The catalogue of conceptions that students are said to have concerning the different topics of the science curriculum is so great that some authors consider this line of research to be exhausted. However, others insist on the need to re-examine students' conceptions in order to better describe them using new theoretical, contexts and research…

Instructional research is synthesized, using categories specific and functional enough to provide guidance for classroom practice. The opening chapter presents a theory for conducting a theory-based meta-analysis of the research on instruction, outlining a theory that involves four elements of human information processing: the self-system, the…

Fifty-eight studies relating to the "knowledge gap" hypothesis (a theory that correlates public knowledge to educational level and mass media exposure) are examined in this report. In the opening sections, the theory is defined, and the early information diffusion studies and public opinion polls that led to its formulation in 1970 are…