The Foundational Approaches in Science Teaching (FAST) project, which began under the sponsorship of the Hawaii Science Curriculum Council, contains a series of interdisciplinary science courses that emphasize the foundational concepts and methods of the physical, biological, and earth sciences. By directly involving students in investigating…

This paper examines how temporal and spatial observation variables can drastically alter a visitor's comprehension of the phenomena depicted by a museum exhibit. The focus is on a tornado exhibit at the Exploratorium, a museum of science and human perception in San Francisco (California). Videotaped recordings of 10 children interacting with the…

Working on the hypothesis that if readers had several alternative correct meanings of a given text set before them they would select the one in accordance with their abstract abilities and intellectual maturity, a study investigated the measurement of levels of meaning as illustrated in taxonomies and focused on the applicability of the taxonomies…

Suggestions are given relating to having plants and animals in the classroom to stimulate development of the understanding of the concept of being alive, a concept not really understood by children under age nine. The research reviewed promotes firsthand experiences to help form concepts of living and nonliving, of identity and causality. (EB)

Responds to a number of recent criticisms of labeling theory made by those who criticize it for its empathy with deviants, and Marxists who criticize it for ignoring oppression and exploitation. Conceptual problems of defining what is deviance and who is a deviant are discussed. (Author/AM)

Deals with the problem of transcoding, that is, when in switching from one sign system to another relations must be created between corresponding structures in the different systems. The mechanisms of transcoding are examined for spoken and written speech, numeral words and figures, and tone symbols and musical notes. (SCC)

Fundamental teacher roles are presented in a model which depicts the ideal teacher. (JC)

Suggests that the concept of maturity, while having utility in many scientific and medical areas, has gradually become a major ingredient in the attempt of some people to neutralize certain personal life-style evolutions as well as some social and political movements. (Author/AM)

Remarks are focused on two of the findings of a study carried out by Bingham-Newman and Hooper in "Classification and Seriation Instruction and Logical Task Performance in Preschool."

Discussed is the spatial concept model of J. Piaget in terms of the child's development from topological spatial relationships to Euclidean and projective relationships with implications for assessment and remediation of perceptual dysfunction. (DB)

This paper describes an attempt to incorporate the social psychological phenomenon of trait inference into existing developmental theory - principally the developmental system of Piaget. This goal is accomplished by examining the trait of inferences of children developmentally to establish the structural requirements of the process in terms of…

A description is given of a course in educational psychology in which students learn to apply the principles of educational psychology in understanding their own learning before they are expected to understand and apply these principles to children's learning. The course focuses on the application of the principles of educational psychology, i.e.,…

This newsletter theme issue contains four articles which focus on the development of normal and handicapped infants in various settings. "The Baby's World," by Lois Barclay Murphy and Colleen T. Small, emphasizes experiences of sensation and discovery in the first three years of life, noting the role of caregivers and the cultural context. "The…

A collaborative research study was designed to facilitate, at the local school level, a mathematics teacher's development of a "constructivist" pedagogy. This paper discusses the nature and influence of the teacher's professional beliefs on his attempts to create a classroom learning environment congruent with the principles of a constructivist…

By studying many observations from recent research dealing with beginning physics students' conceptions about forces and motion, this investigation produced a framework within which this research can be organized. The framework summarizes the mechanisms of force invoked by students in particular situations, and it describes the features of…