Problem solving has been a concern of science education for at least three quarters of a century. This book presents a comprehensive review of the research that has occurred in problem solving. The studies included in this summary range across the continuum. Some are concerned with gaps between conditions and resolutions; some involve science…

A study measured both short- and long-term effects of an educational workshop designed for teachers in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion, Israel. Participants were 60 volunteer faculty members who were randomly assigned to one of eight multidisciplinary groups for the 4-day workshop, which aimed at improving teachers' instructional…

One of the clear findings of recent research on the learning of science has been that students who have completed science courses commonly use conceptions held before instruction to interpret natural phenomena. This paper reports on a study of conceptual change in mechanics with particular concern with the nature of student awareness of any…

This volume was conceived as a review of basic research in science education and as a discussion of what the research findings mean for K-12 science teachers. The eight reports presented represent different dimensions of science education. Each provides a review of a given dimension and/or a goal of science teaching and suggests ways that current…

In order to examine the emergence of semantic notions and their interaction with the linguistic codes of bilingual children, this paper focuses on acquisition of a semantic field related to Piagetian tasks of conservation. The hypothesis examined in this study states that the manifestation of a concept will occur first in the bilingual's dominant…

The interest of the psychologist in bilingualism from its origins in the early 1900's to the present is traced. Bilingualism and intelligence are discussed as well as some recent studies on bilingualism and cognitive development. Several areas where psychologists may provide valuable insights into the process of becoming bilingual are discussed…

A three-dimensional classification system of mathematical problems is given. A background philosophy is constructed through an analysis of different approaches to problem-solving research, leading to the statement of 5 theses and the objectives for the study. An exploratory study of mathematical problem-solving processes is conducted within this…

This study investigated whether young, poor, inner-city children are deficient in the mathematical skills and concepts necessary for later success in school arithmetic. Children of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten age, black or white, and lower class or middle class, were given a wide variety of mathematical tasks, including Piagetian measures,…

A total of 168 fourth and sixth grade students participated in a study to examine two aspects of children's ability to apply structure while reading. The first part of the study investigated the amount of detail that must be provided in order for students to apply successfully a desired perspective (schema). Students were identified as either good…

The purpose of this publication is to explain how a child learns and how language development is related to motor, emotional, and cognitive development. Following a brief introductory chapter, it presents a chapter on how a child learns, divided into the following categories: motor development; emotional development; language development; the…

Thirty-seven normal and 33 gifted children from kindergarten classes and 26 retarded children from special classes with mean mental ages of 76 months, 80 months, and 72 months respectively, were initially tested for their understanding of the terms more, same, and less. All who had failed conservation of substance pretests using juice, sand, clay,…

The teacher and instructional objectives for mentally retarded children are discussed, and traditional bases for objectives are detailed, including treating deficiencies, compensating for deficiencies, training for social competence, teaching the academic tool subjects, and strengthening motivation and self esteem. New bases for instructional…

The effects of age and intelligence levels upon word associations were studied in 96 intellectually retarded, normal, and superior children with IQ's of 65 to 80, 91 to 110, and 117 to 158 respectively. A word association and a word usage task (reliability coefficients of .91 and .98) called for homogeneous responses to six form classes--count…

The present study states as its purpose the delineation of everyday transactions with the environment of a group of children observed longitudinally in their own homes and neighborhoods from age one to three. This research is considered to have been designed to answer: (1) what types of experiences are intellectually valuable to the young child;…

Free recall, cued recall, and clustering performance of fourth grade lower socioeconomic black and white children is studied under four conditions of teaching: random presentation, random presentation plus instruction, blocked presentation, and blocked presentation with instruction of categorically related list. Results indicate that both recall…