Innovation Education (IE) is a new subject area in Icelandic schools. The aim of the subject is to train students to identify the needs and problems in their environment and to develop solutions: a process of ideation. This activity has been classroom based but now a Virtual Reality Learning Environment technology (VRLE) has been designed to…

Teacher educators are often challenged to demonstrate the same kinds of constructivist educational practices in their own teaching they so often recommend for public school educators. We report here on our efforts to reconstruct our university teaching practice through experiments with artmaking as a pedagogical strategy. Two case illustrations…

"Models of Teaching: Connecting Student Learning with Standards" features classic and contemporary models of teaching appropriate to elementary and secondary settings. Authors Jeanine M. Dell'Olio and Tony Donk use detailed case studies to discuss 10 models of teaching and demonstrate how the models can incorporate state content standards and…

This article discusses a project established at the New Vic Borderlines by Sue Moffat in 1999 titled "Making Amends." It is an example of interventionist theatre undertaken with young offenders. The article draws on theories of restorative justice as well as ideas of learning development found in social constructivism in order to…

Many universities with a strong research tradition have courses or modules examining the tradition's philosophies and methodologies to prepare their students to undertake research programmes. Recently, however, authors have called for wider debate concerning how these courses are taught and this paper aims to make a contribution to this debate.…

In this study, the effectiveness of concept cartoons in diagnosing and overcoming students' misconceptions related to photosynthesis subject was examined. Firstly, the literature has been thoroughly examined and misconceptions about photosynthesis subject have been listed and then grouped. Concept cartoons related to these groups have been…

Exemplary technology-using teachers achieve meaningful technology use in learner-centered, constructive environments despite the presence of both internal and external barriers. In this study, we discuss factors that enabled teachers to overcome these barriers, as identified by 25 winners of statewide technology teacher awards. In addition, we…

The aim of this article is to reflect on and explore questions of truth and objectivity in the sociology of educational knowledge. It begins by reviewing the problems raised by the social constructivist approaches to knowledge associated with the "new sociology of education" of the I970s. It suggests that they have significant parallels…

The author discusses a line of research examining the acquisition, organization, and use of knowledge associated with conceptual change in which she is engaged at the University of Maryland. It builds on foundational research by scholars in science, mathematics, and reading education as well as in motor learning and physical education pedagogy,…

This paper presents an empirical study of the social situations of first year Chinese students in one UK University. The study used in-depth interviews and constructivist grounded theory to investigate the social situations of 19 foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate students in 2004-05. This exploratory approach was informed by Siu's…

In this study of peer instructors in three Learning in Retirement Programs, the constructivist elements embedded in Mezirow's theory of transformational learning are examined at the theoretical intersections of transformational learning and developmental constructivism, specifically the work of Robert Kegan, resulting in a suggested developmental…

This study extrapolated from Liberman's (2004) calibration model and Kimball and Metcalfe's (2003) conceptualization in order to evaluate students' judgment of learning (JOL) of material presented in either an expository or a constructivist format. The purpose of this study was to determine if students have differing degrees of JOL based on the…

It is difficult for teacher candidates (university preservice teachers) to accept and use an innovative teaching method or strategy if they do not have an opportunity to actually engage in using the method or see it modeled in an early childhood classroom. Teacher candidates used Project Approach to learn about multicultural education. Their own…

This study investigates the impact of Social Foundations class on the beliefs of elementary and secondary education majors. Over the course of 3 years, 99 students responded to pre-and postsurveys, using a 5-point Likert-type scale to express their level of agreement to 12 statements about instruction, learning, management, teacher training, and…

In this qualitative study, that took place in a coeducational government school in Western Australia, I adopt a social-constructivist perspective of learning (Rogoff, 1990; Vygotsky, 1986) to examine reading in an elementary classroom. The focus of this article is Nicholas, a grade-7 boy, who was identified as challenged by the literacy…