This study aims to equip students with conceptual modeling skills to address compelling 21st-century challenges in chemistry and chemical engineering education. System-based concept mapping is a critical competence for analyzing global, often complex, problems. We examined how conceptual modeling could scaffold practical experimental design,…

We use thematic analysis to explore how mathematical concepts are developed in four enactments of the same task. Thematic analysis emerges from Systemic Functional Linguistics and provides a means to explore the development of mathematical ideas in the classroom discourse. Thematic analysis was used to explore how themes related to the comparison…

The consideration of threshold concepts is offered in the context of biological education as a theoretical framework that may have utility in the teaching and learning of biology at all levels. Threshold concepts may provide a mechanism to explain the observed punctuated nature of conceptual change. This perspective raises the profile of periods…

Describes how concept maps can be used in biology teaching. Concept maps for genetics and ecology are presented as a model. How to use these maps as curricular and instructional tools and as a means of evaluation is also included. (HM)

This publication contains 24 studies which focus on: the fostering of inquiry in secondary school science laboratories; realistic expectations for traditional laboratory work; a content-based, college-level science course for all students; understanding learning at the classroom level; transitions and student task involvement; a project to…

Students in general and science-oriented curriculum courses used concept mapping as the basis for developing lesson plans after having first learned the technique through a "fast-track" approach developed by the author. Resulting lesson plans were high in quality with few, if any, sequencing errors. (LZ)

Questions whether self-assessment helps teachers develop new conceptual structures in the context of integrated science. Examined 22 inservice teachers with concept maps, interviews, and questionnaires while they used teaching materials for eight integrated topics in the German PING Project. Discusses the importance of using self-assessment to…

The concept maps contained in this book (for grades 7-12) span 35 topics in life science. Topics were chosen using the National Science Education Standards as a guide. The practice exercise in concept mapping is included to give students an idea of what the tasks ahead will be in content rich maps. Two levels of concept maps are included for each…

This eight-chapter book clearly presents a theory of how children learn and, therefore, how teachers and others can help children think about science as well as other topics. Its ideas and techniques may be adopted for preschoolers when objects are conceptually ordered, or for theoretical physicists when findings are conceptually organized. In…

Abstracts of most of the papers presented at the 58th annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) have been collected in this publication. These papers related to such areas as: science curriculum development, design, and implementation; science test development; factors influencing student science…

Outlines the use of concept maps as a tool for science curriculum development and discusses the changes that occur in the teacher's view of the curriculum with successive revisions of the maps. Describes and analyzes the maps created by sixth-grade teachers. (PR)