This practiced-based handbook describes postmodern career counseling models and methods designed to meet clients' diverse needs in today's challenging work environment. Readers will gain a solid understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of postmodern career counseling and learn practical approaches to counseling clients of various ages and…

Standardized tests have been selected as a key assessment factor in expanding the academic achievement of the national student population. However, these tests position immigrant students at the risk of academic failure, leading education experts to search for new strategies and teaching models. The "Handbook of Research on Assessment…

Parents are concerned about their children's math learning. Teachers are concerned about math teaching. When parents see what children are bringing home under the new curriculum, it is clear that their children are not working on the same mathematics that parents remember from the time when they were in school. But, the problem goes beyond grades…

Because sensorimotor and environmental factors have a profound effect on children's learning, every teacher should know how to weave strategies from occupational therapy (OT) into their everyday instruction. This is the guidebook K-3 teachers need to "think like an OT"--and form effective partnerships with OTs in their schools--so all students can…

This book provides clear-cut insights along with practical suggestions on how to develop teaching competencies and strategies and implement inquiry as called for by the national standards. The chapters in this book take the reader through constructing an understanding of inquiry and the characteristics of an inquiry-based classroom, then address…

Providing opportunities for students to generate their own curriculum requires courage. Student interests are unpredictable. Teachers should garner support, start small, use library resources, eschew curriculum guides, develop assessment tools, allow for noise, schedule record keeping, allow a routine to emerge, be learners, communicate…

Presents a four-phase model that could help infuse constructivist practice into preservice teacher education courses. The phases include engagement (grounding the course in students' beliefs and experiences), connection (developing students' expertise for resolving later ambiguities), application (applying students' reconstructed understanding of…

Describes the goals and nature of school mathematics reform and the philosophy and nature of the constructivist classroom. Suggests that math teachers who are interested in creating reformed classrooms can look to constructivist theories of learning and content-area literacy theories and methods to provide the structure needed to make reform…

This article compares two educational approaches, intensive-explicit instruction and constructivist instruction, considering how both can affect instruction for students with disabilities. It concludes by urging the integration of these two approaches, possibly by using models focused on the transformation of explicit knowledge into tacit…

Presents 12 constructivist tools and techniques for teaching groups of teachers and leaders and helping promote change. By establishing constructivist norms and applying the constructivist tools and techniques, staff developers can help all group members share their collective knowledge while stretching their thinking about teaching. The paper…

Comments on building departmental excellence through creating conditions for development of the focus that emerged at the Speech Communication Department at the University of Illinois. Considers how the constructivist turn in communication studies at Illinois in the late 1970s and early 1980s underscores the value of multiple-group cluster hiring…

The concept of diffusion may seem easy enough for many teachers to understand, but when and what do students really understand about diffusion and osmosis? In order to answer these two questions, 116 students (46.6% in the tenth grade, 30.2% in the eleventh grade, and 23.2% in the twelfth grade) enrolled in biology classes were administered tests…

This book aims to show readers the results that can occur in secondary science classrooms when students' interest and curiosity about science are brought firmly to the center of the curriculum. In particular, the book demonstrates how girls can become more interested in learning science when such topics as pregnancy, childbirth, or sexism in…

This book presents a case for the development of classrooms in which students are encouraged to construct deep understandings of important concepts. The book contains 3 parts with 10 chapters. Part 1, "The Call for Constructivism," includes (1) "Honoring the Learning Process," (2) "Considering the Possibilities," and (3) "Coming to Know One's…

This book describes effective ways for principals and teachers to work together for the teachers' growth and the ultimate benefit of students' learning. It provides a solid philosophical foundation for changes in teacher evaluation and staff development, and it analyzes past and current methods and trends in teacher evaluation. The book spells out…