This research project outlines the role of art education as a part of the professional identity of people working in different fields of art and education and explains the relationship between the productive and receptive dimensions of art education. Also, the project presents a theory on the relation between visual and verbal conceptualization.…

For learners to develop powerful conceptions of mathematics, they must have opportunities to experience mathematics--to make conjectures, explore mathematical relationships, justify claims, engage in mathematical communication, and connect concepts within and outside of mathematics. If learners are to experience mathematics in this way,…

Arguing that evolution designed us to both teach and learn, this book explains how, and how much, babies and young children know and learn, and how much parents naturally teach them. The chapters are: (1) "Ancient Questions and a Young Science," including the concept of brain as computer, and the developmental science of Piaget and…

This paper documents a pilot study designed to explore the ideas of high school students regarding the nature and role of theories, an aspect of the nature of science (NOS) that continues to be problematic for students, teachers, and the general public. Although there is a much greater emphasis on the nature of science in standards documents,…

This paper describes a teacher-researcher's efforts to reshape students' attitudes and assumptions about mathematics in concert with the national mathematics standards. Changes as well as the ways students clung to traditional classroom roles are described. Mathematics formats and types of activities that were successful--and unsuccessful--for…

In a recent study at the University of Regina, preservice teachers were asked questions about their internship experiences of teaching mathematics. One question in the study focused on asking preservice teachers to recall their most meaningful experiences in the mathematics classroom during their internship, to which many responded with stories of…

This study investigates the development of 5th grade children's understanding of quotient and the classroom norms and practices that constrain or enable that understanding. It reports not only how the children's understandings develop, but also why and under what conditions they develop. The results of this study indicate that children progressed…

The goal of my multi-study research program has been to learn how to engage all students in learning science. Most learning theories applied to science pedagogy take either a psychological or a sociocultural perspective and hence ignore either sociocultural or motivational factors when considering classroom learning. Based on my own research…

Paper and pencil tests rarely assess children's developing mathematical and scientific concepts validly. There are, however, a number of authentic and meaningful ways to assess these processes. Anecdotal notes--recorded observations of children that concern what they say and do--reveal a considerable amount about these developing concepts.…

Many studies of college chemistry students have found a gap between students' success in solving computational chemistry problems and their success in solving conceptual chemistry problems. This paper examines college students' understanding of the concept of stoichiometry, the particulate nature of matter, and chemistry problem solving. This…

This paper discusses the theories of conceptual change and how they explain the difficulties in mathematics learning, especially in enlarging the number concept. Two studies are presented, one of which examines the research questions: What is the role of prior knowledge in students' answers to questions about the density of rational and real…

This paper proposes that activity theory provides a useful framework for studying the conceptual development of teachers, particularly English/language arts teachers. Activity theory shifts attention to the social and cultural factors that mediate development in particular contexts, thus allowing an understanding of how particular preservice and…

This exploratory study examined errors that students commit in solving multiple-choice questions about descriptive statistics and basic concepts in research methods. The sample consisted of 81 undergraduate students in an introductory statistics course. The majority (85%) of the participants were female students enrolled in education, sociology,…

The Teacher Professional Development Institute employs Internet technology to support distributed professional learning communities. The Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will soon employ a similar model in its program. Work and learning within STEP evolves around instructional design teams…

It has been understood for decades that language and thought are closely related. If one accepts that the thoughts that we construct are based upon the language that we speak and the words that we use, then it follows that the language that we speak influences the way that we think. It is necessary that we possess the words to describe objects,…