Reports research conducted on 31 experienced science teachers enrolled in a graduate level science education course, using the Wisconsin Inventory of Science Processes (WISP) to investigate the relationship between certain academic variables, teaching experience, and a professional science education course. Academic variables and teaching…

Simple patterns are compelling. When all the observed facts fit into a simple theory or ''story,'' we are intuitively convinced that the pattern must be "real" rather than random. But how surprising is a simple pattern, really? That is, given a pattern of featural data, such as the properties of a set of objects, how unlikely would the pattern be…

Nominal concepts represent things as tokens of types. We report six experiments that investigate the nature of the relations we represent between the type of thing something is (e.g. DOG) and its other properties. The experiments provide evidence that we represent principled connections between the type of thing something is (e.g. DOG) and some of…

This paper explores the relationships between the development of expertise and transitions. It sets out what we know about the development of expertise, changes in the brain as expertise develops, and how transitions between different learning contexts and the challenges that they present may impact on developing expertise. It sets out a series of…

Effects of a 1-semester professional development (PD) intervention that included expert coaching with Head Start teachers were investigated in a randomized controlled trial with 88 teachers and 759 children. Differential effects of technologically mediated (remote) versus in-person (on-site) delivery of individualized coaching with teachers also…

Categorization in well-known natural concepts is studied using a special version of the Varying Abstraction Framework (Vanpaemel, W., & Storms, G. (2006). A varying abstraction framework for categorization. Manuscript submitted for publication; Vanpaemel, W., Storms, G., & Ons, B. (2005). A varying abstraction model for categorization. In B. Bara,…

Thanks to Barsalou's, Damasio's, Glenberg's, Prinz' and others' work, neo-empiricism is gaining a deserved recognition in the psychology and philosophy of concepts. I argue, however, that neo-empiricists have underestimated the difficulty of providing evidence against the amodal approach to concepts and higher cognition. I highlight three key…

What underlies children's understanding of artifacts? Studies suggest that beginning around age 7, people reason about artifacts in terms of the inventor's purpose--termed "the design stance." Our two studies emphasize another component of artifact understanding--the cultural nature of artifacts--by demonstrating people's sensitivity to an…

The stimulus display duration required for subjects to accurately compare the length of two line lengths (known as Inspection Time: IT), reliably correlates around 0.5 with general intelligence. It is not clear, however, if this correlation reflects general "speed of processing", or some other element of the task. There is a consequent need for…

The authors completed a critical review of the literature on the use of metaphor and the efficacy of metaphoric activities in clinical supervision. The authors conclude that these activities might assist students in understanding the process of becoming a counselor and facilitate students' case conceptualization skills. Cautions to consider when…

We present a practical way of adapting and using four research-based assessments for different purposes in an electricity and magnetism course for K-8 science teachers. The course is designed to accomplish conceptual change toward accepted scientific conceptions as well as introducing teachers to materials and activities appropriate for their…

The study was to investigate the vague words measurement across native and non-native English speakers and gender differences. Ninety-two students from the University of Oklahoma participated in this study by filling out an internet-based questionnaire on the vague words. The researchers put each of the thirty-two vague words in a context, or the…

This paper explores the relationship between organizational learning practices and the learning organization based on a literature review. A conceptual framework is provided to analyze the relationship. When organizational learning processes are fulfilled, the organization has more opportunities to approach becoming a learning organization. The…