The Learning Objectives Questionnaire was completed by 287 of 600 distance education students. The majority perceived learning objectives to be useful and an integral part of learning strategy. A need to integrate student dispositions with the current shift toward constructivist learning was identified. (SK)

Considers the goal of creating communities of learners and how to integrate technology with learning. Highlights include cognitive apprenticeships; qualities of meaningful learning, including constructivism and collaboration; assumptions about technology, including knowledge construction; proper roles for technology; and how to support meaningful…

This study, based on a socio-constructivist approach, seeks to help children to develop the cognitive processes of decentration and anticipation. Analysis focuses on observation of children's behavior while playing ball in a group and then on the graphic representation of the actions drawn by the children after each play session. (Author/JKP)

Analyzed metaphors used by science teachers in their classroom discourse and their influence on the image of science constructed by students. The use of role-determining objectivist metaphors signifies teachers' pedagogies being governed by an objectivist epistemology. Teachers need to reflect critically on their use of metaphors to develop a…

Presents a fictional account of a science teacher and her use of constructivism as a referent for her various roles. Describes how she came to teach in this manner, her involvement in staff development activities, and an evolution in her thinking from an objectivist to a constructivist system of semantics. Presents implications for the reform of…

Presents a model of expert reasoning practices that focuses on constructive modeling, a tacit dimension of the thinking practices of expert physicists. Draws on historical cases and protocol accounts of expert reasoning in scientific problem solving and argues that having expertise in physics requires facility with the practice of constructive…

Discusses how the constructivist approach to learning can aid in helping students to experience more meaningful learning. Discusses cooperative group learning and the concept of constructivism; constructivist teaching formats; and whether the constructivist approach works. (ZWH)

Discusses the development of an Enriched Learning and Information Environment (ELIE). Highlights include technology-based and theory-based frameworks for defining ELIEs; a socio-technical definition; a conceptual prototype; a participatory design process, including iterative design through rapid prototyping; and design issues for technology…

Postformal thinking concerns questions of meaning and purpose, multiple perspectives, human dignity, freedom, and social responsibility. Curriculum and instruction based on postformalism involves detecting problems, uncovering hidden assumptions, seeing relationships, deconstructing, connecting logic and emotion, and attending to context. (SK)

Discusses two dichotomies in the philosophy of mathematics: the prescriptive-descriptive distinction, and the process-product distinction. Introduces the social-constructivist view that can affect the aims, content, teaching approaches, implicit values, assessment of the mathematics curriculum, and the beliefs and practices of mathematics…

Presents created letters and responses from a character representing an authority to develop ways of teaching what constructivism is and ways to address the obstacles that teachers might face in adapting a mathematics reform and constructivist approach in the classroom. Contains 16 references. (ASK)

Recommends a constructivist approach to reading instruction. Argues that (1) ownership is the overarching goal of the curriculum; (2) constructivist approaches improve word identification and higher-level thinking; (3) phonics instruction should be properly timed; (4) writing makes a significant contribution to children's learning of phonics; and…

Describes Internet-based nursing-education courses offered by the University of Kansas, which are based on learner-centered, constructivist principles; flexibility; and methods to overcome temporal and physical barriers. (SK)

Presents four examples of students engaged in self-directed building projects. Uses the enactivist ideas of enaction, coemergence, mutual specification, and adequate conduct to describe and interpret the four cases. Describes the ways in which personally significant meanings and personal competency emerge within the context of self-directed…

Reports on the evaluation of the effect of the University of Iowa's program on the development of teachers' constructivist philosophies by participating Korean inservice high school science teachers (n= 70). Concludes that the effect of the workshop was significant and that learning was retained. Contains 11 references. (Author/ASK)