Documents a quasi-scientific comparative study of two groups of 'recent school leavers' in the UK. Studies non-science university undergraduates and explores whether people living with the immediacy and relevance of higher-than-average levels of radioactivity were more knowledgeable and emotionally detached than a similar group removed from this…

Introduces a special issue on the ways in which symbolic tools enable, mediate, and shape mathematical thinking while being themselves a product of these processes. (Author/MM)

Personal epistemology has typically been conceptualized in one of two primary ways: as a cognitive developmental process or as a system of beliefs. The approach that is elaborated here is to conceive of epistemological understanding as a metacognitive process that activates epistemic theories, a multidimensional set of interrelated beliefs about…

The present study builds on earlier work by Meyer and Land (2003) which introduced the generative notion of "threshold concepts" within (and across) disciplines, in the sense of transforming the internal view of subject matter or part thereof. In this earlier work such concepts were further linked to forms of knowledge that are "troublesome",…

It is important to incorporate visual thinking into science instruction. Imagination and perception play vital roles in scientific inquiry. Metaphors, like perceptions, are drawn from common experiences and are a means to anchor scientists' thought processes in generating a pattern that bridges the gap between the seen and the unseen. Metaphors…

This book contains 15 essays written between 1969 through 1983. The essays included are: (1) "Semantic Analysis of Verbs in Terms of Conceptual Situations"; (2) "'Because' and the Concepts of Causation"; (3) "The Development of Language as Purposive Behavior"; (4) "Adaptation and Viability"; (5) "On the…

Presented is a report on four 45-minute sessions with a group of 17-year-old students in Poland. Sessions were the first of a series organized with aim of exploring the possibilities of elaborating didactical situations that would help students overcome epistemological obstacles related to limits. Students' attitudes pertinent to the development…

This study was conducted to describe in detail Korean students' conceptual change learning processes in the study of kinetic theory of gases. The study was interpretive, using multiple data sources to achieve a triangulation of data. Three students from a public high school for boys served as representative cases. How epistemological aspect and…

Explicates the impact of an 8-week science apprenticeship program on a group of high-ability secondary students' understanding of the nature of science and scientific inquiry. Reports that although most students did appear to gain knowledge about the process of scientific inquiry, their conceptions about key aspects of the nature of science…

Introduces a framework for comparing and evaluating knowledge representation schemes based on the requirements for "good" representation discussed in extant literature. Comparative analysis and evaluation of four popular knowledge representation schemes--Logic, Production Rules, Semantic Nets and Frames--are discussed in support of validity and…

Describes a study designed to identify the various reasoning procedures used by students (n=229) in comparing the average velocities of two moving bodies; compare the differences among the procedures used by students at different school levels; and analyze the relationship between automatic and human diagnoses to identify diagnostic errors of the…

Discusses children's use of metaphors to create meaning, using as an example the pragmatic and "scientific" ways in which preschool children explain thunder and lightning to themselves. Argues that children are being shortchanged by modern scientific notions of abstractness and that they should be encouraged to create their own explanations of…

Examines the doctrine of "constructivism" as presented by Ernst von Glasersfeld. Part 1 attempts to elicit a clearer statement of the concepts, positions and arguments for constructivism. Part 2 discusses the problem of intersubjectivity in constructivism. Part 3 ventures an explanation of at least some on the weaknesses in the doctrine.…

Analyzes students' main difficulties in learning the concept of electric field. Briefly describes the main conceptual profiles within which electric interactions can be interpreted and concludes that most students have difficulty using the idea of electric field. Contains 28 references. (DDR)

Argues that the paradox of mathematical knowledge--that mathematics cannot be separated from empirical experience and yet cannot be explained by empiricist epistemology--can only be resolved if the causal interactions between knower and environment are accepted. Contains 26 references. (DDR)