Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational approach that challenges students to "learn to learn"--students work cooperatively in groups to seek solutions to real-world problems and, more importantly, to develop skills to become self-directed learners. PBL is unique in its integral emphasis on core content along with problem solving.…

This digest contains four sections that discuss the following broad principles that offer a framework to teachers for thinking about how technology can support their instruction: (1) learning occurs in context, including ways that technology can facilitate learning by providing real world contexts that engage learners in solving complex problems,…

Educational Research Information Center (ERIC) Trends are analyses of higher education literature contained in the ERIC database describing major concerns in institutional practice. Literature on teaching and learning has grown within the higher education literature base over the last decade. However, the themes are basically still the same as…

A project is an extended, in-depth investigation of a topic, ideally one worthy of children's attention and energy. This catalog, prepared for an annual meeting of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, combines articles explaining the project approach in the classroom with summaries of projects displayed at the meeting. It…

In one school of thought, self-directed learning (SDL) is based in the autonomous, independent individual who chooses to undertake learning for personal growth. However, another school of thought stresses the social construction of knowledge and the social context of learning. Some writers challenge the exclusive emphasis on the autonomous self…

Designed to tap the rich collection of instructional techniques in the ERIC database, this compilation of lesson plans focuses on helping elementary-school students to work together as they learn to read, write, and communicate. The 48 lesson plans in the book cover writing to communicate, reading for information, responding to literature,…

Projects are in-depth studies of a topic undertaken by a class, a group, or an individual child. Projects are intended to strengthen children's dispositions to be interested, absorbed, and involved in in-depth observation, investigation, and representation of worthwhile phenomena in their own environments. This Catalog on the Project Approach, the…

This book documents the work of a master preschool teacher, her co-teachers, student teachers, and very young children as they explored the automotive laboratory adjacent to their early childhood classroom at a community college. In addition to introducing the project approach, the master teacher also introduced the staff and students to…