The "learning cycle" is not a teaching method but rather a teaching procedure that allows for many methods of teaching. If teacher preparation courses are organized and delivered as learning cycles, then preservice teachers will discover that the learning cycle is an instructional model that: (1) allows science to be taught as it is…

Discusses appropriate methodologies for investigating how learning occurs in the laboratory. Presents two techniques, concept mapping and V-diagramming, which can be effective research tools in probing students' understanding of chemical principles. These techniques can also be effective instructional tools that help students integrate lecture…

Discusses one component of the Iowa Distance Education Alliance that encouraged science reform through distance education using the Iowa Communications Network. Topics include curriculum and school reform, learning processes, student engagement and involvement, constructivism, the use of interactive television for distance education, and the Iowa…

Describes teacher education practice aimed at promoting reflection in novice practitioners, and reflects on an exercise used in teaching a class of preservice secondary teachers. The author draws on student journal entries data in understanding the students' reflective thinking and demonstrates the efficacy of having students keep focused…

Examines key psychological principles in contemporary theories of learning (constructivism) and highlights conceptual connections between them and aspects of critical thinking and epistemological maturity described by the reflective judgment model of adult intellectual development. Also describes an undergraduate psychology lesson that bridges…

Outlines the transmission theory of teaching explaining that the theory is criticized in terms of its implied acceptance of theory-free observation, learning by inductive process, and secure knowledge. Discusses Karl Popper's alternative theories of learning and the growth of knowledge and outlines some of the implications for educational…

Discusses the articulation between teaching and learning, how to differentiate them, and how to establish relations between them as it pertains to aspects of knowledge. Aims to develop teaching situations more relevant to learning. Teaching is associated with knowledge to be taught, knowledge sequencing, and teaching situations. Learning is…

Focuses on defining constructivism, which includes learning as an active process of knowledge construction and instruction as a process of supporting that construction. Discusses 10 constructivist assumptions about learning. Describes 11 actions that define the constructivist teacher. (AEF)

Describes a qualitative study of a community college American history survey course using constructivist teaching, wherein all learning is filtered through the learner's lens of reality. Reports that one implication of the study was that applied constructivism may result in a more holistic approach to teaching and learning. (AUTH/NB)

In this project the researchers worked with Grade 6 learners and teachers on the Cape Flats of Cape Town, South Africa, to design a science module that builds on learners' experiences and responds to their needs. The project went beyond learning processes and contexts, to incorporate learners' purposes and interests, the circumstances of their…

This article illustrates a step-by-step hypothesis refinement activity that is consistent with constructivist pedagogies and the perception of culture learning as a process of discovery. Postsecondary students identified stereotypes about the cultures of French-speaking countries, conducted open-ended investigations, and accepted or rejected the…

Constructivists view thinking and learning differently from other learning theorists: they believe that learners do not acquire knowledge that is transmitted to them; rather, learners construct knowledge through intellectual activity. Sharp contrasts exist between a "transmission" model of instruction and the constructivist perspective.…

The essays in this book form a dialogue between instructional developers and learning theorists about the implications of constructivism for instructional design practice. Following an introduction entitled "Constructivism: New Implications for Instructional Technology" (Thomas M. Duffy and David H. Jonassen), the papers are divided into…

The nature of science encompasses the entire world and within that realm, patterns of life can be observed, interpreted, and organized into a sensible arrangement of understanding. By discovering, through an intricate process, how shapes and images form into a complete design or sequence, students related similar scientific patterns to their own…

Eighty-five preservice-education students observed a science experiment concerning either buoyancy or the forces acting on a stationary object, then wrote a series of explanations. Results suggest that students' use of rhetorical structures (explanation, comparison, argumentation, and summarization) stimulated construction of new knowledge, but…