摘要:

AbstractA central purpose of education is to improve students' reasoning abilities. The present review examines research in developmental psychology and science education that has attempted to assess the validity of Piaget's theory of formal thought and its relation to educational practice. Should a central objective of schools be to help students become formal thinkers? To answer this question research has focused on the following subordinate questions: (1) What role does biological maturation play in the development of formal reasoning? (2) Are Piaget's formal tasks reliable and valid? (3) Does formal reasoning constitute a unified and general mode of intellectual functioning? (4) How does the presence or absence of formal reasoning affect school achievement? (5) Can formal reasoning be taught? (6) What is the structural or functional nature of advanced reasoning? The general conclusion drawn is that although Piaget's work and that which has sprung from it leaves a number of unresolved theoretical and methodological problems, it provides an important background from which to make substantial progress toward a most significant educational objective.All our dignity lies in thought. By thought we must elevate ourselves, not by space and time which we can not fill. Let us endeavor then to think well; therein lies the principle of morality. Blaise Pascal 1623‐166

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660220702

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to determine the effects resulting from the presence or absence of living material in the biology classroom on knowledge of biology and attitudes toward science and sciencing. An experimental design employed random assignment to treatment and control groups. A separate‐sample pretest‐posttest control group design was used with 111 biology students from a medium‐sized suburban high school. The treatment was administered for 16 weeks. The treatment group held class in a room containing live plant and animal displays attractively maintained. The control group students held class in a general purpose classroom containing no living materials. Students in the treatment group performed higher on both dependent measures (knowledge of biology and attitude toward science and sciencing) than those in the control group. The findings are interpreted as suggesting that living displays in the classroom serve to stimulate interest and curiosity which in turn influence attitude and achiev

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660220703

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractA review of the literature suggests a relationship between life‐long development of formal reasoning schema and performance in professional education careers. The study investigated implications of cognitive development of preservice teachers as it relates to their classroom teaching performance. Ninety‐one seniors involved in a field‐oriented teacher education program were given classroom responsibilities which included teaching a science unit. Formal thinking abilities were assessed using two types of developmental level tasks, performance on traditional type Piagetian tasks and recognition of formal thought approaches in solving educational tasks. Professional behaviors were assessed using observational ratings of classroom instructional and planning activities. Subjects assessed as formal operational, 30% of sample, using Piagetian performance tasks, had significantly higher facility in performing model classroom teaching behaviors than transitional or concrete subjects. Higher recognition ability of formal thought approaches to teaching was not related to facility in performing classroom teaching when compared to performance on Piagetian tasks. The relationship held up in seven of eight broad teaching behavior categories observed in classroom instruction. The results supported a general portrait of teaching behavior specifically related to teachers of differing cognitive functional levels. Implications for professional training programs are disc

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660220704

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractScientific literacy implies an adequate understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge. However, little is known about classroom factors that can influence students' conceptions of the nature of science. In the present study, classroom variables that were related to changes in students' conceptions of science were identified. Particular attention was directed toward students' overall conceptions of scientific knowledge and their views of its tentative nature. Twenty‐five classroom variables were found to be significantly related to both overall and tentative conceptions, while 12 variables were found to be scale‐specific. A comparison between teacher and student conceptions of science did not support the prevalent assumption that a teacher's conception of science is significantly related to changes in students' conceptions of science. “Successful” classes were defined as those exhibiting the greatest student conceptual changes toward the viewpoint held by the teacher, irrespective of the “adequacy” of the teacher's viewpoint. In general, these classes were typified by frequent inquiry‐oriented questioning with little emphasis on rote memory. Implicit references to the nature of science were commonly observed. Furthermore, where greatest changes in student conceptions of science were observed, the teachers were pleasant, supportive, and frequently used anecdotes to promote instruction and establish rapport. Emphasis on the depth, breadth, and accuracy of content statistically differentiated between “successful” and “unsuccessful” classes with respect to students' overall conceptions. However, this emphasis on content presentation did not differentiate classes with respect to students' conceptions of the tentat

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660220705

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThis article reports on the results of a project that studied the effectiveness of two specific learning heuristics, concept mapping and Vee mapping, in helping black, inner‐city, high school students learn biology concepts meaningfully. The project sought to assess the effects on achievement of the use of these two heuristics as part of a carefully designed sequence of instruction. Two instructional treatments were compared, one that utilized the two experimental heuristics as study aids and one that utilized outlining as a comparison study aid. The instructional treatments were administered over approximately a one semester period. Two hundred and fifty subjects, nearly all black, from two urban high schools in Indiana took part in the study. Achievement instruments designed to measure meaningful (higher order) learning were developed. Analysis of variance of the achievement test means failed to reveal statistically significant differences between the experimental and comparison treatment at the 0.05 alpha level. However, there were suggestions of a tendency toward an effect of the experimental treatment, and several factors contributing to the difficulty in distinguishing achievement differences were identifie

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660220706

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractSixteen concept words (mass, length, area, volume, solid, liquid, gas, element, compound, mixture, electron, proton, neutron, atom, molecule, and ion) associated with the theme, the nature of matter were described as simple text book definitions after examination of classroom notes and school texts of the last three decades. Sixteen multiple‐choice items all of the same form were constructed for each of the concept definitions. The English version of the sixteen item test was given to 1635 high school students in Tasmania (where the language of instruction and the home language is English) and the Hindi version of the test was given to 826 students from the Bhopal/Barwani region of India where the medium of instruction is Hindi. The English and Hindi speaking data are compared from the point of view ofdevelopment, performance for individual items, andoverall performance at grade 10.A number of linguistic hypotheses are examined and reported upon. Although the overall score at grade 10 was identical (10.8/16) for both groups there are differences in development overall and for individual items which are of interest. Overall, the science specificity of the Hindi words does not appear to confer any clearly defined advantage or disadvantage though again there are some interesting individual anomolie

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660220707

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660220701

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY