Presents six common themes that characterize scholarship about race, class, gender, and sexuality. These themes are contextual and socially constructed, and deal with systems of power relationships. They stress the social structural (macro) and social psychological (micro) nature of the issues and their simultaneous expression, as well as the…

Studied the construction of the personal stereotypes of adult and adulthood roles and the influence of gender, maternal employment, and employment goals of 237 adolescents. Exploratory factor analysis indicated a four-factor structure in attitudes toward family and career roles, ideology of fairness, social status, and rational characteristics,…

Explores the notion that some social interactions are more conducive to the construction of knowledge than others. Describes the use of argumentation as a learning tool during play by analyzing transcripts of the interactions of four-and-a-half year olds. Derives implications for early childhood education from these examples and from a theoretical…

Explores the development of children's conception of a substance and reports the findings in relation to children's understanding of boiling water and particle ideas. Argues that boiling water should have a broad significance in the curriculum. Contains 23 references. (DDR)

Uses an instrument designed to identify misconceptions in biology to reveal that novice biology teachers hold a number of conceptual errors which are also prevalent among secondary science students. Contains 44 references. (DDR)

Examines pre-college students' understanding of the nature of science and tracks those beliefs over the course of an academic year. Studies students' conceptions of the nature of science using a model developed for use in this study. (Contains 24 references.) (Author/YDS)

Considers the question of whether art therapy is an idea or a profession. Presents a brief overview of professions, the benefits and consequences of professions, challenges facing the profession of art therapy, and ideas for the future. Discusses service learning as a way of helping students become concerned about making a difference. (Contains 20…

Illustrates how a novel problem of chemical equilibrium based on a closely related sequence of items can facilitate students' conceptual understanding. Students were presented with a chemical reaction in equilibrium to which a reactant was added as an external effect. Three studies were conducted to assess alternative conceptions. (Author/SAH)

Posner's theory of conceptual change forms the background for this study which focuses upon conceptual ecology, specifically upon the heuristics children appear to employ in sense-making. The study focuses upon two children who demonstrate remarkably different sense-making heuristics; a recognizably scientific one and one that involves the…

Assesses the understanding that a sample of Oregon public school students (n=159) had of geology, physical and chemical characteristics, ecology, and natural resources as related to a marine environment. Results indicate that student understanding in some areas does not progress beyond the early grades and that the interdisciplinary approach of…

Findings from a study of changes in the organization of 23 preservice teachers' knowledge about teaching indicate that student teachers reconstructed their knowledge during the middle of student teaching, and attributed the changes primarily to the student teaching experience. Flexibility and planning were the two key concepts that changed…

Humor can not only provide motivation for learning but can also contribute directly to the learning itself. Presents and analyzes excerpts from a number of classic pieces of comedy writing. Contains 28 references. (DDR)

Reports on a study of 14-15 year old students' ideas about combustion. Describes patterns of students' explanations across a range of questions and analyzes them to gain insight into both the degree of consistency of their explanations and how this may affect the process of conceptual change in the students. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/YDS)

Tracks five-year-old children's ideas by a range of means during and subsequent to a classroom sequence on evaporation. Explores the relationship between social and individual perspectives on learning, and questions some assumptions underlying conceptual change research. Analyzes the children's explanations of various evaporation phenomena over…

Examined preschoolers' inductive inferences across biological and non-biological kinds. Found support for gradual-enrichment model of conceptual change. Four-year-olds had a limited, coherent, independent biological theory which may form the basis of mature understanding of biological kinds. Explored results in terms of multiple explanatory…