Investigated the influence of, and interplay between, biographical and contextual factors in Portuguese teachers' professional learning and development during their first teaching years. Teacher interviews and surveys highlighted the powerful influence of prior experiences as students, the low impact of preservice education on socialization, and…

Identifies middle school and college students' prior ideas about electrostatic induction. Presented students with observational evidence that supported or refuted their own prior ideas in an interview format. Concludes that the Lakatosian rather than the Popperian view is more acceptable in understanding students' responses to conflicting…

Explores whether construction of integrated knowledge structures by students can be stimulated by concept mapping and better visualization of concepts and their interrelationships. Significant effects of concept mapping as an instructional method could not be detected. (Contains 18 references.) (DDR)

This study used bilingual stories to examine the long-term memory of compound bilinguals in Grades 2 and 3. Results revealed that third graders used more elaborate memory strategies, had greater cognitive awareness of language, and demonstrated significantly better overall memory, relative to second graders. The author discusses memory development…

A few years ago, most of the students at Lansdowne Elementary were struggling readers: while many could recognize words, half were unable to under stand the stories they'd just read. Not surprisingly, these kids weren't interested in books. The problem wasn't Why Johnnie Can't Read, but more specifically, Why Johnnie Can't Understand--and the…

This paper discusses the 1997 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) two-year study("Design as a Catalyst for Learning") of how design is being used in pre-K-12 schools. The NEA acknowledged the thirty-year contributions of professional designers who bring their content and expertise to the school classroom; however, the focus of the report was on…

Earlier research has shown that prior knowledge of psychology is positively associated with course achievement. But are these effects attributable to preexisting differences in general ability or aptitude? The authors administered 2 pretests to 353 students early in an introductory psychology course and obtained measures of general student…

A change in curriculum permitted a direct and simultaneous comparison between first and second year responses to group project work while assuming similar prior experience with this method of learning. Responses were obtained by a survey form and by meetings with individual groups. Overall, there were no differences between first and second year…

Mayer's SOI theory suggests that supplements added to designed environments can promote learners' knowledge construction and that different types of supplements will serve different purposes in knowledge construction. Some adjuncts can facilitate selection. Other adjuncts, such as diagrams, might facilitate the organization of important…

Qualitative evaluation studies can differ markedly from quantitative ones in both purpose and method and therefore must be understood and evaluated on their own terms. This article defines qualitative evaluation research and describes key parameters of quality to be considered when conducting and evaluating these studies in terms that take their…

In this article, a university researcher and two teacher researchers collaborated in a classroom study of how 26 American fourth graders (9-year-olds) used primary source photographs to evaluate the historical significance of events in their community's past. Interpreting the photographs as historical evidence, students generated ideas and…

This article describes three potential English literacy problem areas for Asian graduate students. The three areas are: (1) the influence of cultural and personal prior knowledge, (2) the processes of education that students learned in their native schools, and (3) the linguistic characteristics of ESL students. Instructional ideas are provided…

As part of the Victorian Early Numeracy Research Project, over 1400 Victorian children in the first (Preparatory) year of school were assessed in mathematics by their classroom teachers. Using a task-based, one-to-one interview, administered during the first and last month of the school year, a picture emerged of the mathematical knowledge and…

Despite a century of research, the mechanisms underlying short-term or working memory for serial order remain uncertain. Recent theoretical models have converged on a particular account, based on transient associations between independent item and context representations. In the present article, the authors present an alternative model, according…

This paper sets out to examine the impacts of schooling and health knowledge on the level of obesity in Taiwan. The results obtained from a sample of Taiwanese females support the hypothesis of Grossman that schooling has a direct positive effect on health by reducing the likelihood of a person being obese. The awareness of obesity-disease…