Is it the Earth that turns or the Sun that goes behind the mountains? Students’ misconceptions about the day/night cycle after reading a science text

ABSTRACT

The present research tested the hypothesis that the reading of science text can create new misconceptions in students with incongruent prior knowledge, and that these new misconceptions will be similar to the fragmented and synthetic conceptions obtained in prior developmental research. Ninety-nine third- and fifth-grade children read and recalled one of two texts that provided scientific or phenomenal explanations of the day/night cycle. All the participants gave explanations of the phenomenon in question prior to reading one of the texts and after they read it. The results showed that the participants who provided explanations of the day/night cycle at pretest incongruent with the scientific explanation recalled less information and generated more invalid inferences. An analysis of the participants’ posttest explanations indicated that these readers formed new misconceptions similar to the fragmented and synthetic conceptions obtained in developmental research. The implications of the above for text comprehension and science education research are discussed.     

The Use of Lego Technologies in Elementary Teacher Preparation

The need to reform science teacher preparation programs has been pointed out in research (Bryan and Abell in J Res Sci Teach 36:121–140, 1999; Bryan and Atwater in Sci Educ 8(6):821–839, 2002; Harrington and Hathaway in J Teach Educ 46(4):275–284, 1995). Science teachers are charged with the responsibility of incorporating both cognitive and non-cognitive parameters in their everyday teaching practices. This often results in their reluctance to teach science because they often lack disciplinary and/or pedagogical expertise required to promote science learning. The purpose of this study is to propose an alternative instructional approach in which Lego vehicles were used as a tool to promote pre-service elementary teachers’ development and to examine whether there are non-cognitive parameters that promote or obstruct them from using Lego Technologies as a teaching tool. The context of the study was defined by a teacher preparation program of a private university in a small Mediterranean country. A sample of 28 pre-service elementary teachers, working in five 5–6-member groups were involved in scientific inquiries, during which they had to use vehicles in order to solve scientific problems related to concepts such as gear functioning, force, and motion. The nature of their cognitive engagement in the scientific inquiry process, non-cognitive parameters contributing to their cognitive engagement, and the impact of their involvement in the process on their development were examined through qualitative analysis of pre- and post-inquiry interviews, presentations of their solutions to the scientific problems and of their personal reflective journals.     

Audience Studies

NATURAL AUDIENCES: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH OF MEDIA USES AND EFFECTS edited by Thomas R. Lindlof (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1987—$37.50)

COMMUNICATION, GENDER, AND SEX ROLES IN DIVERSE INTERACTION CONTEXTS edited by Lea P. Stewart and Stella Ting-Toomey (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1987—$35.00)

QUESTIONNAIRES: DESIGN AND USE by Doug R. Berdie, et al. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1986—$22.50)

CHILDREN AS CONSUMERS: INSIGHTS AND IMPLICATIONS by James U. McNeal (Lexington, MA: Lexington/Heath, 1987—$24.95)     

Does domain matter? Monitoring accuracy across domains

Metacognition and Learning - Confidence and its accuracy have been most commonly examined in domains such as general knowledge and learning, with less study of other domains, such as applied...     

Personal Bias or Government Bias? Testing the Hostile Media Effect in a Regulated Press System

This study examines the hostile media effect in relation topartisans’ perception of the slant of news coverage ina highly regulated press environment—Singapore. We foundthat partisans in Singapore perceived unbiased news to be infavor of the other side, while the nonpartisans perceived thesame news to be neutral. Our findings show that hostile mediaeffects can persist in a restricted press environment wherepeople are aware of the government's control of media coverage.We also found that partisans’ awareness of the government'scontrol of media information contributed to their perceptionof the article slant as well. Received for publication May 9, 2006. Accepted for publication December 5, 2006.     

高校排名

介绍全球各主要媒体和学术机构的排行榜,收集归纳各方面对排行榜的反应和评论,分析排行榜对各方面的作用和影响。着重剖析各排行榜所存在的问题,以及由于排行榜引发的各校之间的不健康竞争等。并列举各种原因,说明为什么各个质量保证机构一般都不做排行榜。同时,也指出公众对质量保证机构及其工作非常陌生,质量论证对公众的作用极小。而排行榜却以通俗的形式容易为公众所接受。如果大学的质量靠排行榜设置的标准来评判其好坏,并力求符合这些标准的话,那么,这样发展下去,我们究竟是离开优质教育更近了,还是更远了呢?     

Reviews

Making Sense of Standards and Technologies for Serials Management: A Guide to Practice and Future Developments for Librarians, Publishers and Systems Developers edited by Rosemary Russell. London: Library Association Publishing, in association with the UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath, April 2000. Pp. 192. Hardback, £39.95. ISBN 1‐85604‐338‐X Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy by Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster. Harvard Business School Press, 2000. Pp. 274, Hardback, £18.99. ISBN 0‐87584‐877‐X The Legal and Regulatory Environment for Electronic Information, 3rd edn by Charles Oppenheim. Infonortics In‐depth Briefings, 1999. Pp. 231. Hardback, £55.00. ISBN 1‐873699‐53‐0