Students enter teacher education programs with pre-existing beliefs about the teacher's role, what constitutes effective teaching, teacher planning, and knowledge structures. This case study examines the changes in one preservice science teacher's attitude and beliefs towards the teaching of creationism as a result of her personal inquiry. The…

This paper looks at the behaviorist phenomenon of microteaching through a neo-Vygotskian theoretical lens, employing a case study of two groups of prospective teachers being coached by a professor or clinical instructor. The paper attempts to broaden Vygotsky's notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) by conceptualizing the ZPD as a…

This report describes the first year of an ongoing intervention study and the learning of a group of teachers who are working together to make changes in the ways they teach mathematics. The document presents a vision of mathematics education based on research in cognitive psychology which indicates that learners construct knowledge rather than…

The secondary school level activities contained in this book use the subject of transportation to teach the basic concepts of physics and several areas of human biology. The material is organized into sections including curriculum design, activities, background readings, and resources. Activities focus on such topics as notions of motion stability…

This paper reports on a 2-year study of changes that occurred in one instructor's teaching of an introductory undergraduate course on teacher education across four semesters. The study includes the voice of the instructor and four other participant-investigators. The course underwent three important modifications: (1) adding a technology emphasis,…

This paper reports on a study at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis that examined how two-way audio/visual interactive learning (2WAVIL) technology can be used to help prepare students prior to a museum visit, hoping that this preparation may help students interact with exhibits in a more constructivist manner. The study focused on children's…

This article suggests that it is important to examine how constructivism-in-practice can flourish or flounder according to a variety of influences, noting the importance of outlining the challenges teachers face in understanding and implementing constructivism in classrooms. The article characterizes four major challenges faced by teachers in…

This paper reviews four decades of research on race and education in Great Britain and discusses the deficit theories of underachievement that serve as the structure of most of the studies. Focus is placed on black youth of Caribbean origin and how they perform in British schools. Consideration is also given to constructive frameworks from gender…

This document contains five papers from a symposium on advances in qualitative research in human resource development (HRD). "Case Study and Its Virtuoso Possibilities" (Verna J. Willis) asserts that the case study method is particularly well suited for research in HRD because its creative and investigative possibilities have not yet…

This paper describes a range of computer assisted learning software models--linear, unstructured, and ideal--and discusses issues such as control, interactivity, and ease-of-programming. It also introduces a "compromise model" used for a package currently under development at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which is intended to…

This action research study developed a framework for moving teachers toward an inquiry-based approach to teaching science, emphasizing elements, strategies, and supports necessary to encourage and sustain teachers' use of inquiry-based science instruction. The study involved a literature review, participant observation, focus group discussions,…

The Mass Media section of the proceedings of this conference of journalism historians contains the following 10 papers: "Broadcast News, Cable TV and the Telcos: A Historical Examination of the Rhetorical Forces Affecting the Electronic Distribution of Information to the American Television Public" (John E. Craft and Frances R. Matera);…

A powerful way of understanding something new is by analogy with something already known. An analogy is defined as a mapping from one structure, which is already known (the base or source), to another structure that is to be inferred or discovered (the target). The research community has given considerable attention to analogical reasoning in the…

These proceedings of the 1994 convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) contains 75 papers and 1 symposium. Topics addressed by the papers include teacher competency regarding instructional technology; electronic journals; constructivist design; adult education; instructional design; integration of…

This study introduces a "Technology Integration Model" for a learning environment utilizing constructivist learning principles and integrating new technologies namely computers and the Internet into pre-service teacher training programs. The technology integrated programs and learning environments may assist learners to gain experiences…