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Background: Students are more effective when they employ appropriate strategies to regulate their learning processes and outcomes. However, many teachers do not provide, or provide very little, explicit instructions to promote this self‐regulated learning (SRL). This suggests that teachers' belief systems may include beliefs that may be inconsistent with SRL. Aims: This paper reported the validation of the 78‐item Beliefs about Teaching and Learning (BALT) instrument designed to measure pre‐service teachers' beliefs about learning and teaching with particular emphasis on SRL. Samples: Out of the 78 items included in the BALT instrument, 50 of them were administered in BALT 1 and 53 in BALT2 with 25 items administered in both surveys and were common to both instruments. The BALT 1 was administered to 430 pre‐service teachers. BALT 2 was administered to 366 pre‐service students. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis and the Rasch model were used to investigate the unidimensionality of the scales and psychometric properties of the items. In addition, the summated rating scale procedure was used to create composite scores for the examination of the coexistence of beliefs both consistent and inconsistent with SRL. Results: Pre‐service teachers expressed high overall agreement with items related to beliefs consistent with SRL and low agreement with items related to beliefs inconsistent with SRL. However, many of them also indicated high agreement with items related to beliefs in Transmissive Teaching. Conclusions: The study resulted in the development of a 58‐item instrument, which was balanced with respect to the inclusion of SRL‐consistent and SRL‐inconsistent items. This study also provided evidence for the coexistence of pre‐service teachers' beliefs in Constructive Teaching and Transmissive Teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is proposed that the transition from secondary to higher education can be facilitated by improving secondary school students' capabilities for independent, self-directed, and self-regulated learning (SRL). University learning places high demands on students for complex and independent learning, namely learning that requires the ability to plan, monitor and evaluate one's work and to control one's motivation and emotion. A major stream of educational research has shown the beneficial impact of self-regulated learning on student motivation and has concluded that self-regulation is a significant source of achievement differences among students. However, many secondary school students lack the skills of an independent and self-regulated learner when they enter higher education, something that contributes to considerable student attrition during the first year of university study. In this article I argue that more attention should be paid to the promotion of self-regulated learning in secondary schools. This can be achieved by helping teachers understand how to enrich students' knowledge about learning and strategies to manage it. Some exemplary practices developed at secondary schools are discussed as a means of providing examples of effective learning environments for SRL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary theories of learning and instruction emphasise the importance of students knowing how to effectively regulate their learning. A large body of research indicates that effective regulation of learning is beneficial for achievement. Set against this research are findings showing that the promotion by teachers of strategies for the self-regulation of learning (SRL), and student use of these strategies, is less common than might be expected. We review this research on the promotion and use of SRL strategies and suggest that a range of beliefs about learning and SRL strategies limit the promotion of SRL learning strategies by teachers. This contributes in turn to the lack of knowledge and use of such strategies by students. These beliefs are represented as forming an interrelated system that needs to be made explicit and examined in order to increase the level of SRL strategy promotion and use. Each of the beliefs is described and the paper concludes with discussion of the implications of the review for teacher educators, teachers, students, school leaders, curriculum designers and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Prior research has investigated the recruitment of inhibition in the use of science/mathematics concepts in tasks that require the rejection of a conflicting, nonscientific initial concept. The present research examines if inhibition is the only EF skill recruited in such tasks and investigates whether shifting is also involved. It also investigates whether inhibition and/or shifting are recruited in tasks in which the use of science/mathematics concepts does not require the rejection of an initial concept, or which require only the use of initial concepts. One hundred and thirty‐three third‐ and fifth‐grade children participated in two inhibition and shifting tasks and two science and mathematics conceptual understanding and conceptual change (CU&C) tasks. All the tasks were on‐line, and performance was measured in accuracy and RTs. The CU&C tasks involved the use of initial concepts and of science/mathematics concepts which required conceptual changes for their initial formation. Only in one of the tasks the use of the science/mathematics concepts required the concurrent rejection of an initial concept. The results confirmed that in this task inhibition was recruited and also showed that the speed of shifting was a significant predictor of performance. Shifting was a significant predictor of performance in all the tasks, regardless of whether they involved science/mathematics or initial concepts. It is argued that shifting is likely to be recruited in complex tasks that require multiple comparisons of stimuli and the entertainment of different perspectives. Inhibition seems to be a more selective cognitive skill likely to be recruited when the use of science/mathematics concepts requires the rejection of a conflicting initial concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A coding guide based on the Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive (ICAP) theory was developed and used to analyze the transcripts from filmed classroom observations. The analysis focused on the lesson tasks used by the 20 participating teachers to promote student cognitive engagement and the links between these tasks and student learning. The results showed that a) only 30% of the lesson tasks were assigned the Constructive and Interactive codes, and b) there were important teacher differences. About half of the teachers provided no or very few opportunities for Constructive or Interactive student cognitive engagement in their lessons. • An ICAP-based coding guide was used to analyse lesson transcripts from classroom observations. • Seventy percent of the observed lesson tasks were categorized as Passive and/or active. • Only half of the 20 experienced teachers engaged students in Constructive and interactive tasks. • For large numbers of