The references that follow are organized to match chapters and
sections of Benchmarks, which in turn mostly match those of
Science for All Americans. The list is very selective and
includes only those references that met two criteria. One was
relevance—some excellent papers were not included because they
did not bear on one of the Benchmarks topics. The other
criterion was quality—papers, however relevant, were bypassed if
they were seen to have design flaws or their evidence or
argument was weak. Even then, however, not all relevant and good
papers are included. In many cases, a single paper has been used
as representative of a number of similar reports. It will
immediately be clear that mathematics and the physical sciences
have had the benefit of many more studies than have other
fields. Perhaps that is because the subject matter lends itself
to research more easily; in the next few years, though, perhaps
the attention to cognitive research will increase in all fields.
Research on students' understanding o