The purpose of this sourcebook is to provide elementary classroom teachers with meaningful ideas and activities for supplementing their science and language arts programs. Five general topics encompassing the earth, life, and physical science have been selected as units and further subdivided into chapters. Each chapter contains a multitude of…

When a constructivist professional development program was introduced to elementary teachers in a school district, some of the teachers who teach in self-contained classrooms (N=59) elected to participate in a yearlong professional development project. To explore the impact of professional development, a purposive sample of participating teachers…

The potential for the coherent integration of the cognitive and affective aspects of student development through a constructivist approach is discussed in this paper. Educators should be concerned with students' learning with regard to developing values and characteristics, especially respect and responsibility. The obstacles that hinder the…

This document tackles issues in science education through the perspective of classroom practitioners and the philosophy of constructivism to attempt to provide a reasonable, positive rationale and description of current science education reform. Case studies are presented to provide an account of the ways that some primary classrooms function and…

These proceedings contain 4 keynote addresses and 88 papers concerning the theme of the conference: Contexts in Mathematics Education. The four keynote addresses are: (1) "Contemplating Cultural Context" (Bill Barton); (2) "Conceptualising Cultural and Social Contexts in Mathematics Education" (Alan Bishop); (3)…

This paper reports on a qualitative study of children's discourse-reasoning about knowledge objects emerging when the classroom becomes a community of discourse. Its purpose was to analyze metacognitive reflections with respect to the steps of the argument. Within science education classes, a part of a wider ecological curriculum was implemented…

The purpose of this paper is to present a brief review of the various streams of constructivism in studies of education, society, science and technology. It is intended to present a number of answers to the question (what really is constructivism?) in the context of various disciplines from the humanities and the sciences (both natural and…

In order to develop an understanding of mentoring relationships and the impact these relationships might have on the development of high-risk adolescent females, this qualitative study explored the relationships between six "Little Sisters" and their Big Sisters mentors. The purposefully-selected sample included women and girls who were actively…

Content-based instruction (CBI) challenges English language educators to teach English using materials that learners encounter in their regular subject-area classes. This volume helps ESL and EFL teachers meet that challenge by providing them with creative ways to integrate English language learning with the content that students study at primary…

This study investigated the problem-solving competency of four secondary pre service teachers (PSTs) of University of London as they explored geometry problems in dynamic geometry environment (DGE) in 2004. A constructivist experiment was designed in which dynamic software Cabri-Geometre II (hereafter Cabri) was used as an interactive medium.…

This paper analyses and evaluates the use of an asynchronous online discussion list introduced to an established distance education print based course on recreational drug use and abuse. This discussion list was established in order to be able to meet a course objective of challenging assumptions and attitudes about drug use, which was difficult…

Teaching with Technology (TWT) is a multi-year development program for Idaho teachers, funded and developed by the J.A. and Kathryn Alberston Foundation. TWT is a complement to the Opportunity 1 initiative that made educational technology available to Idaho schools. TWT provides intensive summer training workshops and offers support to teachers…

This volume emphasizes decision-making which links all the other topics together. The book balances two major perspectives influencing teacher decision-making about instruction today: (1) findings from research on effective teaching; and (2) the ideas of constructivism. Unique to the book is the inclusion in each chapter of a scenario in which a…

Multimedia computer learning activities, when designed according to what is known about children's preferences, may help close the gender gap in attitudes about computer usage in schools. This paper includes: a brief overview of gender-gap research; a description of one response--the UCI (University of California Irvine) Computer Arts program,…

In this exploratory study, 135 pre-service teachers developed an instructional plan for a case study within the MIMIC (Multiple Intelligent Mentors Instructing Collaboratively) computer-based environment. Three-dimensional, animated pedagogical computer agents, representing constructivist and instructivist approaches to instructional planning,…