Tested in three studies a pragmatic explanation for children's tendency to choose an unfamiliar rather than familiar object when asked to find the referent of a novel name. Found that 3-year-olds responded to requests for referent of a novel label and a novel fact the same way. Shared knowledge between speaker and listener influenced children's…

There is unanimous agreement among mathematics educators that a prime objective of mathematics teaching is to promote understanding of the subject. There does not exist the same degree of unanimity with respect to what is meant by understanding mathematics. (Author/MM)

Reports on teacher candidates' interviews of children to learn about students' everyday science understandings. Concludes that teachers must go through a process of asking, leading, interacting, and guiding in order to facilitate student learning. (MM)

The Ethnic Attitude Scale and Transcultural Questionnaire were administered to 152 bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) students, registered nurses in transition to BSN, and masters's students. All three groups had low knowledge about cultural groups. The only significant difference was BSN students' understanding of such concepts as…

Psychologists (N=305) completed a questionnaire concerning criteria for sexual consent capacity by individuals with mental retardation. Factor analysis identified five factors of which basic sexual knowledge, knowledge of the consequences of sexual behavior, and abilities related to self-protection were most critical for sexual consent capacity.…

Teachers who differentiate their instruction begin by developing a broad and thorough understanding of their students, all of whom enter classrooms with varying interests, readiness levels, talents, and knowledge. Gathering this data about students and using it to purposefully implement differentiated practices can be time consuming and…

The authors investigated the effects of domain knowledge on online reading among younger and older adults. Individuals were randomly assigned to either a domain-relevant (i.e., high-knowledge) or domain-irrelevant (i.e., low-knowledge) training condition. Two days later, participants read target passages on a computer that drew on information…

Efforts by the state of Illinois to foster school improvement at the local level in crucial subject matter areas in all Illinois schools have been underway for nearly two decades and have involved all stakeholders, from educators to citizens to state board employees to elected officials. The overarching goal has been to help children increase…

The authors conducted an evaluation of visitor knowledge and conservation attitudes toward African apes at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. Using S. R. Kellert's and J. Dunlap's (1989) analysis of zoo visitor knowledge and attitudes as a model, they modified and administered a survey to 1,000 visitors to the ape facility. On average, visitors correctly…

The study conducted addresses issues associated with the relationships among science factual knowledge, conceptual understanding of science, and belief in pseudoscience by means of a 30-question survey. The survey consists of three types of questions asked of students enrolled in a science major and compares the responses to these obtained by…

In recent years, memory-based and explanation-based theories have dominated the discourse processing literature. Numerous studies have been conducted to show support for each of the two views. Most of these studies have manipulated factors in the episodic memory trace of texts, without a great deal of focus on how general world knowledge impacts…

Researchers and clinicians develop prevention programs for problem gambling. These programs, which mainly target youths, are usually applied within the school environment by teachers. It would be useful to verify beforehand whether teachers understand this problem and to evaluate their interest in applying these programs. We surveyed 517 teachers…

This article seeks to explore the influence of the knowledge economy on the status of writing and literacy. It inquires into what happens to writers and their writing when texts serve as the chief commercial products of an organization--when such high-stakes factors as corporate reputation, client base, licensing, competitive advantage, growth,…

In the past decade, we have seen an increased focus on measuring the impact of zoos, aquariums, and other free-choice learning environments on the conservation-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior of the visiting public. However, no such studies have been conducted on the impact of such environments on the staff working in these…

In preparation for this lecture, the author read, among other studies, previous Sargent, Homans, and Hannah lectures. These papers read well, and, they continue to inform people today. Importantly, these lecturers addressed timely issues that confronted physical education in higher education and to some extent shaped the field as one now knows it.…