We are studying two groups of preservice teachers' conceptions, progression and especially the concept of function in connection to y=x+5 when they are taking a course in algebra or one in calculus in their third and sixth term, respectively, in a teacher preparation program. There is a similar development in that they use to a higher degree a…

Studies of the relationship between students' propositional knowledge (as measured by concept mapping tasks) and their study strategies (as measured by self-report questionnaires) for electricity in first-year university courses are described. The effect of propositional knowledge and prior knowledge on both conceptual knowledge and study…

This paper analyzes the hardware and software features that would be desirable in a computer-based semantic network system for representing biology knowledge. It then describes in detail a prototype network of molecular biology knowledge that has been developed using Filevision software and a Macintosh computer. The prototype contains about 100…

Summarizes findings of a collection of research studies at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) aiding fundamental understanding of knowledge representation and its applications. Issues arising when a knowledge representation system is incorporated into an authoring language are discussed, including the problems of exteriorization, metacognition,…

The purpose of this study was to assess structural knowledge change across a two-week workshop designed to provide high-school teachers with training in Java and Object Oriented Programming. Both before and after the workshop, teachers assigned relatedness ratings to pairs of key concepts regarding Java and Object Oriented Programming. Their…

Interactions between levels of learner knowledge in a domain and levels of instructional guidance were investigated. Inexperienced trade apprentices were presented with either worked examples to study or problems to solve. On subsequent tests, inexperienced trainees benefited most from worked examples. With more experience in the domain, worked…

Study compared pedagogical knowledge structures about effective teaching of preservice teachers and teacher educators. Groups of preservice teachers completed concept maps about effective teaching at two different times. Data were compared with teacher educators' concept maps. Differences between the groups of preservice teachers and between…

Study examined types of pedagogical knowledge acquired by career-change preservice teachers in an alternative certification program. Researchers videotaped subjects, analyzed journals, and collected concept maps of teaching. Subjects exhibited four stages of pedagogical development. They showed a need to acquire theoretical knowledge about…

This study explores the combined use of concept maps and interpretive essays as a method of assessment in three mathematics courses. The primary objectives were to describe and document: (1) the use of concept maps and written essays to assess the connectedness of students' knowledge; (2) the correlation between students' scores on the concept…

This study evaluated the effects of instructional scaffolding interventions (ISI) on preservice teachers' knowledge structures (e.g., concept maps) and short essay responses over time. Participants were 60 preservice teachers from two universities who were enrolled in one of three introductory psychology courses. One course was used as the…

Maps or graphical browsers of structural knowledge allow the user of a hypertext system to navigate from node to node through the structure as they portray the links between concepts spatially. This study examined the results of using two different graphical browsers that provide different amounts of information about the structure of the…

This research applied evolving conceptions of learning to examine how to represent and evaluate students' and experts' cognitive structures. High school history students completed several tasks. Direct comparisons of the quality of student maps with expert maps showed that experts' concept maps could be used to score students' concept maps…

Web-based learning has been proposed as a convenient way to provide professional development experiences. Despite quantitative evidence that online instruction is equivalent to traditional methods (Russell, 2001), the efficiency of this approach has not been extensively studied among teachers. This case report describes learning in an online…

Reports on the relationship between students' propositional knowledge, measured by concept mapping tasks, and their study strategies, measured by self-report questionnaires, as it relates to the concept of photosynthesis as presented in a first-year biology course. Results indicate that involved, purposeful study strategies, prompted by relevant…

A critical first step in developing training systems is gathering quality information about a trainee's competency in a skill or knowledge domain. Such information includes an estimate of what the trainee knows prior to training, how much has been learned from training, how well the trainee may perform in future task situations, and whether to…