Investigates students' causal beliefs about the relationship between variables in an electric experiment and the degree to which their tendency to make either idea-based or evidence-based statements depends on a prior belief about the causal efficacy of that variable. Reports that 34% of responses were idea-based despite the presentation of…

Focuses on students' understanding of electric circuits. Findings suggest that children's interpretive frameworks of electric circuits are reflected in the specificity of the details, consistency, and coherence of their understanding. Contains 23 references. (DDR)

The purpose of this study was to examine how students acquire their knowledge through peer collaboration in a new educational environment called "Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE)." Twenty-seven 5th- and 6th-grade students were instructed to create their collective database for a study topic,…

This paper presents the results of a comparison of the effects of gender on fourth-grade students' learning in hands-on science. This study is part of a 3-year classroom based project of hands-on science in 6 urban and 2 suburban classrooms (n=171). Half of the teachers used a supported-inquiry approach, and half used activity-based science to…

In order to investigate the nature of students' prior knowledge of current electricity and how they applied their knowledge to different problems, 5 middle school science teachers and 11 elementary school teachers were given a written test that required them to: (1) predict what happens to the brightness of a bulb if a change is made to the…

This report documents the development, implementation, and evaluation of an inservice program designed to facilitate a non-sexist approach to the teaching of science in primary schools. Ten matched pairs of teachers were selected on the basis of a survey questionnaire to participate in the study. Teachers were given help in the teaching of…