Asynchronous discussion allows students to read and respond "out-of-time." This form of online discussion, as experienced in a college literacy course, creates a text of talk that has the potential to be reflective given the freedom participants have in their response time. However, students often struggle with reflection. Instructors…

Many recent authors have examined the new role that Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) programs are playing in the rethinking of academic culture and discourse at contemporary universities. In this essay, the author argues that the WAC movement is centered on an understanding of knowledge as being intertextual, interdisciplinary, dialogical,…

Training faculty to add technology to courses should begin with a needs assessment. Design considerations should be incorporated into training to avoid student confusion in using web pages and completing on-line quizzes. Generally, web-enhanced courses can follow a constructivist approach if instructors have the prerequisite skills in place to use…

How do students' best learn in science? The traditional, teacher-centered view was that students, viewed as "empty vessels" waiting to be filled with new knowledge, "received" understanding by absorbing information supplied by teachers and found in written materials. Supplying information to students, without accounting for…

Mathematics, contrary to social sciences, is seen by many as value-free. Implications of different theories on teaching and learning applied to education including mathematics education opened doors to see mathematics in a way that it has its own values. Values can be categorized into three categories: general educational values, mathematical…

Today, our verbal-only paradigm of teaching is on its way out. Interactive multimedia instructions have enabled learners to go forward smiling. Learners are motivated and encouraged by the evolving interactive multimedia to learn cooperatively and above all to learn meaningfully. Integration of interactive multimedia and technology in our…

A web site for an online graduate course in Earth systems science for middle school teachers was designed to affect teachers' knowledge about Earth systems science and resources and their use of constructivist teaching practices, particularly collaboration, rubrics and the use of journals. In the 16-week course 44 teachers experienced…

Nathan entered third grade having already constructed a Generalized Number Sequence (GNS) for whole numbers that enabled him to coordinate sequences of multiples to find a common multiple of two whole numbers. Nathan was able to apply the operations of his GNS to his understanding of part-whole relations and his emerging use of fractional…

Within an elaborated social-constructivist perspective, I conducted a teaching experiment with two fourth graders to study how a teacher and students can jointly produce the content-specific reversible fraction conception. Ongoing and retrospective analysis of the data revealed the non-trivial process by which students can abstract multiplicative…

This research is the product of blending two pertinent questions. The first question is: "What are the guidelines and behaviors that define a Constructivist classroom?" There have not been a great number of pedagogical tools that discuss and summarize concrete, observable Constructivist behaviors. The second question is: "Is there a unique form of…

This monograph chronicles a field-based investigation of children's learning in a second grade mathematics classroom over the course of a school year. The interrelated aspects of the processes by which children learn mathematics with meaning are illustrated here. The investigation was expanded to include a sociological analysis in an attempt to…

This book is addressed to high school principals, teachers, curriculum specialists, counselors, and other educators interested in creating sound change at the building level. The theme of constructivism and constructivist thought pervades the text. Part 1 introduces the reader to constructivism and offers comparisons of a high school based on…

This study examined the influential factors toward conceptual changes in in-service teachers as they engaged in a summer professional development program. The program curricula attempted to challenge teachers over weaknesses in their pedagogical instruction, provide feasible teaching approaches, and cultivate their strengths and interests through…

This study investigated the use of Augusto Boal's model of participatory theater to analyze complex social issues within the context of teacher education coursework. Augusto Boal was the originator of the Theatre of the Oppressed. The study examined the multicultural realities of school and evaluated students' use of Boal to discover further…

The Iowa-Scope, Sequence, and Coordination (SS&C) Program assists schools with reform of their entire middle school programs, grades 6-8, and features the science, technology, and society (STS) instructional approach. This reform translates to the creation of new frameworks for the school program and aims to produce "constructivist"…