students, classroom learning happens only at a superficial level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two experiments we investigated the hypotheses that a) the refutation of more than one alternative conception, and b) the inclusion of categorical information in a refutation text will facilitate elementary school children's understanding of the scientific concept of the Earth. The results of the first experiment showed no clear support of the first hypothesis but suggested that the inclusion of categorical information - information about the ontological category in which a concept belongs - is more effective than other kinds of information. The second experiment controlled for the amount of information and compared only the inclusion of categorical vs. non-categorical information in refutation and non-refutation texts. The results showed that the texts that included the categorical information improved children's understanding of the scientific information more than all the other texts. This result needs to be replicated using more examples from other science domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments investigated the whole number bias in the representation of fraction magnitudes with adults. A fraction magnitude comparison task was used where half of the comparisons were consistent with whole number ordering and the other half were not. Distance effects were found in Experiment 1 indicating that participants were comparing the magnitude of the whole fraction rather than just the parts. However, accuracy and response time also depended on the comparisons' consistency with whole number ordering. Experiment 2 manipulated the distance between the fraction pairs and showed that the whole number effect was strongest when the distance between the fraction pairs was very small. The results suggest that even skilled adults do not always have direct access to a fraction's magnitude on the number line. When the magnitudes are especially close together, adults may rely on alternative implicit or explicit strategies, such as examining the whole number parts, to evaluate the comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that it is fruitful to examine cognitive development from a domain-specific, conceptual change (CC) point of view, but that both domain-specific and domain-general approaches are necessary in order to understand how cognitive development happens. The article starts with a description of the framework theory approach to CC and an explanation of how this approach can account for students' difficulties in learning counter-intuitive science and math concepts. Framework theories do not seem to go away but continue to exist and interfere with access to scientific and mathematical concepts even in skilled adults. It is further argued that domain-general executive function abilities are involved in CC processes that require the inhibition of intuitive concepts embedded in framework theories. The article concludes with the suggestion that cognitive development may be seen from the lenses of dual-process theories and that the interactions between domain-specific CCs and domain-general processes may be responsible overtime for the development of new conceptual structures and new types of processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two experiments we explored the instructional value of a cross‐domain mapping between “number” and “line” in secondary school students' understanding of density. The first experiment investigated the hypothesis that density would be more accessible to students in a geometrical context (infinitely many points on a straight line segment) compared to a numerical context (infinitely many numbers in an interval). The participants were 229 seventh to eleventh graders. The results supported this hypothesis but also showed that students' conceptions of the line segment were far from that of a dense array of points. We then designed a text-based intervention that attempted to build the notion of density in a geometrical context, making explicit reference to the number-to-points correspondence and using the “rubber line” bridging analogy (the line as an imaginary unbreakable rubber band) to convey the no-successor principle. The participants were 149 eighth and tenth graders. The text intervention improved student performance in tasks regarding the infinity of numbers in an interval; the “rubber line” bridging analogy further improved performance successfully conveying the idea that these numbers can never be found one immediately next to the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three experiments used multiple methods—open-ended assessments, multiple-choice questionnaires, and interviews—to investigate the hypothesis that the development of students' understanding of the concept of real variable in algebra may be influenced in fundamental ways by their initial concept of number, which seems to be organized around the notion of natural number. In the first two experiments 91 secondary school students (ranging in age from 12.5 to 14.5 years) were asked to indicate numbers that could or could not be used to substitute literal symbols in algebraic expressions. The results showed that there was a strong tendency on the part of the students to interpret literal symbols to stand for natural numbers and a related tendency to consider the phenomenal sign of the algebraic expressions as their “real” sign. Similar findings were obtained in a third, individual interview study, conducted with tenth grade students. The results were interpreted to support the interpretation that there is a systematic natural number bias on students' substitutions of literal symbols in algebra. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present an empirical study that investigated seventh-, ninth-, and eleventh-grade students' understanding of the infinity of numbers in an interval. The participants (n = 549) were asked how many (i.e., a finite or infinite number of numbers) and what type of numbers (i.e., decimals, fractions, or any type) lie between two rational numbers. The results showed that the idea of discreteness (i.e., that fractions and decimals had “successors” like natural numbers) was robust in all age groups; that students tended to believe that the intermediate numbers must be of the same type as the interval endpoints (i.e., only decimals between decimals and fractions between fractions); and that the type of interval endpoints (natural numbers, decimals, or fractions) influenced students' judgments of the number of intermediate numbers in those intervals. We interpret these findings within the framework theory approach to conceptual change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the essay, "Conceptual Metaphor Meets Conceptual Change: Yes to Embodiment, No to Fragmentation," by Tamer Amin. It is stated that, Amin in the essay tries to establish a link between conceptual change research and research in cognitive linguistics, known as conceptual metaphor. Amin, as stated, tries to draw the implications of the two for science education. Amin, as stated, has argued in the essay that language structures one's concepts.

