Details a study of students' text usage that used observations and interviews. Concludes that retrieval strategies are not transferred to learning from texts during science lessons. (Contains 41 references.) (DDR)

Discusses the lack of primary teachers' focus on explanatory understanding and explores whether primary science books show a concern for explanatory understanding. (Contains 69 references.) (DDR)

Explores whether exposure to increasingly sophisticated mental models at different points in a chemistry education class showed up in patterns of preference and use of models in interpreting physical properties and phenomena. (Contains 92 references.) (DDR)

Investigates whether the use of the combination of lecture, teacher demonstrations, class discussion, and student practical work in small groups significantly improved experimental subjects' attitudes to chemistry and understanding of electrolysis more than their control group counterparts who were not exposed to practical work. Examines whether…

Determines teachers' opinions regarding the goals and objectives of the teaching of science within the framework of educational reform. Attempts to disclose to what extent educational thinking gives priority to the training of students in the scientific concepts, laws, and theories needed in further courses and how this thinking pays less…

Reports on a project that explored attitudes towards physics in Scotland, looking at students aged from 10-20 years old. Describes the main factors attracting school pupils into a study of physics together with the pattern of attitude changes that take place with age. The outcomes suggest some ways by which physics curriculum planners can develop…

Explores the relationship between the descriptive categories and structural characteristics of students' conceptions so that a theoretical framework may be developed to explain and predict students' alternative conceptions in science. The descriptive categories were developed through a process of coding, grouping, and labeling; the structural…

Presents a study into science practical work conducted in Namibian classrooms. Lesson plans, task sheets, student work, lesson transcripts, and observation notes were used to identify intended learning outcomes. Explored aspects of task design and the context of practical tasks. Findings show an emphasis on conceptual as opposed to procedural…

Describes an inquiry into education for environmental literacy by a group of secondary school science teachers in the UK. Using participatory action research approaches, explores ways of maintaining and enhancing the integrity of their subject discipline yet contributing to education for sustainable development. Teachers found that the approach…

This case study investigated gender-based differences in classroom participation through examining teacher-student interactions between a female biology teacher and two groups of middle school students, namely high achievers and low achievers. The female teacher used a questioning-orientated instructional strategy as her major teaching style which…

Contends that chemical education proposals for changing the conception of chemistry literacy should include making explicit the relationship between chemistry as science and chemistry as technology. Illustrates the importance of distinguishing between scientific and technological activities by explaining the events and processes that are…

Examination of senior secondary and tertiary level chemistry students' descriptions of their mental models for chemical bonding revealed prevalent alternative conceptions. Some 20 alternative conceptions were revealed, the most common being belief that continuous ionic or metallic lattices were molecular in nature, and confusion over ionic size…

Previous research has shown that students often have multiple conceptions within any particular topic area in science, and these conceptions are usually strongly linked to specific problem situations or contexts. Investigates the nature of any possible relationship between these conceptions. (Author/MM)

The ideas of Year I undergraduate biology students about the consequences, causes, and cures of the 'greenhouse effect' was determined using a closed-form questionnaire, and results were compared with a parallel study undertaken nearly 10 years ago. Many of the students in the present survey were unaware of the potential effect of global warming…

This study determined Jamaican high school students' (n=305) level of performance on five integrated science process skills with performance linked to gender, grade level, school location, school type, student type, and socio-economic background (SEB). Statistically significant differences in performance based on grade level, school type, student…