The researchers investigated the comparative effects of individually-constructed and collaboratively-constructed computer-based concept mapping on middle school science concept learning. One hundred and sixty one students completed the entire study. Using prior science performance scores to assure equivalence of student achievement across groups,…

The complexity of urban contexts is often subsumed into generalizations and deficit assumptions of urban communities and its members by those unfamiliar with urban culture. This is especially true for teachers seeking work in urban schools. This article addresses the complex interpretations of urban through the lens of a White male graduate…

Despite the ascendancy of constructivism, it seems that many, if not most, educationists in higher education and elsewhere still assume there is some transference of information to the learner from the social or physical environment, and that any process of interpretation and construction takes place after this basic information has been passively…

In this paper, we critically analyze how the concept of negative knowledge contributes to the understanding of professionals' expert practice and learning. Negative knowledge is experientially acquired knowledge about what is wrong and what is to be avoided during performance in a given work situation. In terms of its theoretical foundation, the…

Effective teacher beliefs about students are an integral part of effective teaching. Teachers with interventionist beliefs about students ("I can intervene to help a learner with difficulties") show more effective practice than teachers with pathognomonic beliefs ("I blame the learner for his difficulties"). A professional development (PD) course…

The purpose of this study is to investigate aspects of musical interpretation and suggest guidelines for developing performance students' interpretative processes. Since musical interpretation involves basic issues concerning the nature of music, and competing concepts of "interpretation" and its teaching, an overview of these issues is given.…

Using a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental control group design, a learning environment study was conducted to evaluate the environmental literacy of postsecondary, nonscience majors. Data were collected from 183 students taking an introductory environmental science class--a 41-question Environmental Literacy Instrument (ELI) prompted students…

This article reports on students' learning through conjecturing, by drawing on a semester-long teaching experiment with 6 sixth-grade students. It focuses on 1 of the students, Josh, who developed especially powerful ways of operating over the course of the teaching experiment. Through a fine-grained analysis of Josh's actions, this article…

In this study, statements by prospective primary school teachers such as "I think the word global warming ..." or "I think the term global warming means ..." were analyzed by using qualitative phenomenographic research methods. 142 female (48.3%) and 152 male (51.7%) primary school teacher candidates (n = 294) participated in…

Parker Palmer is correct in his claims that good teaching depends more on the capacity for connectedness than on technique and that helping teacher candidates cultivate a strong sense of personal identity is crucial. However, to what extent are Palmer's claims compatible with the various constructivist models of learning that are now prevalent in…

This article focuses on spontaneous knowledge-building in the field of "the arithmetic "of" the child." The aim is to investigate the conceptual progress of fifteen children during their early school years in the compulsory school. The study is based on the epistemology of radical constructivism and the methodology of…

While blogs, wikis and social networking sites are enjoying high levels of attention as tools to support learning, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) remains the "poor cousin" of these technologies in the higher education classroom, with relatively low uptake amongst educators and students. In this article, the authors argue that the affordances of…

Previous research has established a close link between students' conceptions of learning and approaches to learning. Until recently, only a few quantitative studies have investigated the relationship between high school students' conceptions of learning science and the approaches they adopt to learning science. This study sought to address this…

The research examined the effect of a teaching strategy emphasizing on instructional congruence on students' interests towards learning science. This study was conducted in three "low performing" secondary schools in Penang, Malaysia. There were 214 students involved in this study. A questionnaire was utilized to collect data on…

The purpose of this case study was to examine students' perceptions of their learning experiences while working on a real world instructional design project in a performance oriented team in the context of a situated and problem-based learning environment. Participants were 11 graduate students enrolled in a learning-by-doing instructional design…