Uses a problem-solving task to compare the performance of school students, university students, and research scientists on a laboratory-based science investigation. Reports limitations in the work of the school students and provides insights into the development and nature of expertise in investigation skills. Presents recommendations for…

Reports on a case study in which students identify their diverse views on electric current and design a critical test to discriminate amongst those views. Employs a two-part model that differentiates charge from the agent causing it to move. Contains 43 references. (DDR)

This book contains seventeen thumb-nail sketches of schools in Europe, the United States, Asia, Britain, and Australia, as they appeared in the eye of the author as a professional educator and a journalist while travelling around the world. The author considers the schools described to be good schools, and not necessarily the 17 best schools in…

Presents ideas for teaching elementary school children about scientific inquiry methods. Recommends a Planning Board to scaffold students' thinking as they plan and conduct scientific investigations. (WRM)

Presents the results of an analysis of science-classroom lab talk which focuses on topics and manner of talk as an approach to understanding the social context of undergraduate lab work. Argues that lab instructors should pay attention to how "scientific" the lab talk is, and to sociability among students. Contains 32 references.…

Examines the extent and nature of Year 10 students' model-based reasoning in a laboratory investigation that considered the influence of six factors on electrical resistance. Finds that spontaneous use of the electron-drift model of metals in explanations increased over the duration of the task, but the explanations were restricted to mainly…

Year 11 students investigated the real-world problem of whether screws are really brass. It allowed them to use the colorimeter and computer interface in a way that was easily understood and models normal practice in testing laboratories. Screws were dissolved in nitric acid and their absorbance of red light was compared with a standard curve.…

Describes research that documents the falsification of laboratory results by chemistry and physics students. Discusses some factors that encourage students to fabricate results and why some students do not feel the need to falsify data. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

A cultural divide exists in the classroom, with each participant (teacher and student) having rarely-coinciding objectives for a session. In this paper, the authors wish to reflect on the teaching and learning of science as a process of creating understanding from both sides of this cultural divide. Gary, the second author, describes the…

Investigated the efficacy of an instructional program designed to induce students to construct a mental scheme in which experimental design and natural experiments are understood as facets of the same problems and which incorporates a general solution procedure applicable to both. Results show a highly significant posttest achievement by the…

This study investigates the ideas and beliefs of a small group of high school science teachers about student observations in the science classroom. Student views on science classroom observations have been previously reported on, but teachers and their students' ideas about observation is a very little researched area in science education. There…

Reports on an attempt to bring about conceptual change in children's concept of speed by the teaching of the science of speed emphasizing an integrated hands-on experience. Reports that it may be possible to modify naive conceptions by teaching that targets particular concepts. (Author/YP)

The experiments reported here were designed to investigate the influence of stress typicality during speeded grammatical classification of disyllabic English words by native and non-native speakers. Trochaic nouns and iambic verbs were considered to be typically stressed, whereas iambic nouns and trochaic verbs were considered to be atypically…

The focus on practical investigations in the National Curriculum is seen to be important if students are to attain a connoisseurship in science experimentation. The chain of processes involved in doing real science involves: non-linear thinking; creative flair; and critical evaluation within an authentic setting. The research presented in this…

This article examines students' ability to use the balance model to solve for unknowns. A teaching experiment was conducted in four Year 3 classrooms. This experiment focused on exploring the application of the balance model as an analogue for representing equations and solving for unknowns. The teaching experiment promoted a shift by students…