This issue of Investigations in Science Education (ISE) provides analytical abstracts, prepared by science educators, of research reports in the areas of learning theories, concept learning, and teacher behaviors and attitudes. Each abstract includes bibliographical data, research design and procedure, purpose, research rationale, and an…

In earlier research the writer was constrained by the variables which were continuously appearing in both experimental class teaching experiences and various psychological experiments to distinguish four levels of cognitive sophistication in so far as mathematical material was concerned between the ages of 7 years and 17 years. In current research…

This study investigated the effect of various sequences of examples and non-examples in facilitating geometric concept learning among educable mentally retarded (EMR) elementary and middle school children. Four instructional sequences were compared: wide variety with paired examples and non-examples, wide variety with each instance presented…

This paper examines language in a factory setting and focuses on: (1) identical terms which workers use in different contexts, (2) terms that are discarded or changed, (3) different terms that express opposite units in a conceptual category but are labels for identical objects, and (4) terms which represent finer discriminations within conceptual…

The purpose of this paper is to report how Gagne's model in "The Conditions of Learning" was adapted in order to develop activities, preobjectives, and test items for social studies concept instruction. One of the major problems in the field of social studies education is the looseness or nonspecificity of many of the definitions and…

The semantic differential technique was used in a study involving 40 undergraduate trainees in the area of special education to analyze the concepts "disabled" and "handicapped" and the effects of structured knowledge or definition on the participants' perceptions of and attitudes toward the concepts. The Semantic differential consisted of bipolar…

The program of map and globe study skills for elementary social studies contains two parts: primary level for grades 1-2 and intermediate level for grades 3-6. Concepts of the units include maps as geographical representations; maps as symbols; directions; astronomical maps; city and world maps; and scales and measurement, among others. Each…

Investigated, within a Piagetian framework, was the degree of abstract preferences exhibited by five different grade levels of science students as they completed eighteen problem solving tasks. Three hundred twenty-nine randomly selected students from five grade levels, ranging from eighth grade to college seniors, were given the Shipley Test of…

This essay is an inventory of the needs that the author hopes will serve to stimulate others to reassess and revise their basic thinking and analysis about the politics of education. It points to continuing needs in basic theory, concepts, research design, data collection, and analytical methods. (Author/IRT)

In agricultural development, the production of food and fiber at optimum levels of quality, quantity, and cost per unit is viewed as the dependent variable, while the independent variables include all of the elements of production technology and other support activities. People and the opportunity for vocationally, economically, physically, and…

Field testing of the Money Unit of the Money, Measurement and Time Program was conducted with 23 elementary school classes of educable mentally handicapped (EMH) children. The 210 Ss were assigned to the experimental group, the Hawthorne group, or the control group. Two criterion referenced tests were administered to Ss to evaluate the…

Field testing of the Weight Unit of the Money, Measurement and Time Program was conducted with 23 elementary school classes of educable mentally handicapped (EMH) children. The 227 Ss were assigned to the experimental group, the Hawthorne group, or the control group. Two criterion referenced tests were administered to determine Ss' functional…

The pilot version of the Measurement of Weight Unit of the Money, Measurement and Time Program was tested with 23 higher functioning educable mentally handicapped (EMH) children (5- to 8-year-old) from regular preprimary classes and with 17 lower functioning EMH children 8- to 10-years-old) from special classes. Pre- and posttesting, teacher…

The purpose of this study was to compare the level of concept attainment achieved by students enrolled in a Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) physics course with that achieved by students enrolled in a traditional high school physics course. A sample of 265 PSSC students and 219 enrolled in the traditional course participated. The instrument…

This study was designed to identify patterns of selections and performance characteristics displayed by individuals during a concept-attainment task. The relationships between selection patterns and individual characteristics were studied in addition to the effects of changes in task characteristics on selection patterns. The population was 200…