Three studies are reported that investigated the relationship between secondary school students’ physics-related epistemological beliefs and physics conceptual understanding. Study 1 involved the development of a Greek Epistemological Beliefs Evaluation Instrument for Physics (GEBEP) which was administered to 394 students (10th graders). Study 2 investigated the hypothesis that physics epistemological sophistication as measured by the GEBEP is a good predictor of physics understanding. The participants were selected from the 394 students who participated in Study 1. More specifically we selected the 10% (38) students with the highest scores in the GEBEP (high epistemological sophistication group, HES) and the 10% (38) students with the lowest GEBEP scores (low epistemological sophistication group, LES) and measured their understanding of Newton’s three laws using the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation instrument (FMCE) developed by . The results showed that the HES group had significantly higher scores in the FMCE than the LES group. Regression analysis showed that beliefs regarding the Construction and Stability of physics knowledge and the Structure of physics knowledge were good predictors of physics understanding. Study 3 re-examined the same hypothesis on a new independent sample of students. The results based on the entire sample, showed again that beliefs regarding the Construction and Stability of physics knowledge predicted physics understanding. Overall, the results suggest that sophisticated physics-related epistemological beliefs are necessary but not sufficient for physics understanding and point to the importance of taking them into consideration in physics education. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In order to understand the advanced, scientific concepts of the various disciplines, students cannot rely on the simple memorization of facts. They must learn how to restructure their naive, intuitive theories based on everyday experience and lay culture. In other words, they must undergo profound conceptual change. This type of conceptual change cannot be achieved without systematic instruction that takes into consideration both individual, constructivist and sociocultural factors. Teachers must find ways to enhance individual students’ motivation by creating a social classroom environment that supports the creation of intentional learners who can engage in the deep and enduring comprehension activities required for the revision of conceptual knowledge. Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we argue that both the cognitive and situative perspectives need to be modified to account for the empirical evidence on learning, taking as a central example the problem of knowledge transfer. Our proposal is that we need an approach that takes as a unit of analysis the individual in a constructive interaction with the world through a variety of mediated symbolic structures, some internal and some external, in rich sociocultural settings. This should be done without denying that knowledge can be represented in some form in the memory system. While internal mental structures are acceptable in this framework, concepts should not be seen as stable and unchanging but, rather, as flexible, malleable, and distributed. To explain conceptual change, we should allow for the possibility that what is already known can be radically restructured and that new, qualitative different structures emerge. Teaching for conceptual change, we argue, should utilize but cannot solely rely on cognitive apprenticeship types of methods. Attention must be paid to the appropriate design of curricula and to the acquisition of subject matter knowledge, together with the development of instructional methods that utilize sociocultural processes, like classroom discussion, to develop students' metaconceptual awareness and the ability to engage in intentional learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This experiment investigated the effect of the presentation of a globe – the culturally accepted artifact representing the earth – on children''s reasoning in elementary astronomy. Forty-four children from grades 1 and 3 were interviewed individually. First, the children were asked to make their own representations of the earth (i.e., drawings and play-dough models) and to indicate where people live on the earth. Then, the same children were presented with the globe and were asked to answer another set of questions regarding the shape of the earth and the areas where people live. The results showed an increase in the frequency of correct responses with the presentation of the globe, but also a decrease in the overall consistency of responses. Only some (the older) children could profit from the presence of the artifact to construct an internally consistent scientific model of the earth. Many children employed a mixed way of responding, sometimes basing their answers on the externally provided model and sometimes on their prior knowledge. These latter children did not seem to be aware of what they were doing. It appears that in the absence of an external, cultural model, children can form internal representations which they can distort in ways that make them consistent with their prior knowledge. But, when the cultural artifact is present, such distortions are not possible with the result that children end up with internally inconsistent patterns of responses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article reports that concepts and categories are the building blocks of cognition. They allow us to interpret our experiences, to connect them to prior knowledge, to reason, and to make predictions. One could not imagine a theory of learning without a theory of concepts, and sure enough psychologists have been concerned about concepts and categories for a long time now. Pragmatism is the philosophical school that pays attention not to the logical antecedents of an argument but to its consequences. In the social sciences, this has been interpreted as a turn away from people's definitions of a situation to the consequences of the situation.

