Discusses pre-service teachers' perceptions of their knowledge level and their self-efficacy regarding family-school-community collaboration. Reports on a study in which a significant number of students reported a lack of knowledge and self-efficacy regarding parent-teacher conferences, workshops for parents, and other issues. States that high…

A survey of 69 women at risk for carrying a fetus with a disability found most would choose to terminate a pregnancy that tested positive for a disability regardless of type of disability (either Down syndrome or spina bifida). The decision was not related to knowledge about disabilities but was negatively related to knowledge of…

Outlines new directions for research on parents' contributions to children's values. Advocates research that demonstrates that parental understanding of a particular child's characteristics and situation is the mark of effective parenting, traces differential impact of varieties of parent responsiveness, assesses conditions surrounding the fact…

Describes a study of high school students' and chemistry teachers' understanding of the gas laws which focused on the application of scientific concepts in practical situations instead of mathematical calculations in theoretical situations. (Contains 13 references.) (WRM)

Introduces the growing body of research on development of scientific reasoning skills, focusing on reasoning and problem-solving strategies used in experimentation and evidence evaluation. Maintains that current research examines strategy development and use in moderately complex domains to examine conditions under which subjects' theories…

Investigates the reliability and validity of the Bentley Measures of Musical Abilities (BMMA) for predicting musical achievement of students entering the Conservatory Alberto Ginastera (Argentina) by measuring the students improvement over the first four-month term. Encourages the use of the BMMA as a means to evaluating the entering students…

Surveyed college students with a background of three semesters in Chinese who were enrolled in business Chinese to determine their knowledge and perceptions of Chinese business culture and expectations from the course. Results indicated that the students lacked cultural knowledge in business settings, suggesting the importance of addressing…

Investigates whether experience with a balance beam task at which children succeed could be transferred to a related problem (balancing familiar everyday objects) and the extent to which transfer of knowledge was assisted by adult scaffolding and a condition where children worked alone. Finds that the scaffolding condition was most effective. (CMK)

Compared adolescents' (14 to 20 years) and young adults' (21 to 37 years) wisdom-related knowledge and judgment related to difficult and ill-defined life dilemmas. Rated responses along five wisdom criteria. Found that adolescents performed at lower levels than young adults but also demonstrated substantial age increments in performance.…

The reform documents of the 1990s stressed that science is not practiced by a rigid scientific method, but science texts continue to describe the process as if it were rigid and linear. The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (a) to explore middle school in-service teachers' perceptions of scientific methodology and (b) to explore ways in…

Environmental education promotes the use of higher-order thinking skills, encourages informal experiences in school as well as outdoors and brings together children and adults in order to make a contribution to the environment. Its holistic nature, that encompasses various subject matters, learning environments and teaching methods and encourages…

More and more subject matter area teachers find themselves working with students whose native language is not English. A report from the National Center for Education Statistics (2003) showed that close to four million students nationwide were classified as English language learners (ELL) in the school year of 2001-2002, a 30 percent increase from…

An appropriate venue for the use of technology in physical education is one where students are meaningfully engaged in learning activities within a supportive environment that is student centered and that involves cooperation and active learning. An appropriate point of entry for the implementation of such a framework is project-based learning…

This paper reports an analysis of qualitatively different ways in which teachers experience change in their understanding of subject matter they have recently taught. In this exploratory study, interviews with 31 'typical' teachers from a range of first and second-year university subjects revealed that 20 reported no experience of change in their…

Introduction: Physicians increasingly earn continuing medical education (CME) credits through on-line courses, but there have been few rigorous evaluations to determine their effects. The present study explores the feasibility of implementing standardized evaluation templates and tests them to evaluate 30 on-line CME courses. Methods: A time…