Three commonly used means of assessment of student achievement are discussed. First, standardized tests are often used to assess student achievement. These tests are developed by professional testing and measurement specialists who are completely removed from the local student and classroom. There are many objections to the use of standardized…

This paper describes the creation and evaluation of a World Wide Web-based courseware module, using conceptual models based on constructivism, that teaches novices how to use the Internet for searching. Questionnaires and interviews were used to understand the difficulties of a group of novices. The conceptual model of the experts for the task was…

This paper presents the background, procedure, and outcomes of a study of two Year 1 classrooms, one in Seattle, Washington, and the other in Sydney, Australia, that engaged in the constructivist learning experiences of a social studies unit titled "Families in Their Neighborhoods" (McGuire, 1997). The unit employed the…

This paper focuses on Michael, one of four seventh grade students who participated in a study involving a constructivist teaching experiment. In the study, manipulatives within a computer microworld were used to solve fractional reasoning tasks and tasks that involved concepts of rate, ratio, and proportionality. Pretest results are presented, and…

This paper examines how educators can use technology to guide the constructivist approach to science education, and discusses techniques explicitly applicable for today's Web format. The paper begins by addressing the following pertinent questions for education in this new era: What is Education? Where is the classroom? Where are the students?…

This paper identifies possible causes of the disjuncture between theory and practice in teacher preparation and recommends strategies for incorporating instructional technology, as defined by the Association for Educational Communication and Technology in 1994, and distance education into teacher preparation programs. Causes of the theory-practice…

The Carolina Coastal Science Web site is an instructional system defined as an arrangement of resources and procedures used to promote learning. This paper describes the blending of a systems approach to instructional design with additional constructivist elements in order to develop the Carolina Coastal Science Web site. The Web site is an online…

Research on group learning has focused almost exclusively on interactions among individuals within groups; there has been little research on phenomena occurring between groups of learners in classrooms. This exploratory study identifies, describes, and categorizes events occurring between members of different learning groups in three ninth-grade…

Many researchers recommend building community to promote K-12 school improvement, noting the importance of teachers experiencing community in teacher education. This paper examines the concept of a learning community in the context of teacher education. It describes a 2-year qualitative study of community in a master's degree program. The program…

This article describes constructivist techniques for teaching concepts of decimals and metrics through the combination of innovative measuring tools, activities and videos in classrooms. Even though the chronological age of the students involved differed--fifth and sixth graders or pre-service teachers--it was discovered that similar activities…

A method to facilitate collaborative learning in complex learning environments was developed and evaluated. Sixteen college students of educational science were given the CoStructure-Tool, a task-specific computer-based tool developed on the basis of concept mapping techniques to support the processes of knowledge construction in collaborative…

This report describes a program designed to enhance social studies skills and knowledge. The target areas for enhancement are geography skills and community understanding. The targeted population is a second grade class in a rural Midwestern setting. The need for strengthening these skills was documented by observation, checklists, surveys, and…

This qualitative study, investigating the claims, concerns, and issues arising within the design stages of problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum units, was conducted during two masters-level classes during the summer of 1999. A hermeneutic dialectic discourse among veteran teachers (who were novice PBL curriculum designers) was facilitated by…

This book presents a reconceptualization of critical thinking theory. Drawing on pragmatic, feminist, and postmodern philosophies, the book offers an overview of the history of critical thinking and identifies its major theorists. It critiques how critical thinking is conceptualized and applied in classrooms and offers a newly delineated platform…

The demise of the behaviorist paradigm and the rise of the social, cognitive, and interactionist models of second language acquisition (SLA) have led to the understanding that constructivist mechanisms are part of the process. Given the variety of empirical findings and understandings research in the field has yielded, this study attempts to offer…