This study follows two groups of students (67 in all) through the 3 years of their high school biology education and examines the development of their systems thinking--specifically their models of the human body as a system. Both groups were composed of biology majors, but the students in one group also participated in a PBLbased extension…

We compared effects of tutoring by students and by staff. In four courses in each of two consecutive first years of an undergraduate problem-based law curriculum we examined the achievements and perceptions of tutors of students taught by student and staff tutors. Achievements were measured by the results on the regular end-of-course tests. After…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a constructivist approach to learning which is believed to promote reflective thinking in students. This study investigated how students in one particular institution developed in their reflective thinking habits--Habitual Action, Understanding, Reflection, and Critical Reflection--as they went through the daily…

This paper discusses a study of students learning core conceptual perspectives from recent scientific research on complexity using a hypermedia learning environment in which different types of scaffolding were provided. Three comparison groups used a hypermedia system with agent-based models and scaffolds for problem-based learning activities that…

Have you ever thought about why qualities whose definitions are elusive, such as those of a sunset or a half-opened rose, affect us so powerfully? According to de Saussure (Course in general linguistics, 1983), the making of meanings is closely related to the production and interpretation of signs. All types of design, including advertising…