This appreciation of Wittrock's contributions to educational psychology suggests that his 1974 article describing generative learning theory was remarkably prescient. In that article Wittrock set the stage for the subsequent paradigm shift from cognitive to constructivist approaches to instruction. Furthermore, his suggestion that schools were the…

Background: A responsive and innovative postgraduate programme curriculum that produces an effective and competent multi professional healthcare leader whom can lead within the United Kingdom (UK) and international healthcare context offers a promising approach to contributing towards the challenging global healthcare agenda. Aims: The aim of the…

The use Web 2.0 technologies and specifically blogs has become increasingly prevalent within the Higher Education (HE) sector within recent years as educators begin to maximise the opportunities such tools can provide for teaching and learning and to experiment with their usage in a wide range of context. The use of such technologies has been…

The aim of this study was to explore a group of prospective primary teachers' conceptual understanding of diffusion and osmosis as they implemented a 5E constructivist model and related materials in a science methods course. Fifty prospective primary teachers' ideas were elicited using a pre- and post-test and delayed post-test survey consisting…

The "will, skill, tool" model is a well-established theoretical framework that elucidates the conditions under which teachers are most likely to employ information and communication technologies (ICT) in the classroom. Past studies have shown that these three factors explain a very high degree of variance in the frequency of classroom…

European programs of design research have developed distinctive types of apparatus to structure and support the process of didactical design. This article illustrates how intermediate frameworks and design tools serve to mediate the contribution of grand theories to the design process, by coordinating and contextualizing theoretical insights on…

A tenth grade class in an international school studied evolution for four weeks as part of the study of Biology. A diagnostic test was used to determine the main misconceptions students have as they come to the study of evolution. This was followed by a series of explorations of different conceptual models to account for evolution, structured…

This article offers a critique of the quality of theorising underlying proposals on curriculum and pedagogy in the Cambridge Primary Review. Despite its strengths, the review is seen as omitting consideration of three major areas in primary education: gifted pupils, teacher effectiveness research and the private sector. Questions are raised about…

"Context-based courses" are increasingly used in an address to the major challenges that science education currently faces: lack of clear purpose, content overload, incoherent learning by students, lack of relevance to students, and lack of transfer of learning to new contexts. In this paper, four criteria for the design of context-based courses…

The teaching of introductory computer programming seems far from successful, with many first-year students performing more poorly than expected. One possible reason for this is that novices hold "non-viable" mental models (internal explanations of how something works) of key programming concepts which then cause misconceptions and difficulties. An…

This paper critiques the historical partnership between Education and Psychology in their coordinated search for theorizations of learning and teaching. Psychologists' construction of learning as an integrated set of processes (albeit complex and multifaceted) subserves the historical imperative of this preparadigmatic science to achieve…

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a teaching method (TLS (Teaching/Learning Sequence)) based on a social constructivist paradigm on students' conceptualisation of classification of food. Design/methodology/approach: The study compared the TLS model developed by the researcher based on the social constructivist paradigm…

The authors describe an Open Source approach to education. They define Open Source Education (OSE) as a teaching and learning framework where the use and presentation of information is non-hierarchical, malleable, and subject to the needs and contributions of students as they become "co-owners" of the course. The course transforms itself into an…

The transformative potential of pupils' voices is well documented in past research by Pedder and McIntyre; and Cooper and McIntyre. In this qualitative research, I utilise a social constructivist framework by Vygotsky to ask pupils with dyslexia about the kinds of teacher strategies that they find helpful to their learning at secondary school in…

While professional development (PD) has always been central to the teaching profession, increasingly traditional models of PD are out of step with contemporary ways of learning. Commiserate with the literature, we see the field moving along a continuum which reflects changes in what, how and when teachers learn. Following a brief sketch of the…