Focuses on the role of graphs as part of the statistical investigation process. Recommends that teachers explore students' thinking in terms of what it says about their graph sense. Suggests that teachers take time to reflect on how their thinking may be changing as they listen more closely to their students. Contains 17 references. (DDR)

Examines U.S. environmental policy since 1970 as a learning process and as an effort to develop three kinds of capacities for policy learning: technical learning, conceptual learning, and social learning. (Contains 70 references.) (Author/JOW)

Investigated whether infants infer that a hidden, freely moving object will move continuously and smoothly. Six- to 10- month olds inferred that the object's path would be connected and unobstructed, in accord with continuity. Younger infants did not infer this, in accord with inertia. At 8 and 10 months, knowledge of inertia emerged but remained…

People categorize items and concepts according to a prototypical image they build in their mind of what it is that represents the particular item or concept in question. The article argues that the notion of prototypicality has important implications for a discussion of genre. (35 references) (Author/CK)

Cognitive neuroscience is a scientific discipline that aims to determine how brain function gives rise to mental activity. Modern imaging techniques have contributed significantly to the emergence of this discipline. A conceptual framework is presented to help interpret data describing the relationships between cognitive phenomena and brain…

Describes a computer-assisted personalized assignment system used to prepare and present conceptual, qualitative questions to large introductory science classes. Several sample questions are included and discussed. Contains 18 references. (DDR)

Describes a technique that demystifies the creative process and teaches advertising students to understand that creativity is nothing more than taking something ordinary (a product) and looking at it from an extraordinary point of view (an ad). (SR)

Seeks to elicit engineering students' concept images attached to key mathematical concepts using a questionnaire. Indicates that engineering and mathematics students do have different concept images, particularly that engineering students gradually adopt mathematical ideas into their engineering knowledge in a way that makes sense of them.…

Defines a weak conception as one that is inconsistent or unclear in the field of environmental education. A strong conception takes a broad view of literacy and acknowledges its full ramifications with regard to environmental education. (SAH)

Reports on a qualitative research study on electricity carried out in 1998 on alternative conceptions (ACs) held by a select group of middle school teachers. The study was designed to identify the nature and origin of the ACs of these teachers and relate them to other similar studies carried out by other researchers. (Contains 27 references.)…

Identifies social science concepts that are prerequisite for understanding or analyzing environmental issues through a review of social science textbooks and educational materials, and interviews with social scientists. (Author/ASK)

Explores faulty models that students have for physiological processes. Undergraduate students (N=393) in three different research universities predicted the changes in heart rate, strength of cardiac contraction, breathing frequency, and depth of breathing under conditions that result in increased cardiac output. Contains 23 references. (DDR)

Suggests that many students with A-level mathematics, and even with a degree in mathematics or a related subject, do not have an understanding of the basic principles of calculus. Describes the approach used in three textbooks currently in use. Contains 14 references. (Author/ASK)

Presents the way in which language issues have become a relevant factor in research that aims to study the socio-cultural aspects of mathematics education in classrooms with a high percentage of immigrant students. Illustrates the fact that, even if the mathematical language can be considered universal, the language of doing mathematics within the…

Presents materials to stimulate active learning through modified concept mapping activities designed to help students appreciate alternative perspectives by using cartoons as a stimulus and focusing on the links within a concept map fragment, and encouraging the probing of understanding by annotating the linking words. (Author/YDS)