Explores developing a concept image of functions. Includes assessment items, describes students' responses to these items, and interprets those responses. (KHR)

Presents an interview protocol used to identify and evaluate students' conceptions of plants which is an invitation to participate in the third national study exploring elementary students' science conceptions. (YDS)

Reports on a study to elicit junior secondary students' understandings of the nature of science (NOS) through peer collaboration instruction based on science stories specifically developed to present several aspects of NOS. Investigates how students reacted to the stories and whether they were able to extract the aspects of NOS presented in the…

Responds to commentary on evidence-based interventions (EBIs) in school psychology (this issue). A conceptual framework for future operation of the Task Force on Evidence-Based Interventions in School Psychology is presented within the context of identification, review, coding, analyzing and synthesizing, and disseminating research related to…

Examines a root-approximation method using fixed points as a pedagogical tool for reinforcing and expanding students' conception of functions. (KHR)

Uses situated abstraction to understand nurses' conceptions of intensive quantity of drug concentration. Explores nurses' conceptions to undertake a pointed examination of the degree of situatedness of nurses' knowledge and reasoning. Demonstrates that nurses' conceptions were abstracted within their practice when they coordinated mathematical…

Two experiments examined six-month-olds' ability to form an abstract containment category. Results indicated that, after habituation to object pairs in a containment relation, infants looked reliably longer at an example of an unfamiliar versus familiar containment relation, indicating that they could form a categorical representation of…

Outlines general guidelines for teaching conceptual development in science in the United Kingdom. Focuses on the introduction of new ideas in the primary classroom. Uses two examples of teaching to exemplify how relevant ideas of science can be introduced. Discusses the teacher's role in talking ideas into existence. (BT)

Contrasts lay and "professional" metalinguistic knowledge from the viewpoint that linguistic issues concern all speakers of language. The article maintains that linguists firmly believe in a major difference between lay and theoretical metadiscursive remarks because linguists persist in believing in the objectivity of linguistic facts.…

Discusses how daily routines in early childhood and primary grade settings can assist young children's developing understanding of time. Notes adaptable activities, including tracking weather, keeping records, talking about activities, creating time lines, celebrating personal milestones, and recording events and changes. Lists ways to integrate…

Two experiments compared preschoolers' awareness of knowledge transitions involving behavioral changes to those involving vocabulary or general knowledge changes. Found that children tended to report they had learned something new when novel information was behavioral (e.g., counting in Japanese) and tended to claim prior knowledge when the novel…

Discusses how conceptual change has developed over the past three decades, alternative approaches for analyzing it, multiperspective views of science learning and instruction, how conceptual change can be used to examine scientific literacy, and paths to a powerful framework for improving science teaching and learning. (Contains 91 references.)…

Distinguishes two conceptions of sample and sampling that emerged in the context of a teaching experiment conducted in a high school statistics class. Suggests that the conception of a sample as a quasi- proportional, small-scale version of the population is a powerful one to target for instruction. (Author/KHR)

Examines the views of proof held by university-level mathematics students and teachers. Develops a framework for characterizing people's views of proof based on a distinction between public and private aspects of proof and the key ideas that link these two domains. (Author/KHR)

Explains the design and development of curriculum materials that ask students to think about physics from a different view. These group-learning classroom materials specifically aim to bring about improvement of student understanding of sound waves. (Contains 29 references.) (Author/SOE)