An experiment is reported that investigated the development of students’ understanding of the numerical value of fractions. A total of 200 students ranging in age from 10 to 16 years were tested using a questionnaire that required them to decide on the smallest/biggest fraction, to order a set of given fractions and to justify their responses. Students’ responses were grouped in categories that revealed three main explanatory frameworks within which fractions seem to be interpreted. The first explanatory framework, emerging directly from the initial theory of natural numbers, is that fraction consists of two independent numbers. The second considers fractions as parts of a whole. Only in the third explanatory framework, students were able to understand the relation between numerator and denominator and to consider that fractions can be smaller, equal or even bigger than the unit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the present article, we argue that the conceptual change approach to learning can apply in the case of mathematics, taking into consideration the particular nature of mathematical knowledge and the neurobiological bases of mathematical cognition. In the empirical study that is reported in this article, we investigated ninth graders’ understanding of algebraic and structural properties of rational numbers, from a conceptual change perspective. We make the point that understanding rational numbers is not indiscriminately difficult. We show that prior knowledge about natural numbers supports students dealing with algebraic properties of rational numbers, while the idea of discreteness is a fundamental presupposition, which constrains students’ understanding of density. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An experiment investigated how methods of questioning affect children’s responses regarding the shape of the earth and the day/night cycle. Seventy-two children from Grade 1 and Grade 3 in a middle-class elementary school in Athens, Greece, were tested either by an open method of questioning or by a forced-choice method of questioning. The two methods of questioning produced different results, suggesting that they tap different forms of knowing and encourage different ways of reasoning in elementary astronomy. The open method replicated previous findings by Vosniadou and Brewer [Cogn. Psychol. 24 (1992) 535], showing that the majority of the children gave responses consistent with a small number of internally consistent mental models of the earth. The forced-choice method of questioning produced an increase in scientifically correct responses, but also a decrease in internal consistency. It appears that the forced-choice method of questioning, together with the presentation of the spherical model of the earth, can inhibit the generation of internal models. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Investigates the development of children's abilities to comprehend and produce metaphorical language. Limitations in children's knowledge and information-processing abilities; Differences in metaphoric competence and their relation to creativity.

In this article, I explore the role that analogical reasoning plays in the developing thought of the child. Analogical reasoning is defined as the process of identification and transfer of a relational structure from a known system (the source) to a less known system (the target). This process is more general than metaphor and can apply even between systems that belong to the same category. I argue that this process is fundamental to the acquisition and use of external representational systems such as oral and written language, arithmetic, and music and is thus an important aspect of cognitive development. The acquisition and use of external representational systems depend on the identification of correspondences between the representational system and the physical and social environment or on the identification of correspondences among different representational systems. The acquisition and use of such systems also depend on the transfer of information from one representational system to another and on the evaluation of the applicability of the information transferred for the system concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphor comprehension is seen as an interactive process that takes place between a metaphorical linguistic input and the linguistic and situational context in which it occurs. Children are capable of using the information provided by the linguistic and situational context to make inferences about the meaning of metaphorical sentences. Context helps children decide when a linguistic input should be interpreted nonliterally and provides children with clues about the metaphor's implied meaning. It appears that young children can profit more from a situational context than a linguistic context in interpreting metaphors and that reliance on both the situational and linguistic contexts decreases with increases in the knowledge base. Further research is needed to clarify the processes whereby children use contextual information in order to construct the meaning of a metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the results of an experiment which investigated elementary school children's conceptual knowledge about the earth. Children and adults construct an intuitive understanding of the world; Naive theories versus fragmented knowledge; Process of knowledge acquisition; Domain of observational astronomy; Concept of the earth in the history of astronomy; Children's ideas about the shape of the earth; Method; Results; Discussion.

