An important educational goal is enabling students to learn scientific concepts. The scientific concepts learned in class are developed within students' cognitive structures. Despite the successful application of Semantic Network Analysis (SNA) to study these cognitive structures, there has been limited examination of students' concept networks…

Contextual features of assessments can influence the ideas students draw from and the ways they assemble knowledge. We used a mixed-methods approach to explore how surface-level item context impacts student reasoning. In study 1, we developed an isomorphic survey to capture student reasoning about fluid dynamics, a crosscutting phenomenon, in two…

Resources theory assumes that resource activation is context sensitive, and that an important dimension of context is the question students are answering. The context sensitivity of resource activation has been demonstrated empirically by case studies that show students using different resources to answer questions that are similar in focus. In…

Comprehensive understanding of complex biological systems necessitates the use of computational models because they facilitate visualisation and interrogation of system dynamics and data-driven analysis. Computational model-based (CMB) activities have demonstrated effectiveness in improving students' understanding and their ability to use and…

This study examined differences in cognitive processing between 4th-grade students who respond adequately, as opposed to inadequately, to intervention on 3 fraction outcomes: number-line estimation, calculation, and word problems. Students were assessed on 7 cognitive processes and on the 3 fraction outcomes. Students were grouped as adequate or…

This study examined differences in cognitive processing between 4th-grade students who respond adequately, as opposed to inadequately, to intervention on 3 fraction outcomes: number-line estimation, calculation, and word problems. Students were assessed on 7 cognitive processes and on the 3 fraction outcomes. Students were grouped as adequate or…

Thoughtful implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010) presents an opportunity for increased emphasis on the development of mathematical understanding among students. Granted, ascertaining the mathematical understanding of an individual student is highly complex work and often exceedingly difficult.…

We examined the influence of several students' cognitive and motivational factors on 8th graders' science achievement and also gender differences on factors that significantly contribute to the science achievement model. A total of 99 girls and 83 boys responded all the instruments used in this study. Results showed that girls outperformed boys on…

An examination of current definitions of creativity, the characteristics of creative individuals, and an overview of J. Piaget's theory of development are presented. (PHR)

Children's errors and slips, their incomplete and partially right answers are often more illuminating and informative of a child's stages of language development and his thought processes and are of greater value for future action by the teacher than are the number of correct answers in a formal right, wrong testing situation. (Author)

THE CHILD'S CONCEPTION OF PHYSICAL CAUSALITY WAS INVESTIGATED. THREE METHODS OF INVESTIGATION WERE USED. THE FIRST METHOD WAS PURELY VERBAL, AND CONSISTED OF A SERIES OF QUESTIONS DIRECTED TO CHILDREN, REGARDING SOME NATURAL PHENOMENON. THE SECOND METHOD INVOLVED A HALF-VERBAL, HALF-PRACTICAL APPROACH, WHEREIN A SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO NATURAL…

THIS STUDY SEEKS TO DISCOVER WHAT CONCEPTIONS OF THE WORLD THE CHILD NATURALLY FORMS AT THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF HIS DEVELOPMENT. TWO DISTINCT STANDPOINTS ARE IDENTIFIED--(1) MODALITY OF CHILD THOUGHT, OR SCHEME OF REALITY, AND (2) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EXPLANATIONS GIVEN BY THE CHILD. SCHEME OF REALITY REFERS TO THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE CHILD…

Application of a five-level developmental scheme to ascertain pupil attainment of four concepts considered to be prerequisite to an understanding of photosynthesis is described. Results indicate widespread deficiencies associated with these concepts. Implications for learning complex concepts in biology are considered. (Author/JN)

Insight into children's ideas about selected equality sentences is provided through a series of interviews with six- and seven-year-old pupils. The evidence indicates that children consider equality as an operator rather than a relational symbol. (MP)

Defining a "misconception" as an error of translation (transformation, correspondence, interpolation, interpretation) between two different kinds of information which causes students to have incorrect expectations, a Taxonomy of Errors has been developed to examine student misconceptions in an introductory biology course for science…