bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Enhancing the visuo‐spatial aptitude of students
Authors: Lord Thomas R. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractResearch to date has not been able to agree whether visuo‐spatial ability can be influenced through practice. Many have concluded that spatial awareness is an innate phenomena and cannot be learned. Others contend that an individual's visuo‐spatial potentials are acquired through interactions with the environment. Many of these theorists believe that spatial thinking can be developed through interactive exercises devised to encourage mental image formation and manipulation. To help alleviate the confusion surrounding this question the following study was undertaken. Eighty‐four college undergraduates were randomly placed into control and experimental sections. Student records were examined to assure that the groups did not differ significantly in their verbal or math proficiency and pertinent pretests were given to ascertain spatial levels. The groups were also similar on their male and female ratios. During the semester the experimental section was treated to a 30‐minute interaction each week. These sessions involved spatial exercises that required the participants to mentally bisect three‐dimensional geometric figures and to envision the shape of the two‐dimensional surface formed by the bisection. The subjects drew their mental image of this surface on a sheet of paper. Fourteen weeks later both groups were post tested with a second comparable version of the pretest. Statistical “t” tests were performed on the group means to see if significant differences developed between the sections. The results indicate that statistical improvement in visuo‐spatial cognition did occur for the experimental group in spatial visualization, and spatial orientation. This finding suggests that the weekly intervention sessions had a positive effect on the students' visuo‐spatial awareness. These results, therefore, tend to support those researchers that claim visuo‐spatial aptitude can be enhanced through teaching.
Student understanding of chemical equation balancing
Authors: Yarroch W. L. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractFourteen high school chemistry students from two different schools were interviewed in depth on how they balanced simple chemical equations, the knowledge they employed while balancing the equations, and their representation of the balanced equations with diagrams. The equations were of the type employed when students are first introduced to chemical equation balancing in high school. All students were able to successfully balance the four equations presented to them. However, seven of the twelve students were not able to construct diagrams that were reasonably consistent with the notation of the balanced equation. It was further noted that these same students possessed very poor understanding of the concept of chemical subscript and were willing to violate the balancing rule which states that subscripts are not to be changed while balancing equations. The five students who were able to make consistent diagrams also possessed good concepts of subscript and the balancing rule.
Adolescents' performance on a sequence of proportional reasoning tasks
Authors: Farrell Margaret A. , Farmer Walter A. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis study was designed to investigate the understanding of proportion by a select group of college‐bound adolescents. Gender‐related differences and the influence of course experience were also studied in relation to first‐order direct proportional reasoning and multiple proportional reasoning. The 901 subjects were administered the Tall‐Short task as a test of first‐order direct proportional reasoning. From the 474 subjects classified as successful, a random subsample of 128 subjects was administered the Projection of Shadows task. Only 22 subjects succeeded on all four subtasks of this multiple proportion task. An analysis of the transcripts of responses showed that feedback and second trials were essential for success for most (68%) of these successful subjects. In addition, this select subsample generally used a multiplicative strategy and still could not overcome the inhibiting effect of focusing on direct proportions. There were significant gender differences, in favor of male subjects, in first‐order direct proportional reasoning but there were no gender differences in multiple proportional reasoning. Prior course experience in mathematics and science were each significantly related to first‐order direct proportional reasoning but there was no significant relationship between either of these variables and multiple proportional reasoning.
The effect of cognitive responses on the attitudes of preservice elementary teachers toward energy conservation
Authors: Koballa Thomas R. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe investigation attempted to determine if subjects' cognitive responses to a persuasive communication are more highly correlated with attitude change than the recall of arguments presented in the communication. Subjects were exposed to a systematically designed persuasive communication and then tested for their retention of arguments presented in the communication and cognitive responses. Attitude change was significantly correlated with cognitive responses elicited immediately following the persuasive communication and cognitive responses recalled three weeks later. There was no significant correlation between recall of communication arguments and attitude change. The results offer a plausible explanation for the contradictory findings reported in the science education literature regarding the dissipation of attitudes changed using persuasive communication.
