Explores the inadvertently harmful effects of questioning and brain-storming but goes on to argue that these techniques can enhance pupil autonomy and motivation if properly used when such intentions are made clear. Includes some classroom management suggestions to facilitate the constructivist teaching approach and counteract the prevalence of…

Summarizes the role of analogies in moving science forward and discusses the usefulness of generating analogies in the science learning process. (Author/YDS)

Discusses and illustrates the value of using a constructivist bridge-building activity (literally, a bridge-building activity) to help teachers make the transition to constructivist classrooms. Discusses assessment within a constructivist framework. Notes that 90% of teacher participants in the bridge-building activity successfully created a true…

Provides a detailed description of the incorporation of constructivist, active, cooperative teaching strategies in a chemistry class. (EV)

The Measure of Epistemological Reflection was revised to reflect a constructivist view of epistemological development that emerged from a longitudinal study of young adults' development. This article includes a description of the new constructivist interpretation process, how it is used, and criteria upon which to judge its value. (Contains 44…

Replies to commentary regarding authors' earlier article proposing a modified constructivist account of origins of mental representation. Elaborates on Smith's discussion contrasting empiricist and constructivist approaches. Discusses Smith's restatement of Piaget's position in terms of levels of representational capacities and replies to specific…

Discusses educational technology as a form of technical rationality and considers the conflict between practitioners' epistemological position as constructivists and technical rationality. Topics include cybernetics; autonomous systems theory; enactive constructivism; representation versus effective action; mind and memory; enaction in artificial…

Suggests that radical constructivists draw on a weak image of the role of social life. Argues that a thick notion of "social" leads to a complexity of sociocultural theories concerning the teaching and learning of mathematics, a perspective that is firmly located in the debates surrounding cultural theory over the last two decades.…

Classification of concept maps made in British science classes resulted in three patterns that indicate students' progressive levels of understanding. The classification method analyzes hierarchy, processes, complexity, conceptual development, and representation. It suggests teaching approaches based on students' existing concept structures. (SK)

Reviews evidence from more than 40 studies that multimedia learning environments can promote constructivist learning that enables problem-solving transfer. Explores the problem of how multimedia instructional messages can be designed to promote problem-solving transfer. (SLD)

Suggests that interactive group communication technologies, like computer conferencing, de-industrializes the distance education process and hence increases costs. Discusses constructivism, computer mediated communication, programs at Athabasca University (Canada), and implications for distance and campus-based universities. (Author/LRW)

When required to interpret works of art, students arrive at a broad-based, well-grounded understanding of the nature, value, and meaning of art in their lives. Teachers should offer art works, like those of Amalia Mesa-Bains, Joseph Stella, and Beverly Buchanan, whose narratives are complex and challenging, but not conceptually dense or…

Providing opportunities for students to generate their own curriculum requires courage. Student interests are unpredictable. Teachers should garner support, start small, use library resources, eschew curriculum guides, develop assessment tools, allow for noise, schedule record keeping, allow a routine to emerge, be learners, communicate…

Considers the idea of "intentional knowledge" and the difference in nature between "knowledge" as a construct of society, and 'knowing' as construct of an individual. Discusses how the theory of didactical situations differs from other constructivist theories with regard to the notion of "intentional knowledge." Uses two cases to illustrate the…

Children's informal and invented mathematics contains on an implicit level many of the mathematical ideas that teachers want to promote on a formal and explicit level. Elaborates on how teachers can use these ideas as a foundation on which to construct a significant portion of classroom pedagogy. (Contains 31 references.) (Author/ASK)