Considers the question of whether instructional methods are replaceable or interchangeable. Topics discussed include the influence of external events on learning and cognitive processes, media variables, linking instructional design to research on learning from instruction, construct validity, and an example of adequate instructional design and…

Describes a 10-stage process approach to teaching technical students "definition." Includes an assignment that encourages the use of the defining process. Discusses advantages of the approach. (PRA)

Focuses on the importance of more closely understanding the ways in which faculty foster and perpetuate classroom authority, and ways in which learners become entangled in unconscious transference. Uses a psychoanalytic model to discuss the implications of traditional classroom power relationships between teachers and students. Suggests strong…

A focus on people--whether community members, students, historical figures, or fictional characters--and their motivations brings excitement to learning. A community's experts on everything from jazz music and Chinese tapestries to building construction can help students move inside history and other subjects. (MLH)

Examines how theories of antioppressive education can help educators teach, supervise student teachers, and conduct research in ways that work against repetitions of privileged knowledge and practices. Shows how students may seek knowledge confirming what they already know and challenges educators to disrupt unconscious discourses. (Contains 39…

Presents an instructional model, using Kleist's story "Das Erdbeben in Chili" and Christa Wolf's novel Kei Ort. Nirgends" as a basis. The model clearly distinguishes itself from quantitative models and mediates solid literary knowledge through an inductive approach. Learning takes place in a multidimensional space that makes possible multiple…

Describes the author's research on learning and brain activity, which involved more than 5,000 students and faculty members. Explores six stages of learning: (1) preparing to learn; (2) starting to learn; (3) consolidation; (4) branching out; (5) gaining fluency; and (6) continued improving. States that merging educational research with…

Describes the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education, noting parallels with a dynamic systems theory (DST) approach to motor behavior. Feldenkrais uses movement and perception to foster individualized improvement in function. DST explains that a human-environment system continually adapts to changing conditions and assembles behaviors…

Examines the views of a representative sample of experts in physics, physics education, and history and philosophy of science (HPS) on the incorporation of HPS-based materials in physics instruction. Reports on three areas: (1) the rationale to include HPS; (2) the most appropriate ways of doing so; and (3) anticipated difficulties with such a new…

Introduces a web site designed to teach descriptive chemistry through testing. (YDS)

Discusses the design and teaching of an online undergraduate course and considers similarities and differences of learning and teaching in traditional and electronic environments. Highlights include instructional design; course assignments; student course evaluations; and the relationship between course curriculum and goals, pedagogy, and student…

The objective of this article is to examine the rhetoric of educational leadership within a Scandinavian context, as it occurs within the framework of New Public Management. The study asks questions about new demands on leadership expressed in policy documents. Local culture and distinctive aspects of national life tend to modify external…

This article focuses upon the developing professionalism and emergent thinking of 36 secondary trainee teachers, in terms of their motivation to teach, their early beliefs about teaching and the teaching-learning process and their views of themselves as trainee teachers. It analyses their perspectives on how they expect to learn to become teachers…

In this article, the author describes another teacher's unique approach to teaching science in one unusual second grade classroom. Immediately upon entering the classroom, the author was surrounded by an array of colors, shapes, and objects typically found in a forest. A multitude of puppets, stuffed animals, and live animals filled the classroom.…

It has long been a goal of science education in the United States that students leave school with a robust understanding of the nature of science. Decades of research show that this does not happen. Inquiry-based instruction is advocated as a means for developing such understanding, although there is scant direct evidence that it does. There is a…