Four experiments investigated whether 9-month-olds could use the presence of labels to help them establish a representation of two distinct objects in a complex object individuation task. Found that the presence of two distinct labels facilitated object individuation, but presence of one label for both objects, two distinct tones, two distinct…

Discusses the interaction of scientific knowledge and everyday human experience using a phenomenological framework that allows a picture of meaning constitution to emerge. Concludes that construction of a model of curriculum work on the levels of planning, implementation, and evaluation involves translation between the setting of everyday…

Addresses relationships between a student's learning orchestration and learning outcome as a function of prior understanding in first year university biology courses. Employs a cluster analysis of (n=272) Australian students revealing three different forms of learning orchestration: understanding, reproducing, and disintegrating. (Contains 44…

Develops an integrated approach based on the use of general systems theory (GST) and the concept of 'mapping' scientific knowledge to provide students with tools for a more holistic understanding of science. Uses GST as the core methodology for understanding science and its complexity. Discusses the role of scientific community in producing…

Analyzes how electric and magnetic lines of force were conceived by Faraday and how they are understood by a group of Argentine university students after receiving instruction. Results show that many students possess ideas similar to those of Faraday in that lines of force are conceived as real physical entities responsible for the transmission of…

Reports on an exploratory study of the ideas that students in the fourth semester of engineering have about conservation. Reviews the Piagetian position on the importance of conservations in logical operational structures in child development. Discusses the development of conservations in science during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and…

If students are restricted to making educational experiments only, they might acquire incorrect ideas concerning the nature and role of the experimental method because the educational experiment differs greatly from the scientific experiment by its tasks, complexity, number and variability of experiments and devices used, measurements, and…

Wilson discusses ways in which educational research is rendered ineffective, stemming from distortion of the concepts of "education" and "research." Includes three commentaries: Harry Brighouse discusses factors impeding research, John White contests the definition of education, and Marian Sainsbury argues that educational…

Discusses mastery goals and developmental levels of students aged 3-7 for learning numbers in informal situations. (KHR)

Presents activities in a context that promotes connections between students' experiences and new content and provides visual and/or physical links between informal knowledge and formal math ideas. (YDS)

Describes how the JASON project was implemented in a self-contained 4th grade classroom and examines this project within the overall context of student-scientist partnership (SSP) models of science education reform. Examines changes in student conceptions of the nature of science as a result of participating in science. (Contains 24 references.)…

Examines the mathematical proof schemes of students starting their studies at the University of Cordoba and relates these schemes to the meanings of mathematical proof in different institutional contexts. Concludes that deductive mathematical proof is difficult for these students. Suggests that the different institutional meanings of proof might…

Develops an epistemological and didactic view of the genesis of Cantorian set theory. (Author/MM)

The construction of both natural and formal infinities are products of human thought and may be considered in terms of embodied cognition. Forwards the viewpoint that formal deduction focuses as far as possible on formal logic in preference to perceptual imagery, developing a network of formal properties that do not depend on specific embodiments.…

Presents a presentation of some tasks regarded as typical sources for forming students' intuitions and first understandings about limiting processes of real sequences. Features an analysis of the formal definition of limit via identifying roles for each symbol that occurs to achieve a mental image consonant with the definition. Describes how this…