Fifty Maltese children, 25 in the second year of pre-school (4 years olds) and 25 in the first year of compulsory education (5 years old), were interviewed about their knowledge of plants. Analysis showed that they had a restricted understanding of the term, meaning something small, with a thin stalk, leaves and a flower. Trees, cacti and nettles…

The ability of school children (N = 233) to acquire new scientific vocabulary was examined. Children from two age groups (M = 4.8 and M = 6.5) were introduced to previously unknown words in an educational video. Word knowledge was assessed through accuracy and latency for production and comprehension over a 9-month period. A draw and write task…

Informed by literature on childhood expertise in high-interest topics and parent-child conversation in museum settings, this study explored how children's level of dinosaur expertise influences family learning opportunities in a natural history museum. Interviews identified children with high and low dinosaur knowledge and assigned them to expert…

Using data gathered from the "Childhood Bipolar Disorder Survey," this study explored Pennsylvania school psychologists' knowledge and practices when evaluating children for Bipolar Disorder (BPD). Results indicate that only a small percentage of school referrals involved children or adolescents with BPD. Participating school…

Intuition usually is defined as the capability to act or decide appropriately without deliberately and consciously balancing alternatives, without following a certain rule or routine, and possibly without awareness (Gigerenzer, 2007; Hogarth, 2001; Klein, 2003; Myers, 2002). It allows action which is quick (e.g. reaction to a challenging…

A rich narrative-style bibliography of concept mapping (reviewing six articles published between 1992-2005). Articles reviewed include: (1) Cognitive mapping: A qualitative research method for social work (C. Bitoni); (2) Collaborative concept mapping: Provoking and supporting meaningful discourse (C. Boxtel, J. Linden, E. Roelofs, and G. Erkens);…

Theories about reflective thinking and deep-surface learning abound. In order to arrive at the definition for "reflective thinking toward deep learning," this study establishes that reflective thinking toward deep learning refers to a learner's purposeful and conscious activity of manipulating ideas toward meaningful learning and knowledge…

There is growing recognition of the importance of helping children to develop an ability to think about biological and environmental issues in terms of systems interactions and impacts. Several progressions have been published that suggest how their conceptual understandings may develop over time. However these are not necessarily as informative…

This study examined the impact of an infant-feeding classroom activity on the breast-feeding knowledge and intentions of adolescents living in Nova Scotia, Canada. One hundred twenty-one students attending two high schools were administered one pretest and two posttest questionnaires. Students were arbitrarily assigned to a control or intervention…

The authors' goal in this study was to assess differences in knowledge about AIDS between students of natural science (NS) and social science (SS). The authors surveyed 542 students at Erciyes University in Kayseri, Turkey, regarding their knowledge of AIDS. Some differences in knowledge about AIDS (eg, regarding the virus that causes AIDS, the…

Classroom tests from nine eighth-grade mathematics teachers were collected from the 2003-04 and 2005-06 school years. These years represent one school year prior to the eighth-grade Ohio Achievement Test (OAT) in mathematics being implemented and the year after the eighth-grade OAT in mathematics was implemented, respectively. In addition,…

This study examines how teachers of young children in Denmark perceived challenging behaviours in children who have characteristics consistent with Deficit in Attention, Motor Control and Perception (DAMP) or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This study was conducted in schools and kindergartens in three demographically different…

Introduction: To respond to the increasing need to build capacity for planning, implementing, and supporting tobacco control strategies, an evidence-based, online continuing education (CE) course aimed at Canadian public health professionals was developed. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively evaluate the course, Tobacco and Public…

As role models, mentors serve as moral exemplars to their proteges. Yet, since the mentoring literature gives scant attention to the mentor's role in protege moral education, mentors are largely unwitting participants in this process. Grounded in research from moral psychology and philosophy, this article provides guidance to mentors who want to…

This study compared content knowledge for teaching mathematics differences between elementary pre-service teachers in a traditional versus an experimental mathematics methods course. The experimental course replaced 20 minutes of traditional methods, each class, with an intervention of elementary mathematics content. The difference between groups…