Investigated the role of "a priori" ideas in planning experiments and data processing leading to inferences. Thirty-one students (ages 11-13) observed a "combustion/candle in a closed container" experiment and were asked to interpret sets of measurements. Findings, among others, show that children preferentially experiment on…

Reports on a study designed to assess the value of the Tailored Response Test (TRT) as a learning device. Results suggest that the TRT, which involves active cognitive processing, has a positive effect on learning and is valuable as an evaluation and a learning tool. (DDR)

Presents a project that explored student choice of a solution method for quadratic inequalities. Students were first instructed in the use of the case, critical-number, and graphical methods using the graphing calculator. The majority of students chose graphical methods of solution. (DDR)

Describes a study that investigated probabilistic intuitions held by students (N=98) from grade 7 through college through the use of a questionnaire. Of the misconceptions that were investigated, availability was the only one that was stable across age groups. Contains 20 references. (DDR)

Collected qualitative data through interviews and triad elicitation with 5-year-olds in London to determine children's current knowledge and understanding of their "making" activity and of Lego construction kit components. Data provided triangulation for another study that found that young children could achieve a great deal with…

Describes a study that investigates the relationship between secondary students' written responses and the mathematical and cognitive processing used when solving a complex problem. Contains 40 references. (DDR)

Two groups of adolescents and a group of Coast Guard officials were interviewed about hypothetical political problems. Solutions presented were arrayed along a continuum of expertise, according to the complexity of subjects' political schemata and skills used in problem representation. (BC)

Describes an adventure activity in which a group achieved a seemingly impossible goal by changing the way it imagined the task. Discusses the sequence of steps in metaphor development that led to the triggering of a generative metaphor: a new image of the task that allowed reframing of the problem and its eventual solution. (SV)

Explores the utility of mental models as learning outcomes in using complex and situated learning environments. Describes two studies: one aimed at eliciting mental models in the heads of novice refrigeration technicians, and the other an ethnographic study eliciting knowledge and models within the community of experienced refrigeration…

Presents a conceptual foundation for using concept mapping as a cognitive learning strategy and as a method for assessing structural knowledge; reviews the growing body of research related to both applications. Describes some of the conceptual and empirical limitations of concept mapping. (Author/AEF)

Explores high school students' collaborative efforts in solving qualitative physics problems and investigates how and whether confronting students with varying views improves problem solving skills. (Contains 22 references.) (DDR)

Designed to examine the structural differences in the representation of medical problems in subjects with varying degrees of medical expertise, this study uses an online, thinking-aloud technique to investigate the validity of Feltovich and Barrows' model of expert medical knowledge and illness scripts. Study methodology involved asking one…

This article examines naive conceptions of spatial reference that children bring to Logo programing language learning. Students from Grades 4, 5, 6, and 8 were introduced to six Logo commands, and then were tested on predicting the output for instances of each of the commands. (Author/LMO)

To examine how conceptual knowledge about fraction magnitudes changes as students' learning progresses, 5th and 7th-grade students were asked to solve fraction magnitude problems that entailed finding a fraction between two given fractions and then to evaluate solutions for similar problems that were modeled for them. When the given fractions…

Describes environments for concretely enacting multiplication and division. Discusses difficulties occurring when students use one of the concrete environments to model situations involving modified environments. (YP)