The overall purpose of this study was to investigate the role of personal relevance in conceptual change. First, we used an experimental design to investigate the role of augmented activation--which directly implicated teachers' personal prior beliefs about mathematics learning and instruction--and refutational text manipulations on short and…

The authors examine a model of visitor engagement that has been in development over the past 3 years at the Smithsonian Institution. A total of 390 visitors comprised the sample with a subsample ("n" = 102) of visitors who were tracked through an exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History. A 5-factor visitor preference model was…

Until recently, the history of debates about language and thought has been a history of thinking of language in the singular. The purpose of this volume is to reverse this trend and to begin unlocking the mysteries surrounding thinking and speaking in bi- and multilingual speakers. If languages influence the way we think, what happens to those who…

Nonadherence with homework assignments and, by implication, "barriers" to homework assignments are a frequent occurrence in the practice of standard cognitive therapy (Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., Emery, G. (1979). "Cognitive therapy of depression." New York: The Guilford Press). The clinical examples in this article illustrate some of…

Children's ideas about the Earth in space have been of interest to science educators and cognitive psychologists for some time. By focusing almost exclusively on shape and gravity alone, however, other important Earth attributes have been largely neglected or overlooked. Findings from a quasi-experimental study of knowledge acquisition and concept…

Information integration theory (IIT) seeks to develop a unified theory of judgment and behavior. This theory provides a conceptual framework that has been applied to a variety of research areas including personality impression formation and decision making. In these applications information integration theory has helped to resolve methodological…

This article explores the legacy of Paul Pintrich in regard to theory and research in conceptual change. Specifically, this article reviews his vision for a view of conceptual change--a vision that integrated motivation and affect within a broader view of cognition in the classroom (Pintrich, 1999; Pintrich & Sinatra, 2003). This article describes…

Presents evidence that there exists much confusion regarding the connection between the algebraic and geometric aspects of slope, scale, and angle. Participants responded to a simple but non-standard task concerning the behavior of slope under a non-homogeneous change of scale. Analysis of the responses reveals two main approaches termed…

Unassertive women (n=36) assessed as high or low on conceptual level (CL) were randomly assigned to high-structure-behavioral or low-structure-cognitive forms of assertion training (AT). Low-CL clients in the matched condition improved most in verbal assertiveness. No matching effects were found with high-CL clients. (Author/KS)

Reanalyzes data from a study in which 42 fifth graders received training in map-drawing skills. Explores the relationship between the mixture of reasoning levels and developmental change, and compares findings with those of an earlier study of social reasoning. (CB)

Scientific reasoning of four elementary age students with mild mental retardation was investigated using structured interviews during tasks involving properties of air and electricity. Discourse analysis was employed to describe students' preconceptions about the natural world and how those preconceptions might be influenced by empirical evidence.…

The premise behind the cognitive approach to teaching is that understanding results when new learning is integrated with existing knowledge. But the goal of science instruction is to replace existing ideas with new theories. Current research in science education seeks to resolve these conflicting instructional approaches. (Author/VM)

The study examined the effectiveness of a program to improve the cognitive skills of 91 hearing impaired college students. Experimental students received systematic cognitive instruction focusing on specific generalizable skills during the experimental period, several times per week, in the contexts of their regular college classes. Instructors of…

Describes a study that examined changes in the structural complexity of knowledge held by two groups of introductory college-level biology students (N=68, N=93). The subjects constructed concept maps at four-week intervals throughout the instructional term. Contains 49 references. (DDR)

Perspectives that underlie a study of scientific reasoning of elementary students with mild mental retardation (EC 612 096) are provided. Epistemological issues that appear to shape knowledge of special education are addressed, specifically "constructivism" versus "behaviorism" and the relative worth of "constructed" versus "instructed" knowledge.…