The discrepancy between educators' expectations for inquiry behavior and the actual status of such behavior (teachers feeling more comfortable teaching facts and feeling ill-prepared to guide students in inquiry learning) prompted a quantitative assessment of the existing research (reported between 1965 and 1980 in doctoral dissertations and…

To investigate factors which could explain the unequal participation and performance of males and females in science, the limited opportunity for females to acquire scientific literacy from their male peers in school was examined. It was assumed that males are more scientifically literate than females (even at elementary school age), that most…

Relationships between students' (N=169) rating of instruction and students' attitudes about inquiry and traditional teaching in elementary science classes were investigated. Since one of the goals of their methods class was to develop or adopt teaching styles on their own, it was hypothesized that the congruence of students' adopted teaching style…

The purposes of this study were to: (1) assess the present level of scientific literacy of students in twelve public school systems in Georgia on an abbreviated form of the "National Assessment of Educational Progress Science Test"; (2) compare the performance of these students on specific test items with the performance of…

Results are presented of a 1977 survey of 257 Papua New Guinea science teachers on: (1) teacher qualifications; (2) teaching experience; (3) science periods taught per week; (4) other subjects taught by these teachers; (5) distribution of teaching time; (6) difficulties with the new science syllabus; (7) inservice needs; and (8) improvements in…

The concepts of distance, area, and the coordinate reference systems were investigated in relation to the displacement volume task among 300 randomly selected primary and high school children in Nigeria. Although results support Piaget's hypothesis, a developmental lag of about two years was observed in Nigerian students. (JN)

A semantic differential scale was used to detect racial prejudice before and after teaching a course developed to convey the concept "human" as consisting of many races. The course improved attitudes toward Blacks and Chinese, but little change was noted in the German children's attitudes toward Germans. (CP)

Describes the environments existing in Southwestern schools having a majority of Native American students. Concludes that the schools have a potential to promote Native American participation in science and mathematics, but they have high teacher turnover and limited amounts of professional contact and communication. (YP)

Investigates superintendents' needs in mathematics and science instruction. Used was a Likert-type questionnaire covering teacher quality, teacher supply, minority access, materials and equipment, and curriculum for non-academic students. A follow-up telephone survey examined the types of materials and equipment most needed. (YP)

Study investigated whether the use of videotaped models demonstrating effective teaching strategies in an elementary science lesson would promote increased use of effective questioning strategies among preservice teachers (n=38). Results show that the use of the videotaped teaching models increased the use of high-level, divergent,…

Understanding how people learn is the foundation of informed teaching, yet it is difficult for teachers to articulate and effectively use. This study investigated how two preservice teachers' conceptions of learning theories transferred to their decisionmaking during student teaching. This paired-sample case study examined Research-Based Framework…

The main focus of this project was to prepare a handbook of science activities and to disseminate this handbook to K-8 teachers of the hearing-impaired in the State of Indiana. The handbook, titled "Doing Science Using the Learning Cycle," was developed by a select group of teachers and several consultants with expertise in curriculum…

The study examines Turkish pre-service elementary science teachers' scientific literacy levels. The research took place in Marmara University, in 2001-2002 academic year. The research participants were twenty randomly chosen students among all senior classes of the university mentioned above. The research data were gathered with the documents,…

The purpose of this project was to determine whether third grade students, given written directions and necessary materials, could work without teacher direction for 30 minutes. Students (N=25) were to gain skill and confidence in carrying out the processes required for completing an independent learning activity by completing science learning…

In December of 1986 and January of 1987, questionnaires on teaching practices in science and mathematics were sent to elementary school principals in Indiana. The first questionnaire, completed by 301 administrators, concerned manipulative use of materials in science and mathematics. The second questionnaire, completed by 317 administrators,…