Our article presents a pedagogical scenarios-based web application that allows the automatic generation and development of pedagogical websites. These pedagogical scenarios are represented in the IMS Learning Design standard. Our application is a web portal helping teachers to dynamically generate web course structures, to edit pedagogical content…

Like any other complex agenda of reform, the notion of teaching for understanding contains areas of uncertainty and ambiguity. This paper uses an hermeneutic research cycle to identify some uncertainties in understanding of teaching for understanding. These areas of uncertainty are discussed in relation to the literature and vignettes from three…

As a classroom teacher of art, the author questions the definitive ends that often accompany progressive enterprises in education. He questions the pressure he has experienced to reduce curricular possibilities and learning outcomes to the space of a single document. He argues that planning a learning outcome is "not" an architectural…

This article proposes a model that integrates the traditionally conflicting objectivist and constructivist approaches to instructional design. I argue that these two approaches are complementary rather than oppositional. I present and analyze two learning programs in order to show how learning events can contain both objectivist and constructivist…

This article describes a specific effort to create a multimedia training technology (A Child Protective Service Investigation Simulator or CPS Simulator) for a representative group of street-level public servants--child protective service (CPS) workers. The article first provides some background on why bias in this area is a significant problem,…

Wenger's theory of communities of practice (CoPs) helps explain how a group of Ph.D. students in the Department of Management Communication at the University of Waikato in New Zealand met a need for emotional and academic support and reduced isolation as they developed regular opportunities for face-to-face and virtual discussions on theory and…

In this article, the author discusses how iPods are being used in a variety of teacher-centered and student-centered ways. Since today's students are characterized as social, highly competent multitaskers, who expect immediate results and feedback and seek stimulation and interaction, iPod and podcasting are seen as tools for teaching such…

In this study our purpose is to determine how the teachers are applying the constructivist approach in their classes by classifying the teachers according to graduated faculty, department and their years in the duty. Besides understanding the difference of the effects of constructivist approach and traditional education method on student success…

The purpose of this paper is to describe how two women professors began and sustained a multi-year, collaborative research project. There has been little investigation into collaborative research in the academy, particularly about women working together. This paper is grounded in research collaboration over time and supported by related literature…

Background: Previous research on small-group learning has found that level of constructive activity (solving or explaining how to solve problems using ideas stated or implied in the explanation provided by a partner) was a better predictor of post-test achievement than either a student's prior achievement or the quality of help received (Webb,…

As the number of off-shore content-based courses presented by Western universities increases, the issue as to the suitability of elements of constructivist pedagogy arises. This paper reports on mainland Chinese student views of two different types of collaborative work conducted bilingually within a Master of Education program specializing in…

In this article, the authors use qualitative and quantitative research to identify the performance of social actors whose decisions impact students and teachers, elucidate a set of measurements for their performance, and offer both a theoretical and research justification for these measurements. The work challenges two faulty assumptions behind…

This narrative study examined teachers' perceptions of their inclusive classrooms. Eight early childhood teachers responded to open-ended interview questions about their experiences teaching children with and without disabilities in the same classroom environment. The social constructivist view of teaching and learning is highlighted as the…

In this study, with selecting the focusing point of the problem as the availability of cartoons, the teaching of global environmental problems according to the constructivist theory is investigated on the 7th graders in rural areas. This study is restricted with the global warming (G), ozone depletion (O) and the acid rain (A) problems. In the…

In many European heritage early childhood education communities cultural-historical theory has become increasingly influential for informing practice. Yet one of the major challenges facing the field has been the slow mobilisation of new theory into practice. This paper reports on a study of 40 early childhood pre-service students as they moved…