The concept of limit is the foundation for many concepts such as the derivative and the integral in advanced mathematics. The limit concept has been a research topic in mathematics education for years and in the literature it is a broadly accepted fact that the limit is a difficult notion for most students. The study presented in this article is a…

Tzur and Simon (2004) postulated two stages of concept development, participatory and anticipatory. The distinction between the two stages was exemplified by what they termed "the next-day phenomenon" in which learners who could solve a task one day in the context of the activity through which they made the abstraction, could not solve…

Generally, in the foundation course of architectural design, much emphasis is placed on teaching of the basic design skills without focusing on teaching students to apply the basic design concepts in their architectural designs or promoting students' own creativity. Therefore, this study aims to propose a concept transformation learning model to…

Students sometimes misunderstand or misinterpret scientific content because of persistent misconceptions that need to be overcome by science education--a learning process typically called conceptual change. The acquisition of scientific content matter thus requires a transformation of the initial knowledge-state of a common-sense picture of the…

Students use concrete manipulatives to form an imperative affiliation between conceptual and procedural knowledge (Balka, 1993). Hence, it is necessary to design specific mathematics manipulatives that focus on different mathematical concepts. Preservice teachers need to know how to make and use manipulatives that stimulate students' thinking as…

This paper addresses the nature and significance of productive engagement in cognitive activity and metacognitive regulation in collaborative learning tasks that involve complex scientific knowledge. A situative framework, combining the constructs of social regulation and content processing, provided the theoretical basis for the development of a…

These studies examined the role of ontological beliefs about category boundaries in early categorization. Study 1 found that preschool-age children (N = 48, aged 3-4 years old) have domain-specific beliefs about the meaning of category boundaries; children judged the boundaries of natural kind categories (animal species, human gender) as discrete…

In this paper, we investigate children's learning of reflectional symmetry in a dynamic geometry environment. Through a classroom-based intervention involving two 1-h lessons, we analyse the changes in the children's thinking about reflectional symmetry: first, they developed dynamic and embodied ways of thinking about symmetry after working with…

When inquiry-based learning is designed for a collaborative context, the interactions that arise in the learning environment can become fairly complex. While the learning effectiveness of such learning environments has been reported in the literature, there have been fewer studies on the students' learning processes. To address this, the article…

In this paper I look at a set of teaching techniques and practices that I experienced as a student of traditional hula over the past twenty years. I explain the practices of ho'ike (testing by showing what one knows), 'aiha'a (getting grounded), pa'a ka waha/ ho'olohe (hold the mouth/ listen), and learning without palapala (paper) as I have…

The present research approached a problem which has a twofold aspect: the concept of angle and the techniques needed to represent how pupils construct that concept in their cognitive structure during their years in school. In order to access the knowledge of the concept of angle, we used the pathfinder associative networks. This technique provided…

We explore whether the use of assistive technology allows teachers and children to negotiate shared understandings for learning science and language. We understand our afterschool sessions as critical encounters. Artifacts used in the encounters enabled transcending of the tensions and became drivers for learning. In the studied 13 encounters,…

Traditional (e.g., constructivist) accounts of knowledge ground its origin in the "intentional construction" on the part of the learner. Such accounts are blind to the fact that learners, by the fact that they do not know the knowledge to be learned, cannot orient toward it as an object to be constructed. In this study, I provide a…

"Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1" reviews the best available evidence to offer five recommendations for developing the maths skills of 3-7-year olds. Recommendations include integrating maths into different activities throughout the day -- for example, at registration and snack time -- to familiarise children…

The student body is becoming increasingly diverse in terms of language, nationality and cultural background. This study explores ways in which such linguistic diversity can be harnessed in the language classroom to enhance the language learning process. This paper describes a series of activities which were designed and implemented in four higher…