Current educational systems are making shifts from teacher-centered to learner-centered environments. This shift creates space for more involvement from students in their own instructional and assessment processes that sets them up for success in a method that allows them control of their achievement. Teachers have to assess and reflect on their…

Learning and teaching science challenges many students and instructors. From four decades of helping students learn, ourselves teaching, and aiding educators teach chemistry, we have formulated some strategies that prove effective in improving learning and teaching. Specific teaching tactics such as establishing a contract for grading, and using…

Digital technology has proven a beguiling, some even venture addictive, presence in the lives of our 21st century (millennial) students. And while screen technology may offer select cognitive benefits, there is mounting evidence in the cognitive neuroscience literature that digital technology is restructuring the way our students read and think,…

This paper defines flipped learning and then examines its practical implementation in AS and A2 level physics classes, that is, classes for 16-18 year olds. The effect of this teaching style on student learning behaviour and its impact on test results are evaluated. The paper recounts the difficulties of implementing it and evaluates student…

The notion of the road map, advocated by Black, Wilson, and Yao (2011), and the associated minutiae of the construct map have several powerful features. At one level these notions assist the teacher to select and embody a suitable sequence of constructs within a specified curriculum. Whatever disparate sequenced pathways individual learners may…

South Africa's higher education policies have opened up access to university for students from diverse backgrounds, with different learning styles, levels of motivation and levels of preparedness. This has necessitated a move from the lecture style of teaching to innovative teaching styles that engage the learners and equip them with skills to…

This article presents an interview with Dr. Paul Nolting, a national expert in assessing individual math learning problems, developing effective student learning strategies, and assessing institutional variables that affect math success. Since his dissertation in 1986 on improving math success with study skills Dr. Nolting has consulted with over…

Frequently the words "cooperation" and "collaboration" are used interchangeably; both words mean to develop relationships or to form associations by helping and supporting one another through organized teamwork and partnerships. Although both cooperation and collaboration feature working in groups to produce outcomes, the authors would like to…

The author suggests that teaching may be enhanced as more insights are gained about how each student responds to the teaching/learning process and how learning style and teaching style are interrelated. Four learning styles are compared and four teaching styles are examined. (CT)

As teachers, we want to motivate our students to learn during a unit and to continue learning about the topic after the unit ends. This article describes about a hundred methods we use to help motivate students to learn. The methods form 12 categories: (1) making content relevant to student values and goals; (2) helping students achieve their…

This paper presents two puzzles that have emerged in a series of completed and ongoing studies at Queen's University, Ontario. These puzzles concern teachers' professional knowledge, a term used to refer to the non-propositional forms of knowledge assumed to be of importance to professional action. This research assumed that the professional…

Before explaining the Teach-Practice-Apply (TPA) model for instructional improvement, an overview is presented of three general factors necessary for effective instruction: knowledge of content area; knowledge of teaching and learning theory; and the ability to select and use appropriate teaching strategies. It is assumed that teachers using the…

This book is designed to help teachers critically assess major ideas about what teaching is and should be. Using both classical and contemporary perspectives, three basic approaches to teaching are offered, and the strengths and weaknesses of each are explored. The "executive approach" views the teacher as an executor, using the best learning…

A prototype cognitive neuroscience/learning style preservice teacher education program was designed and experimentally implemented at The Ohio State University. The program is described and results of two followup studies are summarized. (MT)

Recent developmental studies have focused on children's learning strategies and on the socio-instructional dynamics that foster strategic learning. Discusses Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development in the context of traditional cognitive strategies research and in terms of its practical applications. (Author/BJV)