Evaluated a professional development project, Constructing and Networking for Multiage Learning, which gave teachers Internet access and support for more constructivist teaching. Found that teachers initially modified their teaching, but reverted to more traditional practices by the end of 3 years. Although most became successful technology users,…

This paper reports on the transition of the researcher's teaching from before and during an innovation in teaching practice, including 1 year of traditional teaching (1996) and 3 years of teaching based on a constructivist view of learning (1999-2001), in a university physics course in Taiwan. Learning outcomes for each year were evaluated by both…

In this paper I focus on the transition from everyday to scientific ways of reasoning, and on the intertwined roles of meaning-making dialogue and science content as they contribute to scientific literacy. I refer to views of science, and how scientific understanding is advanced dialogically, by Hurd (Science Education, 1998, 82, 402-416), Brown…

This study presents comparative case studies of preservice and first-year teachers' and expert teachers' conceptions of the concept of prior knowledge. Kelly's ("The Psychology of Personal Construct", New York: W. W. Norton, 1955) theory of personal constructs as discussed by Akerson, Flick, and Lederman ("Journal of Research in…

Constructively promoting the educational development of today's young tech savvy students and fostering the productive technological facility of tomorrow's youth requires harnessing new technological tools creatively. The MIT Teacher Education Program (TEP) focuses on the research and development of educational computer-based simulations and games…

The Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach enables the student to construct knowledge in his/her own way. Piaget, the founder of constructivism, saw the development of intelligence as a process involving the relationship between brain maturity and individual experience. The technology PBL (TPBL) approach confronts the student with a personal…

This paper explores high school students' and teachers' preferences towards constructivist Internet-based learning environments. The study proposes a framework, including two dimensions and five aspects, to illustrate the features of the Internet-based learning environments. Based upon this framework, the "Constructivist Internet-based…

Focuses on the Jigsaw elementary secondary classroom model developed for desegregated classrooms experiencing hostility and competition. Describes the use of two small group sets to facilitate learning for promoting cooperation, summarized in four steps. Explains the Reverse Jigsaw method developed for higher education courses and outlined in…

In our graduate programs in early childhood education, we model constructivist practice in the belief that teachers are better able to understand and implement constructivist principles having experienced them in their work. In this practice we attempt to be explicit about constructivist practice in our program and in elementary classrooms. As we…

This article looks into how masculinities are constructed in a mother tongue fifth grade reading classroom in Rio de Janeiro by focusing on the stories pupils tell one another in this context. The article follows a socio-constructionist view of discourse and social identities, such that stories are taken as resources used in the construction of…

In the last 30 years or so, science educators in the Western world have come to recognise the importance of the social and cultural context in which learning occurs (Cobern, 1993, 1994; Hodson, 1993; Leach & Scott, 2003) and have, through such movements as science, technology, society and the environment (Pedretti, 1997; Solomon, 1991; Solomon…

Distance learning has significantly changed over the years from a social, pedagogical, and technological perspective. The compatible bonding of telecommunications technologies and social constructivist learning principles premised a pedagogical ecology that has challenged traditional teaching practices, faculty and student roles, institutional…

This study focused on my use of first grade literacy cases to scaffold a diverse constructivist perspective in my literacy methods course for preservice teachers. The cases depicted my concurrent work in a local school with three underachieving readers, two having diverse backgrounds with respect to home languages and socioeconomic status. I…

Elementary education students enrolled in an experimental mathematics course participated in this study. The course is taught using a social constructivist approach and is designed to improve students' mathematical problem-solving ability and deepen their understanding of mathematics. The research question for the present study is as follows: In…

One critical learning theory that has survived is once again being acclaimed. Subject-scientific theory requires learners to be taken seriously. Their reasons and resistance need to be brought into the open. This requirement was too radical for schools since it does not allow a fixed syllabus. It has borne fruit, however, in continuing education.…