Discusses how the Galilean balance equilibrium model can be used in the physics classroom to provide students with a model of intelligibility that would unify their thinking about motion and, at the same time, provide them with a general procedural schema for solving motion problems. (ZWH)

Twenty-two second grade students in Cambridge (Massachusetts) were asked to rate pictures of nature items and artifacts on a seven-point scale ranging from "maleness" to "femaleness." Responses overall showed a female-nature and male-artifact association. Discusses the role of such associations in the development of gender…

A conceptual framework for home economics asks the questions What is the purpose of home economics? What is the field's structure? What are model cases of the field's actions? and What arguments explain and evaluate the field? The framework can clarify understanding of home economics' mission and enable practitioners to interpret subject matter.…

High school chemistry students' (n=183) applied and theoretical knowledge of dissolution, diffusion, effusion, and states of matter were compared. Study found that students' formal reasoning ability and their preexisting knowledge are associated with their conceptions and use of particulate theory. A significant difference between applied and…

Delay and completeness of verbal information feedback were investigated within a transfer of learning paradigm involving concept formation. An experiment with 192 undergraduates indicates that, although delay of feedback (up to 30 seconds) slows speed of learning on the initial task, it has positive effects on the transfer task. (SLD)

Educating for understanding means that students have a sufficient grasp of concepts, skills, or principles to bring them to bear on new situations. Researchers at Harvard University's Project Zero are figuring out what to teach, how to teach it, and how to assess what students have learned using the approach of teaching for understanding. (MLF)

Discusses some tendencies in young children's thinking that have been identified by Piaget as helping a child's initial socialization to the God-concept. Attempts to explain such tendencies of thought as childhood nominal realism, internal necessity, and affirmation in childhood thought. (DB)

Although racial identity theory has the potential to explain some aspects of career development, its value would be increased by conceptualizing race as a dependent variable in research and theory. Examples involving career salience, satisfaction, and satisfactoriness demonstrate the limitations of racial comparison studies. (SK)

Four studies assessed whether children and adults saw categorization decisions as objective matters of fact or as invented conventions. Found that preschoolers treated basic-level animal and human-made artifact category decisions as objective, with kinds of animals treated as more objective than kinds of artifacts. Adults' judgments were similar…

Explores how teachers in The Gambia use local languages to describe scientific concepts and give explanations for scientific phenomena. Recommends the use of registers of words and phrases in the native languages. (DDR)

Outlines the basic principles of constructivist theory and discusses the limitations of the theory in terms of providing worthwhile science education. Advocates a shift from personal constructivism to social constructivism. Contains 24 references. (DDR)

Presents a theoretical proposal of a methodology for the teaching of probability theory. Discusses the importance of the epistemological approach of Lakatos and the perspective of the conceptual change. Discusses research using a proposed didactic method with Spanish high school students (N=6). Concludes that significant differences on all…

Discusses the scant coverage in high school textbooks of countercurrent exchange for the efficient movement of molecules across biological membranes. Argues that this is one of the most intriguing of the physiological adaptive mechanisms. (DDR)

Focuses on the understanding of British children (N=189) of geologic time as they participate in related activities. Indicates that 10- and 11-year-old children lack a clear chronology of geologic events. Contains 22 references. (DDR)

Supports the use of microanalysis of conceptual change as a tool for reconceptualizing the nature of students' knowledge-in-development and dissolving concept-misconception and expert-novice dichotomies. Contains 48 references. (DDR)