Mental-content verbs such as "think," "believe," "imagine" and "hope" seem to pose special problems for the young language learner. One possible explanation for these difficulties is that the concepts that these verbs express are hard to grasp and therefore their acquisition must await relevant conceptual development. According to a different,…

Previously, we proposed a model of student reasoning which combines the roles of representation, analogy, and layering of meaning--analogical scaffolding [Podolefsky and Finkelstein, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 010109 (2007)]. The present empirical studies build on this model to examine its utility and demonstrate the vital intertwining of…

In this article the popularity of the concept of competence in higher vocational education is explained and the most important issues in this field are discussed. In particular, the vagueness of the term and the problems in defining job and training profiles are explained. Then the design of competence-based education is discussed. The paper ends…

Concepts learned in the classroom were reinforced and augmented by presenting them in a different context using cryogenics-based enrichment programmes (CBEPs) held in an out-of-school setting. The effectiveness of two CBEPs, which involve the use of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen, was explored. Using a sample of 265 upper primary students, it…

Adolescent girls living in Guatemala today experience a variety of influences on their lives. These include transmitted cultural values blended from Mayan and Spanish traditions, current social and economic conditions such as inflation, political violence, and urban migration, and also more immediate and personal influences: their families,…

The meaning of discovery learning or discovery method of teaching and the goals one might wish to achieve by using this method are discussed. (Author/DEP)

Author discussed some functions, consequences, and implications of the ideological conflicts in early childhood education. (Author/RK)

Article interpreted the meaning "experience" had for two distinguished educators, representing some of the most productive and predictive opinions of the past and present educational philosophy of this country. (RK)

The author, seeking to define what is special about social science, finds its distinctiveness in its questions and aims rather than its methods. (Editor)

Article expands on one aspect of conceptual conflict, contradiction, in order to illustrate in greater detail how it might be exploited in educational practice. (Author)

The concept learning of poetic styles, using a transfer paradigm, extends earlier findings on the learning of artistic styles to prose materials. (Author/KM)

Using a model for individual differences in multidimensional scaling, 16 concepts dealing with developmental psychology were scaled before and after a course. The criterion measure used was the instructor's position in the subject space. Implications of this methodology for educational evaluation are discussed. (Author/SE)

This essay sought to examine the difficulties surrounding the relevance of history to education. (Author/RK)

Previous cognitive science research demonstrates how the Agent-action-Objective (AaO) paradigm controls the cognitive processes of differentiation and integration. The present discussion advances the process to the fourth of five phases. Of the four dependent variables emerging at this stage, two are discussed: zero processing and variations in…