This article analyses the nature of learning in three long-term professional development approaches from different disciplines--teacher research as used in educational contexts, action learning as used in business contexts, and problem-based learning as used in medical contexts. The lens used for analysis focuses on three dimensions or influences…

Peer mentoring has been used for many years by the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine to integrate new students into the academic and social culture of the institution. In 2001, an unusual situation arose. A problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum was introduced and the first cohort in this programme was mentored by senior traditional curriculum…

Cross-cultural skills are a major criterion for success in the global business environment. For students pursuing careers in international business, this means learning to manage cultural difference on three levels: self, interpersonal, and organizational. This paper describes five related and synergistic exercises that give college students…

Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) integrates inquiry, problem- and project-based learning, cooperative learning, and authentic assessment. Case studies were carried out on 21 teachers who used CTL to teach science in elementary schools to diverse groups of children. The findings indicated that the conditions that fostered the implementation…

This study aimed to investigate children's performance and perception of problem difficulty in solving everyday mathematical problems with familiar versus unfamiliar contexts. In addition, the ways that children identify the similarities in problem-solving approaches between problem settings and everyday shopping were also examined. Forty-eight…

Well-designed problems are crucial for the success of problem-based learning (PBL). Previous discussions about designing problems for PBL have been rather general and inadequate in guiding educators and practitioners to design effective PBL problems. This paper introduces the 3C3R PBL problem design model as a conceptual framework for…

This article describes a project that will make a positive impact in today's special education classroom. Teachers will learn how to use Problem Based Learning (PBL) units as a tool to empower students with special needs to become more confident, independent, successful students. It will also shatter the stereotype that students with special needs…

Irrational prescribing originates in undergraduate therapeutics education, where prescribing skills have been overlooked. P-drug, a rational prescribing approach, has been developed in response to poor prescribing. In 2004, the first cohort of PBL final year students at Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine reported feeling unprepared to prescribe…

The use of educational technologies in teaching and learning presents pedagogical concerns and challenges to educators. Combining multimedia technologies with the Web has created new possibilities for the development of instructional materials to deliver course content. However, this use of technology continues to represent traditional conceptions…

The results of a college collaborative learning curriculum in Taiwan indicated satisfaction with the collaborative project resulting from familiarity with group members. Students asked more questions and they expressed more in class. The behaviors of feeling respected by group members, learning about self-expression and diverse opinions, as well…

This self-study was designed to explore problem-based learning (PBL) as an instructional approach in the context of a pre-service science education methods course. Through the development and implementation of PBL curriculum, the author's goals were to improve her classroom practice and her understanding of that practice, to contribute to the…

Contrary to conventional expectations, the reality of computing education in Taiwan's vocational schools is not so practically oriented, and thus reveals much room for improvement. In this context, we conducted a quasi-experiment to examine the effects of applying web-based problem-based learning (PBL), web-based self-regulated learning (SRL), and…

The purpose of this study was to better understand cognitive strategies used by high school technology education students who have participated in technology education instruction with an engineering design focus. Specifically, this study evaluated the cognitive strategies of students participating in "Project Lead the Way" curriculum…

A consistent lesson from the literature on school change is that no single method exists for improving schools. In that spirit, this book presents a collection of short articles that address a wide sampling of ideas and trends in educational change. All the articles were originally published in "Education Update," the official member…

A discussion of the teaching and learning of English for special purposes focuses on the interrelationship of content and language, particularly in the case of education for the legal professions. It is noted that law students must both study a large corpus of case and statute law and legal principles and learn the language of the law, with its…