ABSTRACT
Over the past two decades, advances in cognitive and pedagogical research have made great strides in helping us to understand the learning process. Findings from studies of student learning have provided insights and directions for improving educational practice. The implications of this research enable us to adopt well-established theoretical principles and theories in teaching students and adopting learner-centered principles for instruction. White (2002) describes the changes that have taken place in the sciences as a “revolution.” Important features of the revolution in science teaching and research have been a growing concern for practice, the social dynamics of learning, and the complexities of students’ conceptions and misconceptions of scientific concepts. New lines of research that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s included investigations of the metacognitive skills of students, cognitive preferences and learning styles, situated cognition applied to pedagogy, and the application of information and communications technologies for the creation of improved learning environments in science (e.g., Baird, 1986; Hewson and Hewson, 1983).
