Examines a general developmental hypothesis concerned with children's understanding of perceptual experience, memory, intentions, and emotions. It is hypothesized that young children view the mind as passive in relation to the external world and regard external events as determining subjective experience, whereas older children know many ways that…

Applies the analytic technique of maximum likelihood factor analysis to the intercorrelations of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised's subtests as a means for assessing more or less differentiation and integration. (HOD)

Investigated the role of "a priori" ideas in planning experiments and data processing leading to inferences. Thirty-one students (ages 11-13) observed a "combustion/candle in a closed container" experiment and were asked to interpret sets of measurements. Findings, among others, show that children preferentially experiment on…

Propositions expressed by students during interviews prior to and after audiovisual instruction served as the basis for Concept Propositional Analysis (CPA) to assess cognitive structure. CPAs for two students are reported and aspects of Ausubelian principles are discussed. The method showed that new learning can be linked to previous…

Discussed are problems revealed in student responses to a practical task which formed part of an advanced level examination. The frequencies with which some misconceptions about cell reproduction and genetics occurred are presented. The nature of these misconceptions is analyzed and their implications discussed. (CW)

Investigated are three misconceptions of probability and the differential effect of two activity-based instructional units. Response categories (law of averages, law of small numbers, and availability) are identified. Treatment differences (evaluation or no evaluation) appear to influence subjects' interpretations of the information. (YP)

Presented is an alternative method for analyzing the van Hiele level of students' geometrical reasoning. The accuracy of students' answers may afford a description of acquisition and/or expertise for each of the van Hiele levels simultaneously rather than the traditional assignment and evaluation of one level at a time. (JJK)

This paper compares the process and structure of institutional research with three ways of conceptualizing science. The first section examines the scientific method as a process of disciplined inquiry, then compares institutional research to that process. The second section compares the logical structure of institutional research with the logical…

Science education has often struggled to determine effective teaching methodologies and learning strategies. One promising field of research has been that of alternative frameworks. The research described in this paper describes how immersion in an unfamiliar environment and culture affected teacher learning, some of the significant experiences…

By studying many observations from recent research dealing with beginning physics students' conceptions about forces and motion, this investigation produced a framework within which this research can be organized. The framework summarizes the mechanisms of force invoked by students in particular situations, and it describes the features of…

A review and conceptual analysis of the literature on the characteristics of students in Japan and of the factors influencing those characteristics was conducted. Information from both English and Japanese sources about cognitive, non-cognitive, and behavioral characteristics of students and factors influencing them was sought regarding students…

Designed to examine the structural differences in the representation of medical problems in subjects with varying degrees of medical expertise, this study uses an online, thinking-aloud technique to investigate the validity of Feltovich and Barrows' model of expert medical knowledge and illness scripts. Study methodology involved asking one…

This paper analyzes Bogdanov's theory of knowledge as found in philosophical dialogues and essays. The style of Bogdanov's writing and his ideas on philosophy, science, scientific constructs, truth, human knowledge, objectivity and ethics are discussed. These ideas are compared to the constructivist view of knowledge. (CW)

Epistemological loneliness refers to the isolation adolescents may experience as the result of cognitive relativism, ushered in by the emergence of formal operational thought. To examine the relationship between cognitive relativity, epistemological loneliness, and depression in adolescence, 108 adolescents (29 seventh graders, 29 ninth graders,…

This discussion first analyzes major claims of a cognitive-developmentalist perspective on the use of microcomputers in early childhood education. Five topics are specifically addressed: microcomputers and intellectual structures, microcomputers as cultural events, microcomputers and strategy repetoires, instruction and the self-construction of…