Reports on a study designed to investigate secondary school students' misconceptions of conservation principles and fields. Results indicate that misconceptions appear to persist and that students were unable to transfer knowledge readily. Also teachers appear not to be fully aware of students' misconceptions. (ML)

Reports the results of a study in which children below the age of eleven were tested on their ability to perform several tasks of class inclusion and a task relating to the conservation of weight. (JR)

Discusses use of a concept map in developing, teaching, and assessing the concept of "away" (as indicated by physical/chemical changes or changes in energy/human perception). A copy of the map and an activity (using a flashbulb) to get children thinking about what it means to throw something away are included. (JM)

Studied classroom behaviors and conservation ability of elementary school science students taught by either Student-Structured Learning in Science (SSLS) or Teacher-Structured Learning in Science (TSLS). Reports on how behavior of conservers and nonconservers differs in SSLS and TSLS with respect to observing, following directions, and inventing…

The efficacy of small group instructional programs in classificatory, seriation, and combined class/series skills was evaluated for a sample of 60 urban, middle-class, 4- to 5-year-old children in a transfer of training design. Significant curriculum-specific transfer effects were found for the seriation instructional condition, whereas little…

Based upon the relationship of the child's ability to conserve, as measured by Piaget tasks, to his success in beginning reading, this study compared the reading readiness of two groups of first-grade students. One group used Material Objects (Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS)) and the other, Harper and Row's Reading Readiness Program.…

Presents a classroom demonstration that illustrates the Law of Conservation of Energy. The demonstration utilizes a coupled pendulum device that can easily be constructed from ordinary monofilament fishing line and two metal pendulum bobs. (HM)

The author examines Novak's position that science and mathematics educators should discard Piaget's theory of intellectual development in favor of Ausubel's theory of meaningful learning as a guide for teaching practice and research. (PB)

Examined were children's conception of changes in the state of matter and their understanding of the reversibility of the process. The relationship between children's intuitive ideas about matter, as observed in this study, and their logical ability to conserve weight is discussed. (CW)

The general purposes of this study were to analyze responses on five Piagetian formal operational tasks in a test-retest situation to determine the extent to which taking a pretest effected scores on posttests and to determine task and examiner reliabilities. Significant test score gains on Piagetian tasks appeared to result from test-retest…

This study was designed to examine the amount of incidental physical science knowledge possessed by fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students in elementary schools in Western State of Nigeria, and to determine what relationship exists between the amount of such knowledge and the pupils' performance on science-related Piagetian tasks. The pupils…

Investigated was the hypothesis that conservation tasks are unifactor by administering eight different conservation tasks to 96 seventh-grade science students and performing a principal component analysis on the data. Results indicated that conservation tasks may measure up to three different components of cognitive thought. (SL)

Discusses the definition of energy found in many high school and college level physics texts, the conflict of that definition with the second law of thermodynamics, and the relation to the concept of the conservation of energy. Suggests not using a definition of energy and provides some alternative strategies. (JM)

Discusses the deficiencies of presenting the theme of energy in the current West German school textbooks. The article emphasizes the structural importance of entropy for the understanding of energy and suggests how the physics teacher can contribute to the development of an appropriate attitude toward the energy crisis. (HM)

The purpose of this article is to suggest ways of using research on children's reasoning and learning to elaborate on existing national standards and to improve large-scale and classroom assessments. The authors suggest that "learning progressions"--descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of reasoning within a content domain based on…