An examination of children's notions about light and visual phenomena shows the existence of mental models, that is to say, ways of thinking that are consistent and pervasive. These naive conceptual schemes, used by different children to explain similar phenomena, determine the kinds of responses given by the children in problem-solving situations. In this article we study children's ideas about colored objects and colored shadows, with special attention to the ways in which these ideas are organized into mental models. The elucidation of these models provides valuable instructional tools that serve to assess and to confront students' naive conceptions.This work was carried out in a science museum at the site of interactive exhibits that show unexpected effects. Children who visited the museum were engaged in problem-solving situations that involved predictions, explanations, and manipulations of the exhibit.

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This essay interrogates the phenomenon and the implications of being female in school science through girls' and young women's stories interwoven with my own narrative as a woman teacher/researcher in science education. The intent is to raise awareness of issues related to being female in conventional science teaching, and to suggest some alternative perspectives and approaches for action and reflection. I discuss several directions within my teaching which announce my own interpretation of bell hook's "engaged pedagogy," which emphasizes a commitment to self-actualization and well-being for both teacher and student. My choice to integrate disparate writing styles (conversational and scholarly) was a deliberate effort to resonate issues between practice and theory and interrupt this separation.

We view the teaching and learning of science content as problematic. Even the constructivist perspective does not entirely address the dilemmas of conveying and comprehending formal scientific knowledge. We believe engaging groups of students in inquiry and discourse about phenomena is a viable approach for teaching science concepts. Within large and small groups, consensus‐building discussion affords space for generating, refining, and connecting ideas. Within these discussions, the dissemination of ideas gives students access to and inclusion with powerful ideas generated within the class, and prepares them to resolve critically conflict between personal understandings and formal explanations. The intent of this work is to explore this teaching approach and document students' advances in understanding science concepts. The study takes place in a grade 7 science classroom as the students study light phenomena. In this article, we focus on one target group working to achieve consensus and a coherent explanation of light and shadow effects. Based on the in‐depth result and our review of related literature, we articulate the beginnings of a framework for consensus building within inquiry discourse. We address the problem of teaching content by posing an alternative to delivering the “facts.” © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 173–192, 1997.

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