The philosophical basis of observation in science and science education
Authors: Norris Stephen P. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractObservation plays a fundamental role in scientific investigation. Scientific observation sometimes involves relatively simple activities requiring little preparation and unsophisticated interpretation. At other times, however, scientific observation is an extremely complex activity, indeed among the most challenging enterprises in which human beings engage. The science education field typically portrays only that segment of scientific observation at the simple end of this spectrum. In doing this, there is a risk that students will acquire a distorted image of scientific observation, and develop observational skills which are not at all adequate for the role which observation plays in science. An alternative account of observation in science is presented and its implications for science teaching are discussed.
Studies on information processing rates in science learning and related cognitive variables. I: Some theoretical issues related to motivation
Authors: Anderson O. Roger 
Published: October 2006

AbstractA neuromathematical model of information processing applied to science learning is exanded to include coefficients representing the motivational state of the learner. Two coefficients be included: (1) an exponential coefficient in the gain function representing largely a change rate of learning associated with varying motivation, and (2) an initial factor in the gain quation change in motivation at the outset of a learning task. The inclusion of these variables permits modeling of the effects of variations in motivation on the rate and amount of information in a larning task.
An analysis of factors that affect public and private school science achievement
Authors: Staver John R. , Walberg Herbert J. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractData on 30,030 sophomores in the “High School and Beyond” project were analyzed to test the private school superiority hypothesis for science achievement. The supposition that private schools are superior to public schools in producing science achievement is rejected on the basis of the present analysis. Major differences in science achievement between public and private schools appear attributable to relatively fixed characteristics of students and to their experiences beyond the school environment, rather than to factors easily alterable by educators. The authors point out and discuss the value of homework, the problem of excessive television viewing, the influence of parental involvement in education, and the effect of the amount of academic classes taken.
High school students' ability to solve molarity problems and their analog counterparts
Authors: Gabel Dorothy L. , Samuel K. V. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe study investigates the use of analog tasks for determining difficulties that high school chemistry students might encounter in solving molarity problems. Students (n = 619) from five schools completed three tests given throughout the school year. These were: an analog test, a molarity test, and a retention test. The analog task consisted of dissolving lemonade powder for solid sodium hydroxide. Results indicate that the analog task is a predictor of success on the molarity test; that difficulties encountered on the analog test are similar to those on the chemistry test, and that achievement on some types of chemistry problems might be improved by us in analog tasks in instruction.
Influence of students' background and perceptions on science attitudes and achievement
Authors: Schibeci R. A. , Riley J. P. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of students' background and perceptions on science attitude and achievement. The data analysed came from Booklet 4 given to 17‐year‐olds during the 1976–1977 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) survey. Causal modeling procedures were used to analyze the data. In particular, the LISREL method which underlies the LISREL IV computer program, (Jöreskog and Sörbom, 1978) was employed. The influence of five background variables (sex, race, home environment, amount of homework, and parents' education) on three dependent variables (student perception of science instruction, student attitudes, and student achievement) was examined. Sex, race, and the home environment were shown to have substantial influence on student achievement in science. Further, two different models were tested: a model in which attitudes influence achievement and its converse (achievement influences attitudes). The data supported the first model, that is, attitudes influence achievement.
Searching for excellence
Authors: Yager Robert E. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractVisits to six school districts which were identified by the National Science Teachers Association's Search for Excellence program were made during 1983 by teams of 17 researchers. The reports were analyzed in search for common characteristics that can explain the requirements necessary for excellent science programs. The results indicate that creative ideas, administrative and community involvement, local ownership and pride, and well‐developed in‐service programs and implementation strategies are vital. Exceptional teachers with boundless energies also seem to exist where exemplary science programs are found.
The effect of a new prelaboratory procedure on students' achievement in chemistry
Authors: Isom F. Steven , Rowsey Robert E. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe primary purpose of this study was to develop an alternative model, the Prelaboratory Preparation Period (PLPP), to be used to introduce freshman level students to weekly laboratories and to evaluate student academic achievement as the result of attending the Prelaboratory Preparation Period. The sample was composed of 233 students taking introductory chemistry at Auburn University. The data were collected over a four quarter period of time. A posttest‐only control group design with five experimental and three control groups was used to investigate the effect of the Prelaboratory Preparation Period. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to determine if significant differences existed between academic achievement of the experimental and control groups. Results of the analysis indicated that a significant difference (α = 0.05) in academic performance existed between the two groups. It was concluded that the Prelaboratory Preparation Period increased the academic achievement of students enrolled in an introductory chemistry course.
