Describes a study that was designed to apply the learning hierarchy paradigm in an instructional unit in high school biology. Findings indicated that regardless of the pupils' sex or the type of school, students taught the hierarchically organized learning task achieved significantly higher than students whose learning task was not hierarchically…

Reports findings on variable-handling aspects of pupil performance in investigatory tasks, using data from the British Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) national survey program. Discusses the significance of these findings for assessment methodology and for understanding of 15-year-olds' approaches to the variable-based logic of investigation.…

Reports the results of a survey of 70 experienced primary school teachers in Australia designed to explore respondents' concepts of technology and their attitudes about curriculum change. Discusses the implications of their findings on technology curriculum improvement. (CW)

Describes an attempt to ascertain the validity of the assumptions of the developers of a technology-based biological curriculum. Considers the organization of its learning materials and the transfer of key concepts. Illustrates some of the crucial issues faced by scientific curricula emphasizing technology. (CW)

Describes the method used to probe students' associative meaning of the concepts of regulation and equilibrium. Results from students of grades 6, 9, and 11 and student teachers of biology indicated that a discrepancy exists between connotative meanings and cultural, standardized meanings. (ML)

This study examined 12th-grade biology students' opinions and beliefs on the desirability of the use and/or development of various biotechnologies. Describes the development of and presents results from the three questionnaires employed in the study. Includes a listing of the 15 biotechnology topics investigated in the study. (ML)

Discusses the responses of science graduates (N=34) to control of variable problems. Two content areas (biological/plants and physical/pendulum) and two formats (experimental planning and data interpretation) were employed in their study. Results suggest that different problems elicit a variety of solution procedures and are affected by prior…

Investigated are the context dependency and construct validity of practical skill assessment in science which may include the skills of observing, manipulating, planning, interpreting, reporting, and self-reliance. Pupil performance on a variety of practical tasks were compared with external examination grades in biology and chemistry. (CW)

Explores the concept of construct validity in the context of a public examination. Multitrait-multimethod analysis and factor analysis were used. Discusses the analyses in terms of theory versus practical components and experimental versus observational investigation in practical components. Sample items for the practical examinations are…

Explores the possibility that the concept-mapping strategy could be a fruitful way of reducing the anxiety levels of students as well as helping to change their attitudes towards concepts. Concepts from the areas of ecology and genetics were given to pre-degree biology students. Experimental results confirmed the effect. (YP)

The purpose of this study was to identify interest patterns related to high school biology. Eight task dimensions were established before testing. Findings include: the highest interest was in human biology topics and students whose parents' employment was science related showed higher interest in biology. (CW)

Assesses the ability of tenth grade students (n=364) to acquire meanings of graphs that are frequently used in their biology textbooks. Indicates that the main source of failure to process information equally well from tables and graphs was not a lack of basic analytical skills but rather a lack of understanding of the relationship between…

Scrutinizes the assessment of students' practical skills, in an honors-level biology examination, for construct validity utilizing both correlational and factor analytical methods to explore relationships between students' practical (laboratory) and theoretical (written) performances. Indicates that teacher assessment of practical skills resulted…