This book is intended to offer college faculty members the insights of the development of reasoning movement that enlighten physics educators in the late 1970s and led to a variety of college programs directed at improving the reasoning patterns used by college students. While the original materials were directed at physics concepts, they quickly…

Learning is a changing phenomenon, depending on the advances in theory and research. This book presents a relatively new approach to learning, based on meaningful human activities in cultural practices and in collaboration with others. It draws extensively from the ideas of Lev Vygotsky and his recent followers. The book presents ideas that…

There is an intricate literacy to Gardner's multiple intelligences theory that unlocks key entry points for differentiated learning. Using a well-articulated framework, rich with graphic representations, Williams provides a comprehensive discussion of multiple intelligences. He moves the teacher and students from curiosity, to confidence, to…

Along with a socially urgent impetus for revolutionary reform of an educational environment appropriate to the 21st century society, constructivism is highlighted in various fields related to education as an alternative educational ideology and approach. Despite its radical shift from traditional learning environments, and the diverse…

Teacher educators have suggested that mentoring has the potential to help novices learn to teach in reform-minded ways. This suggestion implies a change in the nature of mentor-novice relationships as conceptualized in the existing literature and an understanding of the complexities of mentoring relationships. Based on critical constructivist and…

Memory work has potential usefulness as a method of helping students explore their relationship to science. Students have multiple early experiences with the natural world, but often these experiences are divorced from their school-based learning. It is known, however, that students use their informal experiences of the natural world in their…

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) describes constructivism as an approach to teaching and learning based on the premise that cognition (learning) is the result of "mental construction." In other words, students learn by fitting new information together with what they already know. Constructivists believe that learning is…

Describes constructivism as an educational theory promoted by the National Council of Teachers of Education (NCTM), the ideals of NCTM's standards, the validity of NCTM's approach, and the research behind NCTM's recommendations. Includes examples of what teachers can do to promote student construction of knowledge in the classroom and resources…

Discussion of evaluation of learning focuses on a constructivist approach to evaluation based on a constructivist learning model. Topics addressed include comparing traditionalist and constructivist views; traditional evaluation of learning; and constructivist evaluation strategies that include one-sentence summaries, concept maps, annotated…

The first part of the process model for experiential learning (EL) includes student characteristics and needs (role of experience and prior knowledge, different learning processes, active involvement, affiliation needs, life context) and conceptual foundations of EL (definitions of knowledge, elements of cognition, constructivist teaching,…

Presents the results of an exploratory multi-method evaluation study and transcript analysis of an online forum. Highlights include use of a constructivist interaction analysis model to help understand and assess online learning; social interchange; and social discord and knowledge construction. (Author/LRW)

Uses a constructivist framework in conjunction with an interpretive methodology to investigate the effect of an intervention using the metaphor "learning is constructing" on students' metacognition and learning process. Believes that contextual factors are key determinants of students' propensity towards enhancing their metacognition and…

Demonstrates that connectionist models described in "Rethinking Innateness" (Elman, et al., 1996) depend on innately assumed representations and do not offer a genuine alternative to nativism. Presents simulation results showing that the models are incapable of deriving genuine abstract representations that are not presupposed. Maintains…

Describes a study that investigated the relationship between instructional design and powerful learning. Highlights include key features of instructional design; the nature of powerful learning experiences; a survey of instructional design experts; interviews with adult learners; instructional strategies suggested by powerful learning factors; and…

Despite its continuing popularity as both a practical and theoretical basis upon which to ground pedagogical practice, experiential learning is nonetheless recognised as a difficult concept to "pin down." One serious attempt to schematise and systematise the specific components of the learning process has been made, however. Jarvis's model…