High‐school biology, chemistry, or physics learned well in three weeks
Authors: Stanley Julian C. , Stanley Barbara S. K. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractAt ages 11–15, 25 intellectually highly able youths studied high‐school biology and 13 studied chemistry intensively for three summer weeks, after which their median score on the College Board's achievement test was 727 (biology) and 743 (chemistry). Four learned both subjects well in six weeks. Thus, the 34 participants were prepared to study the college level of the subject(s) that fall or the next. Results for 184 students taking biology, chemistry, or physics two summers later were comparable. For youths this able, the usual high‐school science course is much too slowly paced. Completing the basic course well during the summer makes it feasible to start advanced work in the subject that fall and thereby score high on the College Board's Advanced Placement Program college‐level examination the next May.
Perceived science ability as a factor in the course selections of men and women in college
Authors: Deboer George E. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractIt was hypothesized in this study that men and women develop a belief about their ability in science during their school years that is based in part on their participation in certain science courses and on their level of performance in those courses. This belief about their ability in turn affects the science decisions that these students make when they enter college. Students who believe they have ability in science are more likely to choose a science curriculum in college than those who do not. The results indicated that even though their performance in high school science was better than that of the men, women in this study rated their ability in science lower, and that this had a negative effect on later participation in college science.
Improving research on computers in science learning
Authors: Kracjik Joseph S. , Simmons Patricia E. , Lunetta Vincent N. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractAlthough research in Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) currently lacks a well‐developed literature and experimental foundation, the number of papers relating to CAI at the 1985 NARST convention at French Lick Springs increased substantially over those presented at the 1984 meeting. This commentary critiques some of those papers and suggests implications for the conduct of research on computers in science learning.The spirit of inquiry and the willingness to share ideas at the 1985 NARST meeting at French Lick Springs enhanced the quality of the meeting and made possible the gathering of papers and information that are the basis for this commentary. One team of authors (Choi & Gennaro, 1985) was so generous as to provide us with software they had developed for their study. The willingness to share was impressive and can facilitate research and development.
A technique for evaluating skills in high school science
Authors: Collis Kevin F. , Davey H. A. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis report sets out the procedures followed in developing a set of science items to test a variety of intellectual skills deemed important in secondary school science and then analyzing them in order to examine their construct validity in relation to a technique of evaluation which analyzes the way in which individuals structure their responses to previously learned material (Biggs & Collis, 1982). The items covered the four sciences commonly taught in Australian schools, Geology, Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. Each item followed the superitem format devised by Cureton (1965) and consisted of a stem followed by four questions. Each group of four questions was devised so that they formed a hierarchy of difficulty levels. Nineteen of the items finally accepted as meeting the initial criteria were arranged for group testing to enable a validation trial to be carried out. The analysis showed that the items had construct validity in terms of the theory and were viable for testing certain science skills at the High School level. Implications of the study point to a need for further investigations in both the curriculum and teaching areas of school science.
Effect of women science career role models on early adolescents' attitudes toward scientists and women in science
Authors: Smith Walter S. , Erb Thomas Owen 
Published: October 2006

AbstractIn order to change the attitude of early adolescent female and male students toward scientists and women in science, students in the middle school/junior high grades were exposed over a two months' period to women science career role models as part of their science instruction. This treatment positively affected the students' attitude toward scientists and toward women in science. It is suggested that teachers of science in the middle school/junior high should periodically bring community resource people who use science in their careers to the classroom to act as role models and that women should be included among this group so that the attitudes of both male and female students toward scientists and women in science might be improved.
Cognitive restructuring as an early stage in problem solving
Authors: Bodner George M. , McMillen Theresa L. B. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis article examines the hypothesis that there are preliminary stages in problem solving which most chemists neglect when trying to teach their students how to solve problems in introductory chemistry courses. It is during these early stages that relevant information is disembedded from the question and the problem is restructured. Unless students can successfully complete these cognitive restructuring stages, they cannot proceed on to the more analytic stages in problem solving that have received more attention from chemists.Preliminary evidence for this hypothesis consists of linear correlations between student ability to handle disembedding and cognitive restructuring tasks in the spatial domain and their ability to solve chemistry problems.
