Male underachievement in language arts is a continuing problem. At the participating school for this study, girls in Grades 3-6 have continued to outscore boys by 8% to 24% in language arts. As a result, school administrators identified male students as a population that need to demonstrate growth in this subject to meet state expectations. This…

In the United States, learning history has traditionally been rooted in a transmission-oriented view of teaching and learning. From this perspective, teachers transfer their historical knowledge to their students. Alternatively, this dissertation positions itself within constructivist theories of teaching and learning, where learning is a process…

The purpose of this roundtable discussion was to explore factors that influence the design of the initial discussion prompts in course-based, online learning. The initial prompt is one of the first pieces of scaffolding necessary for the knowledge construction requisite in a constructivist learning environment. As a means of stimulating…

The Cycle of Inquiry (COI) is a tool for emergent curriculum planning and for professional development of early childhood teachers and teacher education students. The COI includes a sequence of five organizational forms connecting analysis of documentation data with intentional planning for long-term emergent inquiry inspired by the Reggio Emilia…

Basically everything associated with maximizing student engagement, achievement, optimal learning environment, learning zone, and the like can be attributed to the work of Lev Vygotsky (1978). A Russian psychologist and social constructivist, Vygotsky (1896-1934) proposed a concept so fundamental to the theory of motivation that it undergirds…

Despite the availability of Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) technology in a large number of Australian primary schools, many teachers focus only on technical issues as opposed to pedagogical engagement in an attempt to incorporate the technology. Previous research suggests that the technology is being used for sophisticated transmission-style…

This article makes the case for using critical pedagogical approaches to the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language (HL). Having different language tracks is not enough: As long as HL learners hold negative linguistic attitudes about their own language variety, they will be unable and unprepared to learn successfully. First, I define who HL…

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a teaching method (TLS (Teaching/Learning Sequence)) based on a social constructivist paradigm on students' conceptualisation of classification of food. Design/methodology/approach: The study compared the TLS model developed by the researcher based on the social constructivist paradigm…

The authors describe an Open Source approach to education. They define Open Source Education (OSE) as a teaching and learning framework where the use and presentation of information is non-hierarchical, malleable, and subject to the needs and contributions of students as they become "co-owners" of the course. The course transforms itself into an…

Adoption of technology for teaching and learning is not as significant as the adoption and use of software that is used as a pedagogical extension of a teacher's approach to classroom instruction. It is the dynamic and integrated use of software that extends the pedagogical role of the teacher beyond the traditional lecture and discussion format.…

The present study contributes to the constructivist research programme (RP) into learning science by comparing patterns in responses from two groups of learners--senior high school students and pre-service teachers--in the same educational context (Singapore), to a diagnostic instrument relating to the topic of ionisation energies. This topic is…

Interactive tabletops are gaining increased attention from CSCL researchers. This paper analyses the relation between this technology and teaching and learning processes. At a global level, one could argue that tabletops convey a socio-constructivist flavor: they support small teams that solve problems by exploring multiple solutions. The…

The arithmetic mean is a fundamental statistical concept. Unfortunately, social science students rarely develop an intuitive understanding of the mean and rely on the formula to describe or define it. According to constructivist pedagogy, educators that have access to a variety of conceptualizations of a particular concept are better equipped to…

The transformative potential of pupils' voices is well documented in past research by Pedder and McIntyre; and Cooper and McIntyre. In this qualitative research, I utilise a social constructivist framework by Vygotsky to ask pupils with dyslexia about the kinds of teacher strategies that they find helpful to their learning at secondary school in…

Incorporating nutrition topics in the primary school curricula should support the acquisition of nutrition knowledge in different ways and indirectly the development of healthy eating habits in children and teenagers. In Slovenia, nutrition education is part of all primary school education levels and may take the form of compulsory and/or elective…