Recent research has revealed the existence of intuitive representations strongly rooted in diverse knowledge domains and the difficulties of modifying those representations through instruction by means of conceptual change processes (Carey, 1995; Gopnik & Meltzoff, 1997; Vosniadou, 1994). According to some interpretations, these representations…

At the time of its introduction at the end of the 1980s, the concept of natural capital represented new, more ecologically aware thinking in economics. As a symbol of novel thinking, the metaphor of natural capital stimulated a debate between different disciplinary traditions on the definitions of the concept and research priorities and methods.…

In this article, we examine the role of visuospatial cognition in chemistry learning. We review three related kinds of literature: correlational studies of spatial abilities and chemistry learning, students' conceptual errors and difficulties understanding visual representations, and visualization tools that have been designed to help overcome…

Density is a derived quantity that can be confusing for middle school students. In this article, the author describes how he used a graphical depiction of mass and volume to guide his sixth-grade students in understanding and applying this concept. In the activity, students collected various materials, then discussed and tested whether each of the…

Most studies about students' conceptions and conceptual change are based exclusively on the analysis language, which is treated as a tool to make private contents of the mind public to researchers. Following recent studies that focused on (a) language and discursive practice and (b) the pragmatics of communication that draws on talk, gestures, and…

The article discusses music learning through aural, visual and kinesthetic strategies. Most general music teachers are aware of the contributions made to the profession by proponents of the Dalcroze, Kodaly, and Orff approaches to music instruction. It was claimed that students used one of the said strategies as their most efficient way to process…

A conceptual framework is proposed for a psychometric theory of standard setting. The framework suggests that participants in a standard setting process (panelists) develop an internal, intended standard as a result of training and the participant's background. The goal of a standard setting process is to convert panelists' intended standards to…

Previous studies have shown that even preschoolers can solve inversion problems of the form a + b - b by using the knowledge that addition and subtraction are inverse operations. In this study, a new type of inversion problem of the form d x e [divided by] e was also examined. Grade 6 and 8 students solved inversion problems of both types as well…

In the present study, we have applied a word association procedure for assessing conceptual change in science education, leaning on the presuppositions of the theory of social representations. The proposed method was applied both before and after a university population ecology course. Our results have shown that the teaching procedure can change…

The meaning of the category and concept of mild mental retardation is explored through the words of fictional characters and the accounts of real people who have been injured and stigmatized by the label. Examples of the extremes to which people have gone to avoid or escape the term mental retardation are provided. The classification of mild…

If teachers decide to introduce the idea that the behaviour of matter ("stuff") can be explained by thinking about it as being made up of particles that exhibit particular properties, then they need to be aware of the learning difficulties involved. Before using this approach, therefore, more immediate consideration needs to be directed…

While there is ample evidence that enemies and enemy images are prerequisites in preparedness for war, little information is available about children's understanding of enemies or the presence of enemy images. Based on a pilot study in which assessment instruments were developed and validated, the present study examined the understanding of…

In this paper, we describe and investigate three aspects of learning mathematics: intention, approach and outcome. These aspects have emerged from interviews with students where their experience of learning mathematics, their understanding of mathematics as a discipline field, and their perception of work as a mathematician were the objects of…

Many students with disabilities continue to struggle with understanding what mathematics means. They memorize basic facts or step-by-step mathematical procedures without understanding the underlying concepts related to the problems. Thus, instruction designed to help students understand the meaning of the mathematics that they are learning in…

A prevalent assumption in text comprehension research is that many aspects of text processing are automatic, with automaticity typically defined in terms of properties (e.g., speed and effort). The present research advocates conceptualization of automaticity in terms of underlying mechanisms and evaluates two such accounts, a…