This course of study is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of an elementary school science program. In addition to high individual pupil achievement at each grade level, this program is also designed to provide a broad and comprehensive continuum of experiences that lead toward the obtainment of the identified science goals. A strong…

This book presents 13 papers from a 1998 conference in Hong Kong that examined how to apply psychology to enhance learning and teaching quality and focused on multicultural education: (1) "The Role of Multiple Competencies and Self-Regulated Learning in Multicultural Education" (Chi-yue Chiu, Farideh Salili, and Ying-yi Hong); (2)…

Reports a study examining the concurrent validity of concept maps as vehicles for documenting and exploring conceptual change in biology. Elementary education science methods students who were instructed on marine life zones showed significant differences on their concept maps on this topic. (PR)

Compared teaching senior secondary school biology students (n=147) with concept mapping alone; with concept mapping in conjunction with cooperative-learning groups; and with lecture/demonstration methods. Groups utilizing concept mapping with cooperative learning scored significantly higher other groups. (Contains 18 references.) (MDH)

Four different methods of teaching--cooperative learning, class discussions, concept maps, and lectures--were integrated into a freshman-level general chemistry course to compare students' levels of participation. Findings support the idea that multiple modes of learning foster the metacognitive skills necessary for mastering general chemistry.…

Concept maps are widely used in education, and have been acclaimed for their excellent results. For efficiently using concept maps in education, computer-based concept mapping systems have been developed. However these computer-based concept mapping systems are limited in their assessment algorithms. The assessment takes only concept nodes as the…

The purpose of the study was to describe the challenges of parents of children with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Nineteen birth, foster or adoptive parents were asked to answer the following question: "What are the challenges you face parenting a child with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?" The data were analyzed using…

This article presents an overview of measuring science based on a bibliometric methodology. The 2 main lines of this methodology are discussed. First, the measurement of research performance is addressed, including aspects such as interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and knowledge users. It is demonstrated that advanced bibliometric methods are an…

Topic Maps, ISO/IEC 13250 standard, are designed to facilitate the organization and navigation of large collections of information objects by creating meta-level perspectives of their underlying concepts and relationships. The underlying structure of concepts and relations is expressed by domain ontologies. The Topics Maps technology can become…

A study used concept mapping to identify, classify, and prioritize student outcomes for use in building a foundation for evaluating tech prep programs. The study involved 61 stakeholders from 3 stakeholder groups: 24 educators, 18 students, and 19 employers, who rated 98 student outcomes statements gleaned from educational literature on tech prep…

An inservice program to teach instructional strategies that promote metacognitive development to classroom teachers in their roles as instructional designers, based on the notion that instruction in metacognitive strategies must be incorporated into content instruction, is described. Teachers were informed about the following specific…

A method of qualitative data analysis that used computer software as a tool to help organize and analyze open-ended survey responses was examined. Reasons for using open-ended, as opposed to closed-ended questionnaire items, are discussed, as well as the construction of open-ended questions and response analysis. Because the method is based on…

This annual publication contains 43 research papers on a variety of issues related to science education. Topics include the following: mature-age students; teacher professional development; spreadsheets and science instruction; the Learning in Science Project and putting it into practice; science discipline knowledge in primary teacher education;…

This paper examines what student teachers learn from writing a case about their student teaching experience. An analytic framework was developed to understand what students learn from writing such narratives. It contained six elements: (1) an intention, which formed the springboard for the dramatic action; (2) an initial conceptual map which…

This article discusses the foundations for the assessment of primary science learning with a focus on the place of assessment in the curriculum, the association between pedagogy and assessment, and the role of formative and summative assessment. Alternative strategies are recommended for the assessment of science learning at primary level, and…