Highlights connections between recent findings in brain research and principles of Developmentally Appropriate Practices, discussing implications for early childhood education practice. Explores the similarities between brain research findings and a constructivist approach in which environments are designed to gain the learner's attention, foster…

Reviews two dimensions in which science and technology share fundamental similarities: (a) the production and transformation of representations; and (b) the action-oriented language that describes the two domains. Illustrates what and how students know and learn science during technological design activities. (Contains 66 references.) (Author/YDS)

Investigates the difficulties that teachers experience in Japan and the United States when they attempt to move to a more constructivist approach in their teaching. (Contains 14 references.) (YDS)

Spanish researchers compared the types of metaphors for teaching and learning generated by experienced and preservice teachers. Analysis of the metaphors indicated that few teachers conceived of teaching and learning as a social process. Behaviorist metaphors predominated among experienced teachers, while preservice teachers had a high number of…

Compares and contrasts two summer camps, Future Camp 97 based on assumptions consistent with constructionism, and Scientists Apprentice Camp 97 which is consistent with legitimate peripheral participation. Explores the nuances of learning environments based on different theoretical assumptions. (Contains 57 references.) (Author/YDS)

In her book, Other People's Children, Lisa Delpit (1996) described how popular progressive pedagogies of that time like Whole language, while claiming to represent the best learning of all students, did not in fact match the learning needs of the culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with whom she worked. She linked those pedagogies…

Technology is the key to improving student achievement, but without high-quality professional development, technology will never be successful in fulfilling that role. To create successful professional development, it is necessary to carefully plan programs and activities that model constructivism and take into consideration characteristics of…

This case study of an online graduate course determines the message characteristics of the instructor, volunteer teaching assistants, and students in online discussions, and proposes a mentoring, coaching, and facilitating model for online discussions. The researchers developed a coding system based on the literature of mentoring, coaching, and…

This article addresses the choice of the most appropriate procedure for the assessment of portfolios used in teacher and lecturer assessment. A characteristic of modern assessment modes, including portfolios, is that the information they provide is often qualitative and derived from different contexts. Unambiguous, objective rating of portfolios…

This paper explores the impact of John Dewey on the field of educational psychology. Dewey raised issues and ideas, such as the role of context and the reapproximation of knowledge, that would come to haunt education and psychology for the next century. And yet soon after the turn of the twentieth century, Dewey abandoned psychology and redefined…

The concepts of sky and visibility distance, as perceived by different learners, are investigated for the first time as a subject of a science education research. Mental models of students with regard to the subject were elicited. They were interpreted in terms of two-level hierarchy: schemes and facets-of-knowledge (defined in the paper). Our…

Teachers' failure to use the microcomputer-based laboratory (MBL) more widely may be a result of not recognizing its capacity to transform laboratory activities. This research aimed to increase understanding of how MBL activities designed to be consistent with a constructivist theory of learning support or constrain student construction of…

What is the nature of an adult student identity? Based in social constructivist theory, this study explored coconstructed understandings of culturally and socially mediated student identities through a select group of adult undergraduates in intergenerational community college classroom contexts. Key findings elaborated the coconstruction of two…

This article describes how children build increasingly abstract knowledge of linear measurement, emphasizing ways they relate space and number. Assessments indicate children struggle to understand measurement, especially concepts related to complex paths as in perimeter tasks. This article draws on developmental accounts of children's knowledge of…

Peter Webster believes that a study of the history of music teaching and learning in North America will likely reveal very few examples of extended and well-argued professional discourse. By "discourse" he means a continuous expression or exchange of ideas designed to present contrasting views on important issues in the music teaching…