Investigates preservice elementary teachers' theories about science teaching and learning through their reflections on integrated media case-based instruction. Constructs a profile of the teachers' images of themselves as future science teachers. Contains 43 references. (DDR)

Examines a beginning elementary teacher's experiences participating in an educational research project and her work in the classroom to bring her students' ideas into contact with accepted scientific ideas and practices. The project explored an approach to professional development that engaged teachers in learning and viewing science as a socially…

Interpretive analysis of preservice teachers' writings and discussions during an elementary-science methods course identified the teachers' positivist views of knowledge, learning, and teaching as prominent tools for guiding understanding of and reaction to ideas of teaching science to diverse student populations. Discusses the impact on teachers'…

Discusses three prospective elementary teachers' conceptions of teaching science and selected portions of their knowledge base in life science. Explores how these teachers' conceptions, along with their teaching actions, developed during the course of a teacher-education program. Contains 21 references. (Author/WRM)

Provides a detailed account of the significant components of Sister M. Gertrude Hennessey's instruction for conceptual change learning in an elementary science classroom. Discusses the implications of this case study for the practices of other teachers. Contains 40 references. (Author/WRM)

Primary school students (n=40) ages 11 and 12 years were interviewed concerning their conceptions of the greenhouse effect. Analysis of the data led to the formation of seven distinct models of thinking regarding this phenomenon. (Author/CCM)

Reports on the agenda of an exemplary teacher as she planned for and implemented a visit to an interactive science center by her class of 12-year-old boys. Describes activity in three sections: pre-visit preparation, post-visit activities and reflections, and during the visit. Focuses on the nature of student learning and participant teachers'…

Explores school factors associated with inclusive science instruction and evaluates the classroom achievement of students with disabilities with respect to nondisabled students in the same class. Contains 38 references. (DDR)

Details a study exploring a problem-based learning framework used to develop preservice teachers' knowledge base for teaching and pedagogical reasoning ability. Emphasizes an undergraduate preservice science teacher education unit. Contains 30 references. (DDR)

Presents a study designed to test the effectiveness of a constructivist-historical teaching strategy in changing students' misconceptions about the earth's shape and gravity at the upper elementary and middle school levels. Contains 27 references. (DDR)

Reports on a case study that used archival and contemporary source materials in project activities. Analyzes the curricular science activities as students build and use archives of historical and contemporary naturalist materials. Discusses the feasibility and benefits of using historical source materials in elementary science education. (Contains…

Describes a comparative study of science curriculum differentiation between two elementary schools that served students from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. Results indicate that the science curriculum was quite different between schools. (Author/SAH)

Presents the results of a questionnaire given to 563 elementary students to study their ideas of actions that would reduce the greenhouse effect. Most of the children (87%) appreciated that planting trees would help reduce global warming. During interviews it was discovered that children were confused between the greenhouse effect and ozone layer…

Examines factors that influence personal science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectancy in elementary teachers. Data collection methods included questionnaires and interviews. Results indicate that preservice and inservice experiences, such as success in high-quality science courses and workshops, access to resources and time,…

Explores 11-year-old children's approaches to the concept of volume using 6 tasks that were developed to identify commonalities in children's responses. Results suggest that children hold and use different conceptions, in their effort to explain and compare aspects of volume, which fall in certain categories which were met in almost all the tasks.…