This article seeks to provide researchers and practitioners in laboratory education, particularly those involved in the curriculum design and implementation of teaching laboratories at university level, with a conceptual framework and a working model for an integrated assessment of learning domains, by attending to a more holistic approach to…

A series of quantitative studies investigated undergraduate students' perceptions of their cognitive and affective learning in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. To explore these quantitative findings, a qualitative research protocol was developed to characterize student learning in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. Students (N = 13)…

The authors investigated whether the amount of instructional guidance affects science learning and self-efficacy. Sixty 9- and 10-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of the following three instructional conditions: (a) guided instruction consisting of examples and student-generated explanations, (b) direct instruction consisting of a…

The Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR) was used to gauge the relative effectiveness of three different methods of pedagogy, "Reading, Presenting, and Questioning" (RPQ), "Experimenting and Discussion" (ED), and "Traditional Methods" (TM), on increasing students' level of scientific thinking. The…

Describes a laboratory activity on invasion biology to improve students' cognitive skills as well as manual skills. Requires students to develop hypotheses in which a common invasive species will succeed. Focuses on the red imported fire ant in the Southeastern United States, which is a non-native invasive species. (Contains 17 references.) (YDS)

Describes a series of laboratory experiments designed to provide concrete experiences with advanced inorganic chemistry lecture topics. Stresses student invention of chemical relationships and periodicity according to physical properties and reaction type. Includes comments on student performance and attitudes toward the experiments. (JM)

Recommends a constructivist approach to physics laboratory activities to make laboratories a place for personal maturation and cognitive growth. Describes class design in which ideas and techniques are exchanged which allow students the opportunity to initiate investigations based on early conceptual assumptions, and extend the investigation…

Students set in their ways are usually reluctant, as a general rule, to deal with open-ended investigative scenarios. In order to acquaint the student with the physical method and philosophical thought process of the discipline, the tone of the course must be set early on. The present study was conducted to develop scenarios and microbial model…

A course is described that is designed to encourage exploration, conceptual invention, and expansion of an idea. Results are given that relate to curricular experimentation with chemistry. (SA)

Reviews the objectives of laboratory work in chemistry education, current laboratory practice, and factors likely to impact on the nature of laboratory work in the future. Proposes that more investigation-style laboratory work be provided in order to foster the development of students' investigation skills. (Author/MKR)

The author describes activities he uses with secondary school science students to learn about their reasoning. (Author/SA)

Developmental assumptions that are frequently regarded as constraints on elementary school science curricula are analyzed. The argument that elementary school children cannot function as experimentalists because they have not yet attained formal operational thought is not supported by the Piagetian or non-Piagetian research reviewed. (SLD)

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 accommodation, and organization respectively. The learning cycle perceives students as actors rather than reactors to the environment. Inherent in that…

Describes Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) laboratory methods and procedures developed to increase conceptual understanding in introductory physics laboratories. Gives an example of a typical beginning SDI lab manual section and a representative Socratic dialogue. Describes several examples of laboratory experiments developed for the SDI method.…

Conceptual change teaching is an instructional method that helps students modify, extend, or exchange their alternative conceptions for the appropriate scientific conceptions. Provides activities and a diagnostic test to apply the method to the concepts of heat and temperature. (MDH)