The purpose of this study was to examine sixth grade students' attitudes and experiences related to science. The study involved 437 students who completed a survey designed to elicit students' perceptions of science and scientists, out‐of‐school science experiences, science topics of interest, and characteristics of future jobs. Results showed that for this sample there continue to be significant gender differences in science experiences, attitudes, and perceptions of science courses and careers. Males reported more extracurricular experiences with a variety of tools such as batteries, electric toys, fuses, microscopes, and pulleys. Females reported more experiences with bread‐making, knitting, sewing, and planting seeds. More male than female students indicated they were interested in atomic bombs, atoms, cars, computers, x‐rays, and technology, whereas more females reported interest in animal communication, rainbows, healthy eating, weather, and AIDS. In addition, when asked about future jobs, male and female students' responses differed by gender. Males saw variables such as controlling other people, becoming famous, earning lots of money, and having a simple and easy job as important. Females, more than males, wanted to “help other people.” Students' perceptions of science showed that significantly more females than males reported that science was difficult to understand, whereas more males reported that science was destructive and dangerous, as well as more “suitable” for boys. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 84:180–192, 2000.

In this study, we examined how students used science equipment and tools in constructing knowledge during science instruction. Within a geographical metaphor, we focused on how students use tools when constructing new knowledge, how control of tools is actualized from pedagogical perspectives, how language and tool accessibility intersect, how gender intersects with tool use, and how competition for resources impacts access to tools. Sixteen targeted students from five elementary science classes were observed for 3 days of instruction. Results showed gender differences in students' use of exclusive language and commands, as well as in the ways students played and tinkered with tools. Girls tended to carefully follow the teacher's directions during the laboratory and did little playing or tinkering with science tools. Male students tended to use tools in inventive and exploratory ways. Results also showed that whether or not a student had access to his or her own materials became indicative of the type of verbal interactions that took place during the science investigation. Gender‐related patterns in how tools are shared, how dyads relate to the materials and each other, and how materials are used to build knowledge are described. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 760–783, 2000

In this study of fifth-grade students, we examined the relationships and development of communities of concepts related to heat and convection. The study involved five classes of fifth-grade students who worked with a partner for a series of heat and convection laboratory investigations. Students' knowledge was assessed before and after instruction through the use of a written test, concept maps, card sort tasks, and interviews. During instruction each dyad was audiorecorded and observed by a field researcher. The patterns and connections among students' conceptual ecologies related to heat and convection as well as the types of schemas that were accessed preceding and subsequent to instruction are described. The types of knowledge elicited by each type of assessment are identified. Findings include the influence of familial and cultural experiences (such as airplanes, weather patterns, and religious beliefs) on conceptual development, as well as the extent to which competing phenomena (evaporation and dissolving) have on the development of new conceptual understandings. The study also found that each assessment measure elicited different types of knowledge. Concept maps were effective in describing students' existing schemas related to heat prior to instruction. Multidimensional scaling and the card sorting task provided information on students' conceptual organization for clusters of concepts. The interviews and dyad discourse transcripts were most effective in revealing the processes and prior knowledge that students used as they interpreted new observations in light of preexisting experiences.

This study describes 5 th, 8th, and 11th‐grade students', teachers', and medical professionals' conceptions of flu and microbial illness. Participants constructed a concept map on “flu” and participated in a semi‐structured interview. The results showed that these groups of students, teachers and medical professionals held and structured their conceptions about microbes differently. A progression toward more accurate and complete knowledge existed across the groups but this trajectory was not always a predictable, linear developmental path from novice to expert. Across the groups, participants were most knowledgeable about symptoms of microbial illness, treatments of symptoms, and routes of transmission for respiratory illnesses. This knowledge was tightly linked to participants' prior experiences with colds and flu. There were typically large gaps in participants' (children and teachers) understandings of vaccines, immune system responses, treatments (including the mechanisms of pain medications and the functions of antibiotics), and transmission of non‐respiratory microbial illness. A common misconception held by students was the belief that antibiotics can cure viral infections.

Within a sociocultural context, this study examined how science teachers' knowledge of science and science pedagogy changed as a result of participating in a constructivist-based graduate science methods course. Fourteen elementary and middle school science teachers worked with an assigned partner for the duration of the course. Teachers with more than 5 years' experience were paired with teachers who had 5 or fewer years' experience. Results from pre-and postinstruction concept maps, journals, portfolios, and transcripts of discourse revealed that within the zone of proximal development, peers, teachers' students, instructors, readings, and tools mediated the development of content and pedagogical knowledge. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: [967][968][969][970][971][972][973][974][975][976][977][978][979][980][981][982][983][984][985] 1998 In recent years there has been increased interest in the sociocultural perspectives of cognition. Researchers have realized that learning is a complex social process that goes beyond mere transmission of knowledge, and as a result, researchers are beginning to explore how language, social interactions, and contexts contribute to cognitive development. This line of inquiry has been guided by Vygotsky's theory (1978) that social relationships underlie all higher mental functions. In addition, Vygotskian theory maintains that cultural development appears first on a social plane and then on a intrapsychological plane (Wertsch, 1985). Activities and experiences become internalized only after a series of transformations. This transformational process takes place first between people (interpsychological) and then is directed inward (intrapsychological). "This [process] applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 57). As a consequence, dialogue with others becomes internalized and becomes part of an individual's inner thoughts. Furthermore, Vygotsky claimed that before you can understand higher mental functioning within the individual, you must first examine the preceding sociocultural context.In this study, we explored teacher development as a function of being a member of a dyad in a graduate teacher education course. Through extensive analysis of peer interactions and conceptual organization, we probed how teachers' knowledge is organized and mediated, how concepts of science are developed, and how peers influence teachers' cognitive growth.