To date, research involving homemade PowerPoint games as an instructional tool has not shown statistically significant gains in student performance. This paper examines the results of a study comparing the performance of students in a high school chemistry course who created homemade PowerPoint games as a test review with the students who used a…

Visual representations play an important role in science teaching. The way in which visual representations may help children to acquire scientific concepts is a crucial test in the debate between constructivist and socio-cultural oriented researchers. In this paper, the question is addressed as a problem of how to contextualize conceptions and…

This article describes how Metacognitive Journals were used to teach prospective early childhood educators about constructivism. We emphasize the importance of modeling constructivist pedagogy and cultivating students' metacognitive potential. We share the effects on our students' learning and on our teaching. We also offer recommendations for…

This article provides detailed analysis, from a radical constructivist perspective, of a sequence of letter-writing exchanges between a preservice secondary mathematics teacher and a high school student. This analysis shows the ways in which the preservice teacher gained understanding of the high school student's mathematics and attempted to pose…

Student teachers should be prepared to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) into their future teaching and learning practices. Despite the increased availability and support for ICT integration, relatively few teachers intend to integrate ICT into their teaching activities (e.g., Ertmer, 2005). The available research has thus…

This project was designed to address gender issues in mathematics education. The author's findings led her to conclude that students construct their own understanding and knowledge as a result of activities in the classroom. Constructivism, a theory of knowledge based on the idea that people construct their own realities by interacting with the…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) poses constructivist ideas in its "Principles and Standards for School Mathematics" (2000). NCTM supports mathematics instruction that takes a developmental perspective; starts and builds on what children know; and leads children to construct relational understanding, problem-solving…

This book is designed to be an intervention model based on the concepts of Piaget's study of constructivism. The application of this approach will help children with learning/ behavioral disorders actively participate in a fuller integration of their own psychomotor, affective, and cognitive information processing skills and adaptation. The work…

Presents a historical overview of learning theories in mathematics education applied to the teaching of integers. Theories discussed are meaning vs. rote learning; direct vs. incidental; discovery vs. exposition; concrete vs. abstract; and construction vs. transmission. Includes a reproducible activity sheet and 19 references. (MKR)

This paper looks at the ideas of R. Skemp which emphasize fostering "intelligent learning" in the teaching of mathematics. Skemp posits that schematic learning takes place when new concepts are constructed by the learner. Three modes of building such internal schema are proposed. Teachers are urged to ensure that at every stage the new…

Emphasizes that educational technology seems ideally suited for reinforcing constructivist theories in learning. Defines constructivism and asserts that it moves away from the traditional objectivist approach to learning. Provides five characteristics of a constructivist lesson. (CFR)

Research findings related to constructivism have been applied to development of the Equipped for the Future (EFF) Framework and Continuum of Performance, a multi-dimensional developmental description of performance serving as a foundation for EFF-based instruction and assessment of learner progress. Acquiring expertise is a complex developmental…