This report describes aspects of the professional engagement of American teachers and examines relationships between professional engagement and teaching practice, including instruction involving computer use. Professional engagement is measured by: the frequency that teachers had informal substantive communications with other teachers at their…

Recent theories of student learning have changed how education is viewed by educators and the public. One current concern is assessing the objectives of instruction. To be successful, state mandated standards must represent what students should achieve. Constructivism, a currently popular theory, stresses helping students do well in school and…

Without teacher change, a successful educational reform is either incidental or superficial. Therefore, it is very important to understand the nature of teacher change for science educators. Mezirow's transformation theory, a constructivist theory, provides a theoretical basis for both teacher learning and teacher change. This paper presents an…

The human and organizational infrastructure that is required to support the efficacious use of technology by teachers in the classroom was studied in three elementary schools in Alberta, Canada. The resulting impacts on engaged student learning were also studied, and the usefulness of Alberta's Galileo Educational Network Association initiative…

This study built on a 2001-02 classroom observation study of Washington K-12 and technical schools that identified the extent of constructivist teaching activity. Results from classroom observations found that strong constructivist teaching was observable in 17 percent of the classroom lessons. The other 83 percent of the lessons observed may have…

This book aims to show readers the results that can occur in secondary science classrooms when students' interest and curiosity about science are brought firmly to the center of the curriculum. In particular, the book demonstrates how girls can become more interested in learning science when such topics as pregnancy, childbirth, or sexism in…

The history of U.S. pedagogy involves episodes in which psychology and education have shared a common goal, specifically, to understand how children learn. Although the marriage between psychology and education has not always been a smooth one, in general, the effects produced by this union on education have been beneficial to children. Most…

This book highlights and discusses the contributions of Robert M. Gagne to the field of instructional technology. Section One presents the core concepts of Gagne's theory and contains reprints of the following five journal articles by Gagne: "Contributions of Learning to Human Development,""Learning Hierarchies,""Domains…

High stakes testing is a given in many public school districts in the United States. This paper reports the chilling effect high stakes testing had on the pedagogy of one teacher. The study took place in a large Midwestern urban district where a university consultant observed a fifth-grade classroom. This researcher was able to observe and…

This research reports on a constructivist approach that was used in a unit of work with a final year high school biology class. The aim of the intervention was to promote students' awareness and communication of the biological, social, and ethnical issues associated with cancer. Students were encouraged to use an inquiry approach. They were also…

During the 1998-99 academic year, five teacher education institutions participated in the first year of a study to determine the impact of teacher preparation programs on beginning teachers. This collaboration, known as the Teacher Research Network (TRN), met several times during the academic year and the following summer to investigate recent…

This book presents a case for the development of classrooms in which students are encouraged to construct deep understandings of important concepts. The book contains 3 parts with 10 chapters. Part 1, "The Call for Constructivism," includes (1) "Honoring the Learning Process," (2) "Considering the Possibilities," and (3) "Coming to Know One's…

Since the popularization of networked computing that began in 1993, many excited educators have employed networked computers to improve motivation and learning in the classroom. Computers have also become a focal point for the improvement of instruction through the introduction of teaching methods that better support constructivist learning. While…

This paper describes a study that took place within the context of the Science: Parents, Activities, and Literature (Science PALs) project. Particularly, the study sought to determine answers to the following questions: (1) What are the internal consistencies and substantive, external, and structural validities of students' perceptions, teachers'…

This study examined the relationship between teachers' beliefs and instructional practices and the mathematics achievement of their students. Data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) were used to examine whether behaviorist and constructivist teachers had different beliefs about student learning and whether teachers…