This research tested the hypothesis that students' erroneous mental models about groundwater will change towards more valid concepts if they are taught on the basis of a mental model-building strategy that focuses on the clarification of students' misconceptions. To examine the hypothesis a quasi-experimental research design was chosen. The…

This paper reviews the research and attempts to identify instructional techniques and settings to promote generalization of appropriate work-related social behavior in individuals with mental retardation. First, it provides a definition of transition and discusses the importance of training for generalization, discrimination, and maintenance.…

A framework is presented for library instruction that integrates learning in the cognitive and affective domains. A study is reported that supports such a framework. Central to this instruction is the use of an overall strategy called FOCUS, FORMAT, FIND, and EVALUATE. The study compared the effects of two methods of academic library instruction…

Imagery use in high school mathematics classrooms was studied. A visual image was defined as a mental scheme depicting visual or spatial information, but this definition was not spelled out to teachers or students, in order to learn what they meant by the concept. Subjects were 13 high school teachers and 54 of their students interviewed over 3…

This document examines the intricate web of active learning strategies, focusing on how to make the student an active thinker through specific writing and speaking activities. The introduction sets the learning and teaching context for the following chapters. It establishes the importance of a positive classroom climate and of engaging student…

Classrooms in our nation's schools reflect an "assembly-line model" of work in which the educational product is a set of students' performance and abilities learned in school. Contemporary educators are critical of the old factory model and seek to replace it by classrooms whose goals are to learn and to develop knowledge. Studied is the…

This document contains plenary and contributed papers presented at the seventh PME meeting, held near Jerusalem, Israel in July 1983. Three plenary papers focused on implicit models in solving problems, discussions with teachers and children, and heuristics. Contributed papers were classified under seven headings: learning theories…

This issue of the journal contains abstracts and critical comments for ten published reports of research in mathematics education. The reports concern teaching probability and estimation of measurements through microcomputer games, mental addition, use of calculators at the intermediate level, logical reasoning hierarchies, two approaches to the…

Validity is a central issue in use of self-report data for the investigation of teacher thinking. "Triangulation," or use of several data sets to test, corroborate and elaborate each other, is one method for increasing validity of findings. This paper illustrates a process of triangulation of data obtained by three different data…

Four presentations from the 1985 Annual Michigan School Testing Conference on "Assessing Higher Order Skills" are offered in this paper, and the chairman of the First General Session provides an introductory section. The papers individually and collectively address the problem of defining higher order thinking skills. A second major…

This paper reports findings on the academic and intellectual characteristics of undergraduate students attending two midwestern state universities, and outlines specific learning strategies and instructional strategies to alleviate the academic problems of skill-deficient undergraduates. In the first study, the reading performance of 128 college…

This issue of "Investigations in Mathematics Education" contains: (1) a review of E. Fischbein's book "The Intuitive Sources of Probabilistic Thinking in Children;" (2) nine abstracts of research studies in mathematics education; (3) a list (by EJ number) of mathematics education research studies reported in the January to…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects of a six-months school entrance age difference on reading, mathematics, and language achievement in primary school children; (2) relationships…

This document consists of two issues of the journal "Seedbed," an outcome of the Teachers' Center Project at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Designed to be neither scholarly nor trivial, each issue is a collection of teachers' ideas that they thought worth sharing with other teachers as "seedlings" to be developed, helping teachers…

Popular sentiment toward the teaching of thinking skills and, in particular, higher order skills, is on the rise. Many people are wondering about the best way for teachers to foster the growth of reasoning skills in their classrooms. This study attempts to improve the teaching of reasoning by investigating teaching behaviors or characteristics…