Describes a study which was designed to determine the effect of a 25-hour introductory qualitative analysis course on high school students' understanding of formal concepts related to electrolytes. Suggests that introductory concrete experiences better prepare students to deal with more formal abstract concepts. (TW)

This study examined the representations that a 16-year-old student made using the flexible computer system, "Boxer," in learning the genetic code. Results indicated that programing made it easier to build and explore flexible and useful representations and encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration between mathematics and biology…

Videotaped interviews of 29 Australian students from grades 1-3 were analyzed to assess and compare the processing loads of mathematical representations and strategies used by teachers and children to learn the concept of place value. Results indicated that some representations and strategies impose an unnecessary processing load that can…

A learning cycle consists of three phases: exploration; conceptual invention; and expansion of an idea. These phases parallel Piaget's functioning model of assimilation, disequilibrium and accomodation, and organization respectively. The learning cycle perceives students as actors rather than reactors to the environment. Inherent in that…

Students of reasoning have long tried to understand how people revise systems of beliefs. This paper maintains that people often change their beliefs in ways driven by considerations of explanatory coherence. In this report, a computational model is described of how experimental subjects revise their naive beliefs about physical motion. First,…

Advances in cognitive science have greatly increased our knowledge of how the human mind stores and uses information. That knowledge can be used to decompose curricular objectives so as to increase the specificity of instruction to a level of precision that should greatly enhance student writing. This article identifies some major types of…

The purposes of the paper are to discuss use of a concept formation model in art education and to suggest ways in which teachers might plan and develop art instructional activities consistent with the model. Based upon a social studies model designed along the lines of Robert Gagne's learning theory, the art education model utilizes rule, concept,…

Four text passages varying along the dimensions of the number of propositions unifying one or more text paragraphs and text length were constructed. The text content pertained to nine concepts in the area of operant conditioning psychology. Fifty-eight university students were pretested and then blocked on prior text-related knowledge, and read…

A series of five experiments was designed and administered to 679 elementary and junior high school students over a 2-year period to test the relevance of Jean Piaget's concept of conservation to musical learning. Musical tasks consisting of stimulus patterns and systematic variations of these patterns were designed for each experiment, and…

An experiment tested the assumption that differences in learning to learn (LTL) are to a large extent explained by differences in what groups of different socioeconomic status (SES) have learned about ways to learn a task. A 6-problem concept attainment task not dependent on verbalization was used. Subjects were 108 elementary school Caucasian…

Psychologists and a few sociologists have provided the academic respectability for the political rationale that the American body politic's civil rights indigestion needs a resurrected, separate but equal diet. Today, it is intellectually respectable to question the genetic equality of whites and blacks, to assert the cognitive incapacities of…

Describes study of undergraduates that investigated learners' preconceptions of the difficulty of interactive video, instructional television, and television. The effects of actively or covertly responding to practice questions on perceived mental effort, recall, and inferences are examined, and correlations between lesson time and inference or…

Reports results of a study investigating effects of social interaction on utilization of categorical concepts by upper and lower class children. Describes an experimental guessing game with individual subjects and pairs of subjects. Concludes that the experimental setup was beneficial for all subjects regardless of social background or kind of…

A theoretical perspective is presented for examining conceptual change in adolescence and the social context of learning. A case study of the Computer as Lab Partner project illustrates the following: (1) conceptual and cognitive changes in eighth graders' understanding of physical science concepts; (2) ways concepts are constructed; and (3)…

Presents the results of an experiment that evaluated the efficiency of analogy in the conceptual restructuring of a science topic. The experiment involved a fifth-grade class studying water and heat flow. Discovered that analogy can act as an effective trigger for restructuring knowledge. (MJP)