Describes an undergraduate course in applied shoreline management offered in three different formats: traditional lecture, half-lecture half-collaborative, and fully cooperative. Student evaluations significantly supported the fully cooperative format over the others. Discusses the reasons for this and includes examples of the questions used in…

Five classroom situations in Japanese elementary schools are described and interpreted from perspective of first four standards in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Curriculum and Evaluation Standards. Concludes that Japanese children do so well in mathematics because Japanese teachers embody essence of the standards in…

Describes an introductory environmental engineering course that used a semester-long design project, team exercises, field trips and imaginative demonstrations, active learning strategies, and extensive discussions of environmental engineering practice to improve student learning and interest. Students performed well and gave the course good…

Describes a fourth grade teacher's interdisciplinary efforts at imparting the joys of archaeology to her students. The students read fiction and non-fiction materials about the physical environments and participated in a series of hands-on learning activities. These involved simulated archaeological digs, personal artifacts, and realia. (MJP)

Discusses a study which examined whether the social skill of responding appropriately to teacher questions could be taught using repeated (daily) exposure to an interactive video-based modeled sequence, and whether the use of role-play would have additional positive effects on rates of appropriate responding. (AEF)

Defines and discusses a definition of critical thinking. Maintains that college students improve their learning effectiveness when they are engaged actively and invested personally. Describes student evaluation techniques used to enhance thinking skills. (CFR)

Use of active learning techniques in upper-division probability courses at the University of Minnesota is discussed. Techniques include cooperative, small-group learning, and essay-writing about technical topics. Emphasis is on student participation, interaction, and broadening of student perspective. Student response to the approach is also…

Examined the relationship between literacy development and sociocultural aspects. Identified some cognitive processes in biliteracy acquisition through categorizing children's work according to Piaget's active learner categories that show learners constructing knowledge for different purposes. Results suggest that these cognitive processes are…

Descriptions of students projects raising chickens and studying salmon illustrate how project-based learning engages high-risk Alaska Native students. Projects make learning relevant, involve the community, increase student self-esteem, and help students and teachers bond with each other. A 4-day workshop for teachers emphasized how projects must…

A software development collaboration project designed to maximize the skill sets and interests of school children and teachers, educational software technologists and researchers, and college undergraduates is presented. The work brings elementary school children with college seniors and technology consultants to implement a problem-solving…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional approach that has been used successfully for over 30 years and continues to gain acceptance in multiple disciplines. It is an instructional (and curricular) learner-centered approach that empowers learners to conduct research, integrate theory and practice, and apply knowledge and skills to develop…

Taking advantage of user-friendly technology, Audience Response Systems (ARS) facilitates greater interaction with participants engaged in a variety of group activities. Each participant has an input device that permits them to express a view in complete anonymity, and the composite view of the total group appears on a public screen. ARS can then…

In this paper, we discuss ways collaborative research groups can be used and what students appear to learn about social science reasoning and quantitative literacy from such groups. Data are from field observations, pre- and post-semester surveys in both collaborative and traditional courses, end of the semester student comments, and student work…

"Active learning" where students are required to do something in the classroom rather than simply listen to a lecture has been repeatedly shown to be superior to the lecture method in advancing student learning. The use of case studies in the classroom is one of the most successful active learning methods of teaching science, technology,…

The National Science Education Standards recommend that science be taught using inquiry-based approaches. Inspired by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, we examined whether undergraduate students could learn how to conduct field research by teaching elementary school children basic neuroscience concepts in interactive workshops. In an…