It is argued that children's comprehension of nonliteral language is constrained primarily by epistemic, linguistic, and information-processing limitations. Some experimental evidence in support of this position is reviewed, and it is suggested that the linguistic form in which a nonliteral statement is expressed and the context in which it occurs can act on the linguistic and information-processing constraints and thus may facilitate or hinder comprehension. For example, it is easier for children to understand nonliteral statements when the statements are explicit (similes) rather than when they are implicit (predicative metaphors) or when they occur in predictable rather than unpredictable contexts, presumably because these statements reduce the information-processing load of the comprehension task and impose fewer demands on children's linguistic knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Until recently conceptual change research only regarded learning scientific knowledge in school • This special issue seeks to extend that approach to learning in working life • Both knowledge and practices in working life are subject to continuous, often radical change • Five contributions together cover the whole lifespan Rapid and radical changes in science, technology and society may result in new scientific concepts and new workplace practices, which require fundamental restructuring of prior knowledge. Over the years a noteworthy body of research has documented the processes of conceptual change, the learning mechanisms involved, and the instructional methods and strategies that can promote conceptual changes. This research, however, focused young learners in school settings. Conceptual changes in working life go beyond traditional conceptual change consisting of processes and mechanisms that involve the interaction between expertise development and workplace learning processes.This Special Issue investigates whether and how conceptual change research can be extended from learning in schools to learning in professional life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A conceptual change approach was adopted to study pre-service teachers' belief systems • The teachers were found to hold beliefs inconsistent with the self-regulation of learning. • SEM modelling investigated the structure of pre-service teachers' belief systems. • The results revealed lack of coherence and the co-existence of opposing beliefs. Pre-service teachers' belief systems regarding the self-regulation of learning were investigated from a conceptual change perspective. Four hundred and twenty nine pre-service teachers answered a 6-point Likert scale Beliefs about Learning and Teaching (BALT) questionnaire. The results confirmed that beliefs theoretically consistent with SRL were be positive predictors of beliefs in the importance of teaching students SRL strategies. Beliefs inconsistent with SRL were found to be negative predictors of beliefs in the importance of teaching students SRL strategies. The SEM modeling also revealed that the participants' belief systems contained internally inconsistent beliefs about teaching. The implications for the design of SRL interventions and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the ICAP framework (Chi & Wiley, 2014) we examined the level of cognitive engagement of lesson tasks designed by teacher education students (TES). Explanations for task design were examined for structural complexity and types of self-regulated learning (SRL) activity. Two thirds of the participants designed lesson tasks that would stimulate constructive engagement while the tasks of the remaining participants would be unlikely to stimulate constructive activity in students. Explanations for task design primarily focussed on SRL activity related to cognition in stimulating students' understanding and showed limited structural complexity. Further attention could be given during teacher education to the importance of constructive task engagement and a wider range of SRL activity. • Examined cognitive engagement levels of teacher education students' tasks. • Examined types of self-regulatory activity in teacher education students' tasks. • Most participants' tasks would stimulate constructive and interactive engagement. • Explanations for task designs showed limited structural complexity. • Explanation focussed on cognitive activity, little metacognitive activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fifty-six teachers, from four European countries, were interviewed to ascertain their attitudes to and beliefs about the Collaborative Learning Environments (CLEs) which were designed under the Innovative Technologies for Collaborative Learning Project. Their responses were analysed using categories based on a model from cultural-historical activity theory [Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit; Engeström, Y., Engeström, R., & Suntio, A. (2002). Can a school community learn to master its own future? An activity-theoretical study of expansive learning among middle school teachers. In G. Wells & G. Claxton (Eds.), Learning for life in the 21st century. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers]. The teachers were positive about CLEs and their possible role in initiating pedagogical innovation and enhancing personal professional development. This positive perception held across cultures and national boundaries. Teachers were aware of the fact that demanding planning was needed for successful implementations of CLEs. However, the specific strategies through which the teachers can guide students’ inquiries in CLEs and the assessment of new competencies that may characterize student performance in the CLEs were poorly represented in the teachers’ reflections on CLEs. The attitudes and beliefs of the teachers from separate countries had many similarities, but there were also some clear differences, which are discussed in the article. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]