philadelphia on December 8 and 9, 1967. The conference, sponsored by Research for Better Schools, Inc., was concerned with individualization of science instruction, particularly in elementary schools. Thirty-three scientists and science educators from various…

Reported is a study to relate pupils' experience background and the effects of an advance organizer to his ability to understand scientific concepts. The study is based on Ausubel's subsumption theory, which states that the understanding of new learning material can be facilitated if the student has some background information which subsumes the…

Reported is a study to determine if amplifying elementary reading material through the use of exemplars (based on Ausubel's theory of meaningful verbal learning) would reduce conceptual difficulty and thereby increase reading comprehension. Reading passages were developed for three different elementary science concepts with three levels of…

This study is based upon an interpretation of Ausubel's subsumption learning theory. The primary characteristic of this theory is that it views a learner's specific content knowledge as a crucial factor in learning. Two types of assessment instruments were used with first-grade students to determine concept attainment based on specific models…