In the context of schooling, resiliency refers to the ability to thrive academically despite adverse circumstances. In this study the relationship between academic resilience and student's collateral learning is explored in 20 students of Cree ancestry. The individual resilience of each student was examined by identifying protective factors for…

This article deals with 12th-grade students' conceptions of a mathematical definition. Their conceptions of a definition were revealed through individual and group activities in which they were asked to consider a number of possible definitions of four mathematical concepts: two geometric and two analytic. Data consisted of written responses to…

This article reports on research into learning gains made by children aged 10-12 when they studied astronomy using learning activities in a constructivist environment consolidated by access through the Internet to a scientific-grade telescope. Young people often hold naive or alternative ideas about scientific phenomena from early childhood. Since…

Jane Roland Martin's later work, especially as represented in "The Schoolhome: Rethinking Schools for Changing Families," has been attacked as vague, essentialistic, and a formula for the (re)feminization of education. This paper does not attempt to defend Martin against these criticisms because such a defense seems impossible for…

While problem-based learning (PBL) has a relatively long history of successful use in medical and pre-professional schools, it has yet to be widely adopted by K--12 teachers. This may be due, in part, to the numerous challenges teachers experience when implementing PBL. In this paper, we describe specific hurdles that teachers are likely to…

The study explores urban second graders' thinking and talking about the concepts of evaporation, boiling, and condensation that emerged in the context of intertextuality within an integrated science-literacy unit on the topic of States of Matter, which emphasized the water cycle. In that unit, children and teacher engaged in a variety of…

In this article, the author discusses the advantages of using the interactive engagement instructional method. A model of interactive engagement (IE) instructional method involves questioning students by challenging them to think deeply about a problem or complex question. Essential to this process is frequent and thoughtful interaction with the…

We report on an evaluation of the effectiveness of Project ARIES, an astronomy-based physical science curriculum for upper elementary and middle school children. ARIES students use innovative, simple, and affordable apparatus to carry out a wide range of indoor and outdoor hands-on, discovery-based activities. Student journals and comprehensive…

The theory of reasoned action is a social psychological model that was first considered by science educators in the early 1980s to investigate attitude-behavior relationships. The theory has encouraged intense investigations in the prediction of behavior, development of instruments, and creation of belief-based interventions. This investigation…

This collection of essays illustrates various aspects of the recent trend to situate accounts of cognitive development. The essays examine contextual sensitivity in relation to ecological theories of perception and cognition, and contrast intuitive reasoning in mathematical and other scientific domains with the child's difficulty with reasoning in…

This set of information sheets is intended to improve practice in special education through technology, media, and materials. The first information profile introduces NCIP (the National Center to Improve Practice), gives an example of how one special education administrator uses NCIP resources, and offers suggestions for facilitating NCIP…

This study revealed some of the factors that influence preservice elementary teachers' instructional planning in word problem solving by examining preservice teachers' conceptions of how to teach word problem solving. Twenty-one interviews of preservice teachers were conducted before and after the mathematics methods course and the protocols were…

This Pilipino teacher's guide is part of Berkeley, California Unified School District Asian American Bilingual Center's effort to foster the total growth of the child. To facilitate that growth, the Center has selected an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum development. Social studies themes and concepts provide the framework within which all…

Over the past 10 years, numerous empirical investigations of learning in physics have been carried out at the Institute of Physics Education (IPE) at the University of Bremen in Germany. The objectives of these investigations were: (1) to describe in detail individual learning processes; (2) to construct theoretical principles of individual…

This proceedings is comprised of the edited papers presented at the 21st meeting of the Western Australian Science Education Association (WASEA). The 26 papers included here relate to many different topics such as proportional reasoning, the state of primary science in Western Australia, faculty culture, concept formation in elementary science,…