Presents a teacher's experiences with teaching fractions by employing the constructivist approach. Concludes that children will go much further with depth, pleasure, and confidence if they are allowed to construct their own mathematics to make sense to them every step of the way. (ASK)

Discusses what the multiage classroom environment is and what the curriculum and inquiry schedule look like. Describes one school's integrated curriculum, constructivist process, and use of language arts as a tool. Describes scheduling days that tend to consist of literacy workshop, centers, math workshop, and hands-on project time. Discusses…

Describes a study on the extent to which different children hold animistic notions and the meaning of those notions. Explores the idea of preservice science teachers as researchers. (DDR)

Argues that teachers are challenged to understand how constructivism can serve as a referent for teaching. Discusses one approach that provides opportunities for teachers to practice innovative strategies while engaging in discourse about the process. Contains 25 references. (DDR)

Presents a study that uses a quasi-ethnographic methodology employing impressionistic tales of the field to explore constraints and successes encountered by teachers while implementing innovative teaching approaches in middle school classrooms. A new middle school structure blended elementary and secondary school cultures. Presents three tales…

Surveys of teacher educators in 24 teacher education programs nationwide examined their use of teaching portfolios with preservice teachers. The educators provided documents, assignments, and guidelines used in connection with portfolios. Results showed that they recognized the positive impact, but not the full value, of portfolios. Portfolio use…

Defines computer conferencing as teaching that involves students performing their learning activities in shared (networked) computer workplaces. Asserts that lecturing does not ensure learning, nor is it effective in showing students how to learn independently. Presents computer conferencing as a practical way to merge instructivism and…

Presents an attempt to improve teaching and learning strategies for science as addressed by prospective teachers. Discovers that prospective teachers share a number of misconceptions with students. Contains 19 references. (DDR)

Analyzes talk among students on videotaped recordings from a teaching sequence on the particle model. Emphasizes the role of two types of discourse and epistemological and ontological obstacles in the construction of scientific meanings in the classroom. Contains 41 references. (DDR)

Describes online mentoring, or "telementoring" relationships, and how they differ from traditional mentoring, apprenticeship, and tutoring. Discusses the design and use of a telementored curriculum unit in middle school science and provides a set of general guidelines to aid teachers and administrators in designing and carrying out their own…

This case study describes how a high school language arts teacher in a poor border community in southern New Mexico combined technology-based teaching strategies with multicultural elements to ensure learning and equitable access to technology for her minority students. Discusses bilingual and bicultural students, constructivist classrooms, and…

Explores the central pragmatist and feminist philosophical assumption that knowers cannot be separated from what is known, that there is a dialectical relationship between social beings and ideas. Argues for embracing pluralistic and democratic commitments on epistemological and moral grounds. (KS)

This article describes the Cognitive Strategy in Writing program (originally intended for elementary-age students), and adaptation and application of the social constructivist approach with seven junior high and high school students with learning disabilities. Pretest-posttest assessment indicated dramatic improvements in overall quality and…

Examines constructivism in online learning, suggesting that part of the cause of the gap that exists between educational theorists and science instructors about how subjects can be taught appears to be due to different beliefs about what it is possible to learn. Illustrates a scientist's approach through examples of an online course designed by…

Assesses the potential of multimedia authoring as a learning tool using the software ASTOUND. Investigates the knowledge acquisition caused by a multimedia program among 32 grade 12 students on a multi-disciplinary environmental unit about earthquakes. Provides basic background about earthquakes via laboratory experiments and field trips to…