PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ VIEWS ABOUT NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT: AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE STUDY

This article presents the findings of an international collaborative investigation into preservice teachers’ views on the nature of scientific knowledge development with respect to six elements: observations and inferences, tentativeness, scientific theories and laws, social and cultural embeddedness, creativity and imagination, and scientific methods. A total of 640 preservice teachers, 209 from the United States, 212 from China, and 219 from Turkey, participated in the study. The survey “Student Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry (SUSSI)”, having a blend of Likert-type items and related open-ended questions, was used to gain a fuller understanding of the preservice teachers’ views of the nature of scientific knowledge development. Across the three countries, the participants demonstrated better understanding of the tentative NOS aspect but less understanding of the nature of and relationship between scientific theories and scientific laws. The Chinese sample scored highest on five of the six Likert sub-scales, the USA sample demonstrated more informed views on observation and inference, and the Turkish preservice teachers possessed relatively more traditional views in all six NOS aspects. Conclusions and limitations of the present study as well as implications and recommendations for future studies, are also discussed.     

The Relative Contribution of Certain Factors to Individual Differences in Arithmetical Problem Solving Ability

A hierarchy of analytic concepts and processes was derived from the related substantive and syntactical structures of geographic method and submitted to study as a test of a central premise underlying the curriculum reform movement in social studies. Performance data were obtained from 84 instructed second graders on test items criterion referenced to specific capabilities of the hierarchy. Application of Murray’s (5) misclassification model yielded the following results: (a) Values of correct classification probabilities for a modified five-level hierarchy were high, indicating over 90% of the Ss were correctly classified on all levels of the modified scale; and (b) Overall test of fit was well within nonsignificant boundaries, indicating the data could be assumed to fit the hypothesized latent pure scale model. Implications for curriculum were derived.     

Comparing learning styles for students with conduct and emotional problems

In Phase 1 of the study (1991–1992 school year), 43 elementary school students in five special education classes for behaviorally disordered children were classified using the Differential Test of Conduct and Emotional Problems. Subjects were classified as primarily emotional (ED) or conduct problems (CP). Results were as follows: 11 ED (26%), 15 CP (35%), 13 both ED and CP (31%), and 4 (9%) falling into neither grouping. During Phase 2 (1996–1997 school year), a different cohort of students (n = 68), from the same five elementary special education classes plus one junior high school class, was also classified on the Learning Style Identification Scale. Phase 2 results were 12 students ED (18%), 16 CP (24%), 14 both ED and CP (21%), and 26 neither (38%). Eighty‐eight percent of conduct problem students were classified as Style 1 learners. Findings are examined in light of federal special education eligibility criteria, specifically the exclusion of “socially maladjusted” students. Implications for the multidisciplinary team placement process and educational programming are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

如何等待

如果有那么一个词,代表着思想,意见,精神和愿望,欲望欲求。以及记忆,和回忆。而且还代表着意愿,目的,意图,我们会对此憎恶不已:不耐烦的孩子在没有认知的情况下去认知除了去满足渴望,就已经变得厌腻不堪。梨儿煮得太久变成了过火的,无味的糖浆可如果真的有这样一个词?世上将不会仅存一物,你我心中也不会仅存一种渴望。■If there were a word that meantthought,mind,spiritand wish,desire,appetite.And memory,and recall.And finally alsowill,purpose,intention,we might have it down:The impatient childfilled without being fille…