Concept mapping with "Learning Tool," a computerized mapping program, was used to assess changes in the content and organization of 17 preservice teachers' concept maps for the topic of effective teaching. This study illustrates how concept mapping can be useful in describing students' evolving constructions of knowledge in a particular…

Describes the "SemNet" software and some of its uses as an educational and research tool, with emphasis on the similarities and differences between concept mapping and semantic networking. (PR)

Discusses the two overgeneralizations "multiplications makes bigger" and "division makes smaller" in the context of solving word problems involving rational numbers less than one. Presents activities to help students make sense of multiplication and division in these situations. (MDH)

Study (n=62) at suburban community college tested method of conceptual change in which treatment students worked in small cooperative groups on tasks aimed at eliciting their misconceptions so that they could be discussed in contrast to scientific conception that had been taught in direct instruction. Treatment group had significantly lower…

Teaching strategies associated with a conceptual change model of science teaching were examined in a study of seventh-grade life science teachers (n=13). Greater use of conceptual change teaching strategies was associated with use of the special instructional materials, not with the training. Students in classes where teachers were provided with…

Reviews research on (1) schemata acquisition while learning mathematics and techniques for detecting schema in mathematics learners; and (2) assessment of the distribution of cognitive resources while learning mathematics that lead to the design of instructional techniques to facilitate schema acquisition. (26 references) (MDH)

Describes seven number-sense skills for elementary and middle school grades. Provides eight short stories for grades three through eight designed to develop students' number-sense skills in which students replace missing data so that the story makes sense. (MDH)

Used 2 12-year-old children to investigate deductive and inductive reasoning in plane geometry. A LOGO microworld was programmed to measure distances and turns relative to points on the plane. Learning environments like this may enhance formation of inductive geometrical understandings. (Contains 44 references.) (LDR)

Investigated primary school children's scientific understanding and the conceptual change that occurs when using an interactive approach to teaching science. Discourse analysis of classroom conversations indicated three different types of teacher-child and child-child interactions. (Contains 53 references.) (MDH)

Describes a study that investigated the effects of visual display within a college computer-based learning program that taught computer programming language through analogies. Three types of visual displays (text, static graphics, and animation) are compared, and assessment measures that included posttests and attitude questionnaires are…

Maintains that metaphorically and psychologically the body is tied inextricably to the concept of self. Examines the absence of this concept in educational research. Argues that this impacts the self by creating a range of identity dilemmas and considers how this might be resolved. (MJP)

Reports on an innovative program that allowed preservice and classroom teachers to have personal experience with a constructivist approach to learning science. Preservice and classroom teachers collaborated to prepare, implement, and evaluate a simple hands-on science-teaching project that focused on learner acquisition of knowledge through active…

Explores how the Learning Together form of cooperative learning influenced opportunities for acquiring academic English by second-language learners in a sixth-grade social studies classroom. Findings suggest that program developers must provide for context effect and teachers require a broad understanding of academic language. (59 references)…

Examines how the instructional conversation can be an effective method to raise the low academic achievement of various Native American students. Considers cultural differences in conversational styles, the relative emphasis on verbal or visual symbolic thinking in schools, student motivation, and the social organization of classrooms and schools.…

Interviewed 22 children, ages 7-9, in a mixed-age classroom about their conceptions of peer interaction and collaboration and about what it means to teach someone something. Found that children know they can teach their peers and are able to shift between acting as teacher and as learner in the active role. (DLH)