Thirty fifth-grade students participated in a study designed to describe the social interactions of ability-grouped dyads as they construct knowledge of balance concepts to elucidate the relationship between interactions and conceptual growth. Results revealed that high achieving students effectively used prior experiences and maintained focus on…

Offers a critique of constructivism in science education that is an attempt to define and identify not only the weaknesses, but also the successes of constructivism. Proposes that an alternative of modest realism offers not only a better representation of the practice of science, but additionally some value in determining issues of pedagogy.…

Notes that sorting is an early classification activity; as language develops, objects can be sorted by various attributes and described. Describes key experiences in this developmental sequence, and provides guidelines and specific suggestions for selecting for classroom use "attribute materials" designed to lead students to both…

Low ability sixth graders (n=19) participated in a teaching experiment involving fraction concepts. Results showed students were able to acquire and use semantic processes and transfer these processes to novel tasks. Semantic processing was positively associated with performance. (MKR)

Examined the nature of sociocognitive growth in 66 kindergarten and first-grade children by having pairs of children work together to solve spatial perspective-taking problems. Found that the entering performance composition of the dyads did not affect cognitive growth, whereas the construction of shared cognitive experiences in which children…

Responds to four commentaries on the article by Jones and Smith in this issue. Suggests that the comments derive from the possibility that stable concepts might not exist and from the difficulty of imagining what cognition could be without represented concepts. Discusses traditional approaches to stability and variability, and considers what…

Discusses a differential equations course emphasizing conceptual understanding, linear and nonlinear systems, and technology. Presents sample exercises illustrating the difference between this approach and the traditional approach. (MKR)

Outlines a theoretical framework for viewing students' conceptions and the effect of analogies on students' conceptions. (PR)

Introduces a framework for comparing and evaluating knowledge representation schemes based on the requirements for "good" representation discussed in extant literature. Comparative analysis and evaluation of four popular knowledge representation schemes--Logic, Production Rules, Semantic Nets and Frames--are discussed in support of validity and…

Examines the origins and parallel uses of the concept of "facet" in bibliographic classification theory and behavioral research. Suggests that social sciences in general were receptive to conceptual borrowing, but that library and information science as a discipline was relatively isolated. (contains 108 references) (Author/AEF)

Noting that children who can easily categorize a picture in terms of what it depicts may have difficulty understanding the picture as a representation or thing in itself, four experiments with children around four years old examined their responses to pictures as things in themselves. Results showed that some children had difficulty understanding…

Children's knowledge of the use of objects helped determine whether children's actions indicate their understanding of the functional use of objects independent of their ability to verbally describe the object or its function. Found that older children made fewer phenomenism errors but that the majority were still able to show the function of the…

Notes research indicating that children develop conceptions of personal domain. Focuses on what mothers believe ought to be personal and up to their children to decide. Explores how personal concepts are constructed, negotiated, and elaborated during social interaction in cultural contexts. (ET)

This study compared the regulation of cognitive activity in 30 children (ages 15 to 95 months) with autism or mental retardation matched for global, verbal, and nonverbal developmental ages. Testing on tasks of object permanence indicated that the autistic children had a pervasive difficulty in maintenance set, made more perseverative errors, and…

Provides a description and discussion of selected aspects of the preliminary findings of an international research project entitled "Emergent Environmentalism." Provides an overview and discussion of one substudy of the project: an investigation into the acquisition of environmental subject knowledge in preschool children. (LZ)