This paper describes two uses of the software package TEMATH (Tools for Exploring Mathematics) with calculus students: (1) as a demonstration tool in the classroom to visually explore with students the many mathematical models introduced in a first year calculus course; and (2) as a part of a lab where students use a set of laboratory explorations…

Confronting recent design challenges, instructional designers have latched onto adaptive procedural techniques from outside the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) field. This discussion of rapid prototyping (RP) examines the perspectives of: (1) the prototype as the designer"s cognitive tool; (2) the designer as co-inquirer; and (3) the…

This paper suggests the need for a broader conceptualization of both instructional design and of instructional design theory, suggesting that this broader view is necessary to establish a truly comprehensive and functional theory base. Theories come in many forms: they can be formal systems of laws and propositions, narrative explanations and…

One of the most basic theoretical areas in the study of visual communication and visual literacy is the nature of representation. Some of the important research in this area is reviewed in this paper, and a model of representation is developed that satisfies many of the philosophical concerns. The paper begins with a discussion on the relationship…

The context in which career decisions are made is dynamic--occupations are changing rapidly and society is becoming increasingly complex. This digest describes a model that uses five processes which are critical to effective career planning: initiation, exploration, decision making, preparation, and implementation. The first process, initiation,…

A 47-item structured Q-sort methodology was used to identify and analyze the frameworks held by experienced emergency response personnel. The questionnaire was designed to determine the following: the characteristics/behaviors considered important by people within specific fields of emergency response; differences between individuals within a…

This study is part of a longitudinal study of 22 elementary school children observed over a 3-year time span in the classroom and in individual task-based interviews. Through the examination of videotaped structured clinical interviews of Marcia, the first in 1992 when she was 9 years old (4th-grade), this study seeks to draw inferences about her…

In this article, the meanings students construct and the conceptual advances they make as they deal with ratio and proportion problems are described. The study cites episodes with a second grader, two fifth graders, and three seventh graders. A critical factor in students' comprehension of and solution to ratio and proportion problems is their…

This paper is a report on the results of a 3-year teaching experiment conducted in Ithaca, New York, introducing students to the concepts of multiplication, division, and ratio as a trio, and to ratio and proportion in a project-based curriculum with heterogeneous grouping. Fractions were introduced as a subset of ratio and proportion. The paper…

A study investigated the way in which monolingual English-speaking college students developed new concepts for the linguistic structures and sociocultural symbolic meanings of gender that are unique to the Spanish language. Subjects were seven students of first-year intensive Spanish. They were asked to perform two problem-solving tasks: defining,…

This symposium examines the science education research enterprise from multiple theoretical perspectives. The first paper, "Contextual Constructivism; The Impact of Culture on the Learning and Teaching of Science (William Cobern), focuses on broad issues of culture and how constructivism is affected by the context of culture. Culturally based…

This study focused on the knowledge of six outstanding science students who solved an osmosis problem meaningfully. That is, they used appropriate and substantially accurate conceptual knowledge to generate an answer. Three generated a correct answer; three, an incorrect answer. This paper identifies both the accurate and inaccurate conceptions…

Two studies examined preschoolers' understanding of germs as causes of illness. Previous research suggests that preschoolers know that certain behaviors lead to illness without understanding why or how. In the first study, 22 children between 4 and 5 years old were presented with 12 brief stories describing characters engaged in either dangerous…

In this paper, a science educator, a social studies educator, and a language educator begin by considering the question of multiculturalism in science education. When multiculturalism is understood as the process of understanding the contextual and situated nature of all knowledge, multiculturalism becomes not something which one puts in science…

This study focuses on student concept changes in acids and bases. Variables include field dependent level, personal independence level, interest in science or chemistry, teaching strategy, and student gender. This study of Grade 10 students (N=81) provides information relevant to secondary school chemistry learning, teaching, and concept change.…