One potential approach to the authentic assessment of what students know and can do in science is concept mapping. A concept map is a graph consisting of nodes representing concepts and labeled lines denoting the relation between a pair of nodes (concepts). The external concept map constructed by the student is interpreted as representing…

Assessment of student performance is emerging as a crucial ingredient in the recipe for ongoing improvement of school science. This digest focuses on assessment in the service of instruction, for helping students, teachers, and parents monitor learning. According to M. Jorgensen, performance-based assessment requires that the student demonstrate,…

Secondary and postsecondary students who use the read-answer-discuss strategy while studying read ineffectively and do not comprehend or retain main ideas. A study examined the effectiveness of (1) the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity, (2) conceptual mapping, (3) a combination of those strategies, and (4) reading and underlining main ideas as…

University professors increasingly are expected to infuse computer technology in teaching. Many universities are aggressively promoting the delivery of entire courses and programs using computers and the Internet as vehicles for instruction. There is also a movement to align university teaching with the national standards for K-12 teaching.…

Examines three strategies designed to help middle school students use text structures to comprehend expository text: (1) hierarchical summaries, (2) conceptual maps, and (3) thematic organizers. Summarizes advantages and disadvantages of each strategy and recommends that teachers consider the outcomes they want and select the most appropriate…

This paper reports on the analyses of concept maps on the nature of science constructed by preservice secondary science teachers (N=17) during a semester-long reflective process. Analysis of their electronic journals also provides hierarchical evidence. The research questions explored in this study pertain to determining the views of preservice…

The progression of qualified surgical nurses toward capable proficiency was examined in an ethnographic study during which 25 nurses, including 4 who transferred to other wards, were observed to determine whether social mediation affects the process of proficiency development. The nurses were observed for 18 months. Data were also gathered through…

Explores the usefulness of an alternative writing approach using a spatial-verbal technique called node-link mapping. In this process the student diagrams nodes, which contain key ideas and propositions, and links, which convey relations such as, leads to, part of, and example. Includes diagrams and examples. (MJP)

Provides selected abstracts from the Computers in Physics Instruction conference held on August 1-5, 1988. Topics include: wave and particle motion, the CT programing language, microcomputer-based laboratories, student written simulations, concept maps, summer institutes, computer bulletin boards, interactive video, and videodisks. (MVL)

Compares concept mapping, simulated recall, reflective journals, and discourse analysis as methods of assessing thinking of 2 cohorts of 9 and 17 undergraduate students in their senior year of an early childhood teacher education program, respectively. Methodologies yield different, but complementary, pictures of preservice teachers' knowledge.…

Discusses Vee mapping, a technique to assist students in categorizing the relationship between the conceptual and procedural aspects of science. Presents a study to investigate elementary education majors' (n=27) use of the Vee heuristic and concept mapping for the construction of knowledge; attitudes toward learning science in collaborative…

A new problem-based course in molecular biology, genetics, and cancer for first-year veterinary students was developed at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University (New York). The course was developed out of a desire to foster student-centered and lifelong learning and to integrate basic and clinical science knowledge despite a lack…

This paper examines hypermedia design and draws conclusions about how educational research and theory applies to various aspects of World Wide Web (WWW) homepage design. "Hypermedia" is defined as any collection of information which may be textual, graphical, visual, or auditory in nature and which may be accessed via a nonlinear route.…

A study of first-year college students (n=121) in Taiwan investigated the effects of navigation maps and learner cognitive styles on performance in searches for information, estimation of course scope, and the development of cognitive maps within a hypertext learning course. Students were tested to determine level of perceptual field dependence…

A study was designed to describe how middle school students select, link, and determine relationships between textual and visual information. Fourteen authoring groups were formed from both eighth-grade earth science classes of one veteran teacher in one school. Each group was challenged to produce an informative interactive laservideodisc project…