Learning Science: Some Insights from Cognitive Science

Theories of teaching and learning, including those associated with constructivism, often make no overt reference to an underlying assumption that they make; that is, human cognition depends on domain-free, general-purpose processing by the brain. This assumption is shown to be incompatible with evidence from studies of children's early learning. Rather, cognition is modular in nature, and often domain-specific. Recognition of modularity requires a re-evaluation of some aspects of current accounts of learning science. Especially, children's ideas in science are sometimes triggered rather than learned. It is in the nature of triggered conceptual structures that they are not necessarily expressible in language, and that they may not be susceptible to change by later learning.     

In defense of modest goals when teaching about the nature of science

This article mentions briefly the long tradition of proposals for including historical and epistemological elements in science programs; it draws attention to some contemporary educational issues that hinge upon interpretations of the nature of science, especially constructivist proposals; it mentions the range of philosophical debate on the merits of constructivism; it examines one goal commonly advanced for teaching about the nature of science and suggests that this can amount to indoctrination; and, finally, it proposes a modest goal for such teaching. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 161–174, 1998.     

Rival records management models in an era of partial automation

Archival Science - Two rival records management models emerged during the 1990s. Duranti’s model involved moving records out of business applications into a repository which has a...     

The Impact of Daily Discrimination on Sleep/Wake Problem Trajectories Among Diverse Adolescents

This study examines how everyday discrimination is associated with 6-day trajectories of sleep/wake problems, operationalized as sleep disturbance and daytime dysfunction, among 350 diverse adolescents (M_age = 14.27, SD = 0.61, 69% female; 22% African American, 41% Asian American, 37% Latinx; 24% multiethnic/racial; across participating schools, 72% of students eligible for free/reduced price lunch) in the Northeastern United States. Adolescents encountering discrimination experienced changes in sleep/wake problem trajectories (i.e., significant increases in same-day sleep/wake problems), whereas adolescents reporting no discrimination experienced no changes in trajectories (Cohen’s ds = .51–.55). Multiethnic/racial (compared to monoethnic/racial) adolescents experiencing everyday discrimination reported greater same-day sleep/wake problems, yet steeper decreases in sleep/wake problems suggesting stronger impact coupled with faster return to baseline levels.     

Coincidences: the truth is out there

We give a simple way of demonstrating that coincidences really are “out there”, as probability theory predicts- if we take the trouble to look.