Researchers and practitioners alike express concerns about the conceptual difficulties associated with the concepts of momentum and kinetic energy currently taught in school physics. This article presents an in-depth analysis of the treatment given to them in 44 published textbooks written for UK secondary school certificate courses. This is set…

Asserts that the idea of linking science learning to the way of doing science constitutes a permanent feature in innovations in science teaching. A thread which has shown itself to be fruitful, even through its wrong avenues, is being reinforced nowadays by the emerging constructivist model and by the implications of the contemporary philosophy of…

The purpose of this cross-age study was to investigate elementary students' (N=120) tacit and explicit understandings of dinosaurs. Detailed analysis of audiotaped interviews of children's performance during a Piagetian-type clinical interview suggests that children's conceptual understandings of dinosaurs are first developed at a tacit level from…

Presents a fictional account of a science teacher and her use of constructivism as a referent for her various roles. Describes how she came to teach in this manner, her involvement in staff development activities, and an evolution in her thinking from an objectivist to a constructivist system of semantics. Presents implications for the reform of…

Presents a model of expert reasoning practices that focuses on constructive modeling, a tacit dimension of the thinking practices of expert physicists. Draws on historical cases and protocol accounts of expert reasoning in scientific problem solving and argues that having expertise in physics requires facility with the practice of constructive…

The opinion in this paper is that there is a need to reexamine the meaning of constructivism in an age where the concept has come to mean different things to different people. This paper examines one person's understanding of constructivism in order to uncover multiple meanings of the term in ways that ultimately affect teachers' practice in K-12…

Explores preservice teachers' (n=151) metaphors of teaching and learning and examines some components of student teachers' own intuitions. Concludes that metaphors communicate a richness of meaning that conveys elements of mood, control, roles, attitudes, and beliefs as they apply to teaching and learning and are grounded on more deeply rooted…

Presents a model to analyze conceptual evolution in the classroom, based on the notion of conceptual profile. Suggests that it is possible to use different ways of thinking in different domains, a new concept does not necessarily replace previous ideas, and learning science is to change a conceptual profile and become conscious of different zones…

Analyzes the so-called mechanical theories of learning that underpin the transmission view of teaching that so permeates education and schooling. Promotes a neuroscientific basis for resolution of the impasse in psychological theories. Implications for the transmission-of-knowledge approach to teaching are addressed. (PR)

Argues that current thinking about science teaching and conceptual change needs to be counterbalanced by contextual or cultural constructivist ideas. A collaborative view should include the sociological study of cultural milieus in which scientific ideas arise. The logic of discovery from a sociological point of view implies that conceptual change…

Reports on a study undertaken to validate the practicality of using the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (Perceived Form) (CLES) in a preservice elementary science methods course. Suggestions are made to potentially revise the CLES for more accurate measures in college classrooms. (LZ)

A central focus in the study of metacognition is that readers need to recognize what they know about a topic, they need to realize when they have read something they do not understand, and they need to know how to remediate any discrepancies in their understanding. This paper is presented in three sections. The first section discusses what is…

Asserts that the ethical dimensions of teaching involve complex decisions found in the sense-making process and deeply embedded in teachers' professional lives. Reports on a study of a middle school science teacher and how emancipatory learning, control, and social expectations influence teaching behaviors. (CFR)

Provides an example of the integration of science and mathematics learning of one high school physics student in a constructivist classroom. Discusses the student's integration of mathematical and nonmathematical representations and of different mathematical representations in a nonuniform acceleration experiment. Describes a model for integrating…

This study qualitatively investigates the taboo and "noa" topics of Science-Technology-Society (STS) taught in two local cultures. Taboos are beliefs that constrain behavior by making those behaviors perceived as threatening by the members of the social group forbidden and improper for discussion. "Noa" is the Polynesian word…