A comparison of concrete and formal science instruction upon science achievement and reasoning ability of sixth grade students
Authors: Saunders Walter L. , Shepardson Daniel 
Published: October 2006

AbstractSeveral recent studies suggest concrete learners make greater gains in student achievement and in cognitive development when receiving concrete instruction than when receiving formal instruction. This study examined the effect of concrete and formal instruction upon reasoning and science achievement of sixth grade students. Four intact classes of sixth grade students were randomly selected into two treatment groups; concrete and formal. The treatments were patterned after the operational definitions published by Schneider and Renner (1980). Pretest and posttest measures were taken on the two dependent variables; reasoning, measured with Lawson's Classroom Test of Formal Reasoning, and science achievement, measured with seven teacher made tests covering the following units in a sixth grade general science curriculum: Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, Cells, Plants, Animals, and Ecology. Analysis of covariance indicated significantly higher levels (better than 0.05 and in some cases 0.01) of performance in science achievement and cognitive development favoring the concrete instruction group and a significant gender effect favoring males.
Spatial ability and its role in organic chemistry: A study of four organic courses
Authors: Pribyl Jeffrey R. , Bodner George M. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe relationship between spatial ability and performance in organic chemistry was studied in four organic chemistry courses designed for students with a variety of majors including agriculture, biology, health sciences, pre‐med, pre‐vet, pharmacy, medicinal chemistry, chemistry, and chemical engineering.Students with high spatial scores did significantly better on questions which required problem solving skills, such as completing a reaction or outlining a multi‐step synthesis, and questions which required students to mentally manipulate two‐dimensional representations of a molecule. Spatial ability was not significant, however, for questions which could be answered by rote memory or by the application of simple algorithms.Students who drew preliminary figures or extra figures when answering questions were more likely to get the correct answer. High spatial ability students were more likely to draw preliminary figures, even for questions that did not explicitly require these drawings. When questions required preliminary or extra figures, low spatial ability students were more likely to draw figures that were incorrect. Low spatial ability students were also more likely to draw structures that were lopsided, ill‐proportioned, and nonsymmetric.The results of this study are interpreted in terms of a model which argues that high spatial ability students are better at the early stages of problem solving described as “understanding” the problem. A model is also discussed which explains why students who draw preliminary or extra figures for questions are more likely to get correct answers.
Management of science classroom tasks and effects on students' learning opportunities
Authors: Sanford Julie P. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis study examined the work that students completed during six or seven week units of instruction in four different science classes. The purpose of the study was to assess the kinds of learning opportunities students had as they dealt with science content and the problems teachers faced in managing different kinds of assignments, particularly assignments that required students to use higher level cognitive operations. Management strategies associated with these assignments are described and the effects of these strategies are considered.
Theory‐building and theory‐confirming observation in science and science education
Authors: Willson Victor L. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractA paper by Norris presents scientific observation as a highly inferential activity in which human senses have become secondary to instrumentation. Norris takes examples from elementary and secondary curricula to support his position. This paper examines Norris's contentions from two perspectives, that of cognitive psychology and that of the philosophy of science. It is argued here that Norris has discussed only one aspect of observation, theory‐confirming observation. Another, pretheoretic or theory‐building observation, is more closely related to the curriculum activities he criticized. From a cognitive psychology perspective the theory‐confirming observation is of use to the expert, but for novices the absence of domain‐specific knowledge and of sophisticated problem‐solving processes may render theory‐building observation more meaningful for instruction.
The third revolution in computers and education
Authors: Disessa Andrea A. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractWe have an opportunity for the first time to build a legitimate scientific and engineering base for science education. Computers play a central role in this opportunity, but in order for us to realize these hopes, we must set our sights above the hubub of “getting computers into schools,” and on fundamental issues of how people learn, what and how we should teach. This article reviews the reasons for optimism and sets some near future goals in looking forward to the decades of scientific, technological and cultural change ahead.