Recognition of interference and diffraction patterns is a difficult task for both high-school and university students. Many students fail to observe important features of particular patterns and identify the differences among similar patterns. In this study, we investigated if performing students' investigative experiments can help high-school…

We investigated 7- to 10-year-old children's productive extension of semantic memory through self-generation of new factual knowledge derived through integration of separate yet related facts learned through instruction or through reading. In Experiment 1, an experimenter read the to-be-integrated facts. Children successfully learned and…

In this article, educators at University Primary School in Champaign, Illinois, share examples and understandings of the ways The Project Approach challenges young children to think critically about topics of importance in their world. Project investigations that provoke academic and social challenges for individuals and classroom communities of…

This article presents a design experiment in which we explore new structures for classroom collaboration supported by a classroom network of handheld graphing calculators. We describe a design for small group investigations of linear functions and present findings from its implementation in three high school algebra classrooms. Our coding of the…

Newton's experiments into the resistance which fluids offer to moving bodies provide some insight into the way he related theory and experiment. His theory demonstrates a way of thought typical of 17th century physics and his experiments are simple enough to be replicated by present day students. Newton's investigations using pendulums were…

Many instructional strategies that appear to improve learners' performance during training may not realize adequate posttest performance or transfer to a job. The converse has been found to be true as well: Instructional strategies that appear to slow the learner's progress during training often lead to better posttraining or transfer performance.…

Introduction: A way to find out how scientific thinking in children develops is to focus on the processes that are involved. As such, scientific thinking can be seen as a particular form of problem solving in which the problem solver selects a strategy from the space of possible experiments that can reveal the cause of an event. Notwithstanding…

In two experimental studies, the influence of question-based reflection on the quality of design solutions was investigated. Students and experts with different know-how and professional experience had to design an artefact that should meet a list of requirements. Subsequently, they were asked to answer a system of interrogative questions…

We investigated the effects of feedback and collaboration on undergraduates' transfer performance when using a computer networking training simulation. In Experiment 1, 65 computer science "novices" worked through an instructional protocol individually (control), individually with feedback, or collaboratively with feedback. Unexpectedly,…

Both Thompson and the duo of Confrey and Smith describe how students might be taught to build "ways of thinking" about exponential behavior by coordinating the covariation of two changing quantities, however, these authors build exponential behavior from different meanings of covariation. Confrey and Smith advocate beginning with discrete additive…

Linton Waters and Jayne Kranat ran a session on the Nuffield "Applying Mathematical Processes" (AMP) activities at BCME7 in Manchester in April this year. These 1-2 hour activities are revamps of some of the Graded Assessment in Mathematics (GAIM) resources, developed in the 1980s, and are freely available via the Nuffield website and…

This article features NASA's FlyBy Math, a series of six standards-based distance-rate-time investigations in air traffic control. Sixth-grade students--acting as pilots, air traffic controllers, and NASA scientists--conduct an experiment and then use multiple mathematical representations to analyze and solve a problem involving two planes flying…

Describes the process of problem identification, data collection, and generalization in a mathematical experiment to find the speed at which a bug travels at the end of a fan blade. Presents the learning outcomes of the experiment and possible implications of using this teaching method. (MDH)