The overall intent is to clarify relationships between psychological constructivist, sociocultural, and emergent perspectives by grounding them in attempts to understand what might be happening in a variety of teaching and learning situations. The first part of the paper outlines an interpretive framework developed in the course of a…

This book gives a definitive theoretical account of radical constructivism., a theory of knowing that provides a pragmatic approach to questions about reality, truth, language and human understanding. The chapter are: (1) "Growing up Constructivist: Languages and Thoughtful People," (2) "Unpopular Philosophical Ideas: A History in…

Arguments are presented for conceptualizing validity within a postmodern approach. Validity, reliability, and generalizability have been a holy trinity of social science research, and standard definitions of validity have been taken from criteria developed for psychometric tests. From a postmodern point of view, validity is sometimes discarded as…

There are the only two studies available on the types of solutions--unsaturated, saturated, supersaturated, dilute and concentrate--in the related literature with respect to students' understanding. But, no study focuses on remediation of students' alternative conceptions with regard to the aforementioned concepts, based on the assumption that…

This paper expands on a poster presentation about the results of research in PBL in distance education environments integrated in the PBL design model as defined by traditional literature. The results will be laid out as they are relevant to each stage of the process. Research on discrete aspects of its design process is necessary to enlighten…

When an adult outside the classroom learns history, it almost always begins with some connection or personal interest. The learning may be haphazard, but it will probably include movies, primary sources, trips to historical sites, and contacts with others with similar interests. The result is an understanding that is actively constructed, not just…

Environment-based education (EBE) focuses on the interdisciplinary integration of the subject by using constructivist, team teaching, self-learning, and student-centered instructional approaches. This report defines environment-based education and discusses advanced developments in learning skills and character education. Contents include: (1)…

This issues paper, the second in a series of eight, is intended to distill formative evaluation questions on topics that are central to the development of the higher and further education information environment in the United Kingdom. Issues Paper 1 introduced a framework for thinking about "good" learning. This paper complements Issues…

This dissertation depicts my paradigmatic shift from traditionalist approach to constructivist approach of teaching and learning of mathematics. I have used autoethnography as the genre of writing and research that connects the personal to the cultural placing the self within a social context (Reed-Danahay, 1997). Employing autoethnography, I have…

Educators are often hesitant to use techniques of public relations and marketing communication to attempt to alter undesirable understandings of the rationale and processes of education held by external constituencies. This paper shows that contemporary practice in public relations and marketing communication can be conceptualized as an…

This report contains conference papers on geometry teaching. There were five plenary talks given and a review of Hungarian geometry teaching. The plenary talks addressed background theories of the psychology of learning such as constructivism, perceptional psychology, and motivational psychology. The themes of the 21 short talks were on a varied…

Three groups of children aged 8-10 who scored below the 22nd percentile on the PATests were taught basic math skills for 16 hours. One group received individual instruction using Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction, the second group received group instruction using Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction, and the third group received group…

Quantitative aspects of biology play an important role in understanding biological phenomena; however, most students find mathematical tools difficult to understand and use. This paper offers a teaching approach to this problem and presents a research study investigating 9th grade students' learning achievement when a constructivist teaching…

This paper discusses the changes in instruction needed to make the transition to teaching an online course. It discusses both traditional and alternative teaching methods a first-time online instructor might choose to use. The advantages and disadvantages of online courses are explored through a review of the literature, and ways in which online…

Based on the work of theorists Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Feuerstein, Gardner, and Diamond, this paper presents the constructivist or brain compatible classroom as illustrated by descriptions of classroom activities of students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The paper explores how teachers, the "new architects of the intellect,"…