Outlines alternative approaches to the teaching of difficult concepts in A-level biology which may help student learning by making abstract ideas more concrete and accessible. Examples include models, posters, and poems for illustrating meiosis, mitosis, genetic mutations, and protein synthesis. (DDR)

Details the use of computer technology for classroom presentations to students. Includes tips on software, hardware, and monitoring student opinion. (DDR)

Answers questions related to curriculum guides. Focuses on the definition of a curriculum guide, its purpose, and the role of such a guide in directing life in classrooms. Argues that a curriculum guide should not be an end product. (DDR)

Presents strategies for encouraging dialog with students from eliciting preconceptions to bringing closure to a unit. Includes the general structure of an instructional unit that employs dialog, strategies for teachers to use, and strategies for students which include active listening. (DDR)

Using interviews with primary school teachers from France who are living and working in Portugal as examples, this article argues that the informal, in-depth interview process helps the interviewee develop a new understanding of the experiences in focus. The idea is discussed of introducing this function of the interview into inservice training…

Reviews findings from cognitive studies that are relevant to physics instruction. Organizes the information into four broad principles: (1) pattern construction; (2) changing mental models through assimilation; (3) extending mental models through accommodation; and (4) the individuality of mental models. (DDR)

Presents a lesson designed to help students understand the concept of density. Provides students with a concrete experience to help them understand an abstract concept thereby providing another strategy for learning the concept. (JRH)

Identified social schema by correlating memories of problematic encounters with self-esteem for 84 adolescents and adults. Found that adolescent self-esteem is localized in relationships with peers rather than parents and is based on different relational schema for females compared with males, suggesting need for preventive interventions to…

The literature on the effects of congenital blindness on infants' development of motor functions and concepts of object permanence is reviewed. The article questions the idea that infants must first develop an object concept before sound clues alone will elicit reaching. Possible interventions to redress the effects of congenital blindness on…

Presents accounts of theories locating the sources of the signifying capacities of words in their imbrication with nondiscursive structures and practices. Points out that a tradition of philosophical, linguistic, and semiotic theorizing has attempted to clarify what it is for words to have the meanings they do in terms of the relation of…

Examines the influence of sign language structures on the spontaneous use of time and space markers in French and French Sign Language. The study compared the use of nonspatialized utterances and spatialized structures of deaf and hearing children, adolescents, and adults. Findings shed light on the different types of errors in understanding. (17…

Describes an activity connected with mathematical definitions that illustrates the process of gradual refinement as a way to understand and construct knowledge. Presents a gradual construction of a specific geometry concept that was the result of interaction between participants in a mathematical discourse. (KHR)

Describes a low-tech, hands-on activity to improve student understanding of irrational numbers. Each student creates a number line from adding machine tapes and uses a square and a precisely folded triangle as the only measuring device. (KHR)

Two studies explored how mothers and preschoolers talk and reason about events in which biological and nonbiological objects change in size. Analysis of conversations indicated that although mothers discussed events primarily in domain-specific ways when using the term growth, they exhibited some domain blurring in explanations to preschoolers.…

Describes young children's thinking about geometric shapes and discusses implications for teaching and learning. (KHR)