Instructional designers need to be able to understand and apply virtual reality to enrich learners' experiences. This paper examines the nature of virtual reality, how it applies to education, and rationales for using virtual reality in the classroom. The following instructional design guidelines for helping instructional designers to create a new…

This study qualitatively examines teacher intentions to utilize national standards as a resource for reform in their classrooms, schools, or districts. The topic is explored in light of recently adopted state guidelines called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) in science. The effect that state guidelines have on teachers'…

In the fall of 1996, the Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech initiated a joint project with the Montgomery County Public Schools in Virginia to determine how ready access to networked computing in the fifth grade would affect long-term student achievement. This project examines what can be achieved if technology access, support, and…

This collective case study focuses on three preservice teachers' ideas about culture and ethnicity and the influence of the two on students' science learning. The preservice teachers (N=3) had general ideas about culture but the concept of ethnicity was perplexing to them. Often the terms "culture" and "ethnicity" are equated by the students…

This document contains the full text of the following full and short papers on instructional design from ICCE/ICCAI 2000 (International Conference on Computers in Education/International Conference on Computer-Assisted Instruction): (1) "An Experiment of Situated Learning on College Students" (Fonchu Kuo and others); (2) "An Approach to Modeling…

This paper introduces the subjectivist teaching/learning paradigm (STP), which uses students' social and cultural enculturation processes to structure affect-laden constructivist learning experiences focused in the subject area being taught. STP uses powerful learning experiences to promote two goals: enculturation into the subject area and…

The knowledge teachers in an elementary school had of constructivist principles in the context of standards-based teaching and assessment was investigated and then addressed through a graduate-level course developed by the researcher. The knowledge level of the teachers was studied through interviews, classroom observations, and responses of 46…

The mission of an effective mentoring program for beginning teachers is critical to their successful professional development. In order to successfully prepare veteran teachers for the role of mentor to beginning teachers, a combination of cognitive coaching and Pathwise Performance Assessment (PPA) is suggested. Included in such a staff…

This book shows educators how to rethink teaching by challenging their beliefs about knowledge and learning. It helps teachers organize for student learning rather than plan for teacher telling by applying constructivist learning theory in the classroom. It presents a constructivist perspective on how to arrange classroom events for student…

An earlier study compared the communication styles of African Americans and European Americans (Banks, 2000). Its purpose was to contribute to that body of literature by addressing some of the limitations of the extant research (e.g., by controlling for variables and by grounding the research in the framework of a theoretical perspective). The…

This paper provides guidelines for creating REALs (Rich Environments for Active Learning) on the World Wide Web and demonstrates how those guidelines have been applied in a variety of Web-based learning environment contexts. The paper is organized according to the following attributes of student-centered REALs: (1) promote intentional learning by…

This paper presents an overview of World Wide Web-enabled databases that dynamically generate Web materials and focuses on the use of this technology to support collaboration, knowledge construction, and communication. Database applications have been used in classrooms to support learning activities for over a decade, but, although business and…

This paper presents a study investigating K-8 preservice teachers' attitudes towards science in a technology-based science content course. The study was conducted in a learning environment in which hands-on science, educational technology, collaboration, and constructivism were promoted. Results suggest that using technology in classroom teaching…

This study investigates the changes in junior high school (JHS) students' conceptions of the structure of matter as they study the subject of "materials" using a new curriculum in Science and Technology. The new instructional method is based on a student-centered constructivistic model and on a "spiral" approach to the learning…

This research examines the critical factors in a science/math methods course and its effect on the dispositions of preservice elementary education majors. In order to break the cyclical axiom that "teachers teach as they were taught," this study used a paired-t test design to indicate any significance. The preservice education majors indicated…