This pilot study documents the design and evaluation results of an innovative teaching approach with the use of ICT regarding the optics concepts of light reflection and diffusion, and vision in Greek primary school. First there was a survey of 140 students to ascertain their initial ideas regarding these concepts. On the basis of the results of…

The purpose of this study was to reconstruct writers' reasoning process as reflected in their written texts. The codes resulting from the text analysis were related to cognitive operations, ranging from simple to more sophisticated ones. The sequence of the cognitive operations as the text unfolded represents the writer's cognitive pathway at the…

This project was designed to address gender issues in mathematics education. The author's findings led her to conclude that students construct their own understanding and knowledge as a result of activities in the classroom. Constructivism, a theory of knowledge based on the idea that people construct their own realities by interacting with the…

Everyone who teaches deliberates about how to support students' constructivist processes and encounters the recurring question: "How can I maximize opportunities for learning and growth?" Portfolios provide a complex, multidimensional, and dynamic framework for assessment of professional development and support development of metacognitive…

This book describes and develops an innovative program of teaching arithmetic in the early elementary grades. The educational strategies employed are based on Jean Piaget's constructivist scientific ideas of how children develop logico-mathematical thinking. The book is written in collaboration with a classroom teacher and premised on the…

In science education there is a general agreement that instruction should be sensitive to students' everyday science knowledge. This paper reports on a study investigating the effectiveness of the Multiple Resonance Reflection Tool (MRRT) which is an aid for teachers that reflects students' everyday science knowledge. Two main focus points of the…

The actions of the mathematics teacher are bound up in ethical decisions that impact the learner and teacher, both within and external to the formal school curriculum. This paper argues that the principles of a radical constructivist theory of knowing underlie a model for an ethics of liberation. A learner's active construction of their…

One constructivist approach to assessing student learning is the use of portfolios. The contents of a portfolio demonstrate what a student knows and can do. The portfolio indicates actual products and processes a student has developed, as exemplified in the description of the contents of a student portfolio in a teaching methods course. Portfolios…

This research was designed to describe a constructivist science teacher education program and to investigate how students in the program experienced a constructivist learning environment. Nineteen students enrolled in a four-term program for prospective secondary science teachers participated in this one-year study. A rich description of the…

This document presents the proceedings of five seminars and a symposium focusing on qualitative research. These events took place at the University of Northern Colorado during the 1998-99 academic year. The seminar series considered current and emerging qualitative research paradigms. The symposium, held after the series of seminars, concentrated…

Integration of the cognitive psychology and sociocultural constructivist perspectives yields a more comprehensive account of adult thinking and acting. This synthesis is based on a view of individual knowledge acquisition as a socially mediated process and on ontogeny or life-history approach. (SK)

Uses components of Habermas' life-world concept to identify the processes through which communities of practice create intellectual capital as members co-construct knowledge. Concludes that organizations should find ways to enhance communicative collaboration in order to develop intellectual capital. (Contains 30 references.) (SK)

Distinguishes between two traditions--conceptual change theory and radical constructivism--based on ontology, epistemological commitments, view of learners, and authority of received ideas. Uses conceptual change theory as a foil to raise questions about the philosophical merits of radical constructivism. Contains 81 references. (Author/JRH)

Examines the process that one instructor of undergraduate introductory science underwent when she attempted to execute constructivist teaching into practice. Three critical variables were identified that affected the implementation process: (1) the university context; (2) the instructor's emotional response; and (3) the mentoring relationship.…

Four theoretical streams--contexualism/ecology, systems theory, realism/constructivism, and chaos theory--contributed to a theory of individuals as complex, unique, nonlinear, adaptive chaotic and open systems. Individuals use purposive action to construct careers but can make maladaptive and inappropriate choices. (Contains 42 references.) (SK)