This paper is a reflection on the way that a background in sociocultural theory and research actually saved my teaching career by allowing me to shift from being a dispenser of knowledge to a cultural neophyte attempting to understand where he is. Teaching then is understood as a reading exercise which is undertaken in a particular place which…

The Community of Inquiry Framework is based on the premise that online learning is a collaborative constructivist activity. However, not all courses are similarly oriented. In general, courses can be divided into constructivist and objectivist. In constructivist courses, learners develop solutions to problems through sustained discourse and…

Besides the ability of making learning more interesting, educators and researchers have been exploring other pedagogical potentials of computer games. How to employ games for constructivist learning and teaching has become an attention in the field of education and game design in recent years. This article gives an introduction to game-based…

This is a comparison of Instructivist and constructivist pedagogical approaches and their applications in different situations, which make clear the comparative advantages of both approaches. Instructivist learning, places the teacher in authority while the constructivist shifted authority to no one in particular but shared responsibilities…

This article traces the development of the constructivist theory of teaching and learning, overviews the research that links technology to constructivism and highlights some of the teaching and learning tools, systems and models that are successfully using technology to develop learners' thinking and understanding. Constructivist viewpoints…

The paper presents scientific literature analysis in the area of distance teaching/learning curriculum designing and quality assessment. The aim of the paper is to identify quality assessment dimensions of distance teaching/learning curriculum designing. The authors of the paper agree that quality assessment should be considered during the…

This paper draws attention to the literature in the areas of learning, specifically, constructivism, conceptual change and cognitive development. It emphasizes the contribution of such research to our understanding of the learning process. This literature provides guidelines for teachers, at all levels, in their attempt to have their students…

The learning cycle is a way to structure inquiry in school science and occurs in several sequential phases. A learning cycle moves children through a scientific investigation by having them first explore materials, then construct a concept, and finally apply or extend the concept to other situations. Why the learning cycle? Because it is a…

Raising student achievement is at the heart of school improvement efforts at North Central High School in Spokane, Washington. Because of the diversity of the student body at North Central, students do not all receive the same message from their families about taking a rigorous course of study that will give them options after graduation. The…

The purpose of this study was to rethink the conceptualization of pedagogical content knowledge based on our descriptive research findings and to show how this new conceptualization helps us to understand teachers as professionals. This study was a multiple case study grounded in a social constructivist framework. Data were collected from multiple…

In this article we argue that Kelly's construct psychology (Kelly 1955; 1966/2003) provides a useful framework for mentoring in the Higher Education sector in South Africa. Kelly's notion of constructive alternativism prompts practitioners to adopt a questioning attitude to life in HE; newly appointed academic staff members and their mentors have…

For many years, researchers have searched for the factors affecting the use of computers in the classroom. In studying the antecedents of educational computer use, many studies adopt a rather limited view because only technology-related variables, such as attitudes to computers and computer experience were taken into account. The present study…

Background: Constructivist epistemology offers an explanation of the nature of knowledge and how people learn that has emerged as a prominent approach endorsed by schools of teacher education. This perspective stands in direct contrast to the understanding of knowledge and learning based on behaviorist epistemology. These opposing epistemological…

The major purpose of this case study was to document the classroom management beliefs and practices of three teachers reputed to implement student-centered instruction and to examine the relationship between their instructional and managerial approaches. More specifically, do teachers who use student-centered instruction also implement…

The development and evaluation of science students' metacognition, learning processes and self-efficacy are important for improving science education. This paper reports on the development of an empirical self-report instrument for providing a measure of students' metacognition, self-efficacy and constructivist science learning processes. A review…