Discusses research which shows that bilinguals in a word recognition task are able to process the words of a language in a language-specific manner without any influence of their knowledge of the surface or conceptual represenations of words in the other language. (EKN)

The structure of conceptual interrelationships in a group of college students was assessed and intervention techniques to alter the conceptual structure were designed and implemented. A technique reducing the number of concepts identified for alteration and requiring students to compare concepts produced a substantial shift in students' concept…

A study comparing the effectiveness of various parts of Merrill and Tennyson's model for teaching concepts showed that a presentation of examples and nonexamples in an expository presentation or in an inquisitory practice presentation enhances the acquisition of social studies concepts. The addition of a definition is not essential. (RM)

Compared three personality theories (ego development, moral development, and conceptual systems theory) in 102 college students who completed the Sentence Completion Test, This I Believe Test, and Defining Issues Test. Results indicated a significant relationship between all three pairs of theories. (JAC)

"The Tragic Fallacy" is a polemical investigation exploring the dilemma of a culture unable to conceive of life as having tragic significance; unable to reconcile material and scientific progress to spiritual needs. Furthermore, the essay urges a reevaluation of cultural forms and demonstrates the exigency for drama, and literary arts in…

An account of studies conducted by author and others concerning Piaget's view of object concept development in infants. (HS)

Each of three groups was taught three unrelated mathematics concepts by one of three different sequences of instructional moves. Among the results were that a characterization-exemplification sequence was most effective on immediate acquisition of low-level items and exemplification-characterization-exemplification on short-term retention of…

Two studies are described which (a) determined whether the generality and inclusiveness of advance organizers (AOs) were the same as the mathematical generality or abstractness of concepts that might be used as AOs and (b) measured the effect of programmed recall of AOs in enhancing the learning of a mathematical concept. (DT)

The role of educational technologists in the British Open University is examined, and the underlying assumptions of educational technology are questioned.

Seventy kindergarten children learned to order 12 objects that were well known and either unrelated or categorizable into well-known categories. Free recall was assessed. Results indicated the children used category membership both to learn and to recall the items. (Author/SB)

This paper provides some guidance as to what to listen for to help students make sense of expressions in ways that connect to their ideas and honestly address the mathematics of rational numbers. It offers a reasonable initial answer to the question, "Where do students' ideas about fractions and ratios come from, and how can we work productively…

In this paper we study how a student begins to acquire the concept of the derivative, what kind of representations he acquires and how he connects these representations. A teaching period, in which different perceptual and symbolic representation were emphasized, was carried out and task based interviews conducted to five students. The students…

This ERIC Digest concerns the constructed knowledge (also called nave knowledge or prior conceptions) held by students and the changes required to alter students' framework to understand and believe the true science concepts involved. This process is called conceptual change. Theoretical framework of conceptual change, what exactly is conceptual…

This paper uses passages from Thomas Pynchon's novel, "Gravity's Rainbow," to examine basic concepts, explaining that the process of identifying the basic word-concepts in literary texts is to some extent a tension between anticipation and unexpected frustration. The paper focuses on an interpretation of the basic concept…

In 2001, at Snowbird, Utah, members of the [mu]-group from the University of British Columbia, under the guidance of Dr. Susan Pirie, engaged in an innovative, continuous session of linked papers which consider the notion and nature of mathematical understanding and reviewed a number of different theories and approaches to this phenomenon. We…