Describes a cross-cultural comparative study of recall memory among children from two Guatemalan towns and one American city. (CM)

Presented in both English and French, Science 10 is an integrated academic course that helps students in Alberta, Canada better understand and apply fundamental concepts and skills common to biology, chemistry, physics, and the Earth sciences. The major goals of the program are: (1) to develop in students an understanding of the interconnecting…

This study investigated the ability of preschool children in Singapore to conserve number, length, and quantity. Participants were more than 200 children of 3 to 6 years who attended one of six different types of preschool centers. Findings indicated that more than half of the 5.5-year-old children were able to conserve number, but less than 15…

Appraises the respective contribution of initial competence and of imitation of modeled response in the observational learning of conservation among first grade children. (HOD)

Over 1000 out of 4000 preschoolers observed conserved identity of matter over time and roughly two-thirds of the 1000 also conserved equivalence. Follow-up showed no correlation between kindergarten conservation abilities and grade one math performance but significant correlations between equivalence conservation by end of kindergarten and grade…

Two experiments were designed to investigate among kindergarten through third-grade children the development of character constancy -- the belief that other's or self's personality characteristics are stable across time and do not change despite changes in appearance. It is proposed that character constancy of self and other is a product of both…

Israeli children's (kindergarten to grade nine) explanations about the water cycle are described. Reports the children's views about the source of clouds and the mechanism of rainfall. It was concluded that understanding evaporation is a necessary condition for explaining a mechanism of rain containing the ideas of condensation and heaviness. (YP)

A study was conducted to investigate the respective contributions of personal and social factors (initial competence and imitation of modeled responses) in children's observational learning of conservation. Subjects included 180 first-grade nonconservers from six schools attended by French-speaking middle class pupils. All subjects failed…

Examines the effects of cultural and educational variables on the development of number conservation among Baoule (agricultural group) children and Dioula (merchant group) children. Results suggest that both school and a merchant culture provide for acquisition of a mature number concept, supporting the "functional learning systems"…

Documents cognitive processes mediating the observational learning of conservation. Findings suggest the presence of demand characteristics for high undifferentiated ratings under a public format of certainty appraisal. This contamination prevents valid monitoring of the course of cognitive rule processing. (RH)

This study (n=192) examined the use of analogical instruction to overcome misconceptions about conservation of matter. Students who understood the concept conservation of matter when iodine was evaporated were able to transfer their understanding to the evaporation of acetone. This indicates that teaching by analogy can be an effective tool in…

Presented in English and French, Biology 20-30 is an academic program that helps students in Alberta, Canada, better understand and apply fundamental concepts and skills. The major goals of the program are: (1) to develop in students an understanding of the interconnecting ideas and principles that transcend and unify the natural science…

This report describes the results of an attempt to identify a learning hierarchy for each of a number of science concepts mainly encountered first in the high school grades. The concepts studied relate to stoichiometric calculations and molarity, both from chemistry; to food web relationships and problems involving Mendel's laws from biology; to…

Discusses the need to consider students' pre-existing conceptual schemes when teaching chemistry. Reports on a study done in Spain which indicates that the existence of adolescents preconceptions about gases is important to consider when teaching the principles of conservation of substance, mass, and weight. (TW)

Explores both the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of pupils' ideas related to conservation during state changes of water. Analysis of questionnaire data indicates that qualitative understanding precedes quantitative. Contains 18 references. (DDR)