Quantitative and qualitative analyses of 37 first-graders' solutions to addition problems were conducted to re-examine inconsistencies in children's progress from counting-all to counting-on. The authors applied the constructivist's participatory-anticipatory stage distinction as a tool for fine-grained assessment. Among solutions given by…

The reported exploratory study consisted primarily of classroom visits, videotaped sessions, and post-treatment interviews whereby second graders (n = 12) worked on problems in planar geometry, individually and in triads, using physical and virtual manipulatives. The goal of the study was to: 1) characterize the nature of geometric thinking found…

Second language study in French universities includes both modern language (literary) and foreign language (communicative) approaches, although teaching is dominated by the literary strand. Traditional educational models based on the transmission of knowledge are unable to accommodate recent progress in our understanding of learning theory, which…

The NorthBay Adventure Center offers five-day residential programs that meld environmental and character education using experiential techniques and multi-media messaging. This article explores the influences of these programs on urban and non-urban middle-school participants in three areas: character development and leadership; environmental…

This paper includes constructivist pedagogy and constructivist learning and their definitions and principles. Regarding the evaluation in the constructivist approach, self evaluation and portfolio assessment are emphasized. Integration of the principles of constructivist learning and portfolio assessment is attempted.

In this article I outline a co-regulation model of identity that is based on an emergent interaction perspective derived from Vygotskian theory. I use this model to suggest the role of motivation in identity development. The co-regulation approach is one of many modern attempts (e.g., social cognitive, social constructivist, sociocultural) to…

"Why would a deer print be in the city?" wondered a student. She had noticed the track near a grocery store that morning with her mother. She was familiar with deer and had noticed their prints on a trip to a local museum; however, she had never seen a deer in the city before this experience. As she retold the story to her classmates, her question…

We advocate for problem-based learning (PBL) as a rhetorical pedagogy for business communication. Briefly put, classic PBL inverts the typical instructional sequence; rather than presenting concepts first and then asking students to apply them, PBL creates situations in which students must learn the concepts in order to solve a "problem"…

Rehearsal engagement is an important concept sometimes neglected by conductors. For students, to be engaged means that they are actively involved with the music during the rehearsal. Even if the director leads a perfect rehearsal, he or she has not necessarily engaged students in a meaningful musical experience. This may be because conductors…

Stonington High School in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, adopted an alternating day (A/B) block schedule in 1998. The shift in schedule has resulted in less movement throughout the building and fewer instances of disruptive behaviors. In addition, the initiatives that Stonington has been able to implement have caused the daily attendance rate to increase…

Grounded in social construction theory, the current study investigates the learning context when studying financial planning in high school by analyzing the nesting of student, teacher and classroom characteristics. Key findings were that three student characteristics (initial financial knowledge, gender, senior grade level), one teacher variable…

The flow of international students to study in Australia increases each year. It is a challenge for students to study abroad in a different sociocultural environment, especially for postgraduate research students, as they experience numerous difficulties in an unfamiliar and vastly different study environment. A study aimed to investigate the…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group study was to test theories of constructivism and motivation, along with research-based teaching practices of differentiating instruction and instructing within a child's Zone of Proximal Development, in measuring the effect of computer-aided instruction on fifth grade students'…

Information literacy--the ability "to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information" (American Library Association [ALA], 1989, para. 3)--has been widely and increasingly cited as an essential competency for college success, for the workplace, and for life…

The purpose of this multicase study was to explore with five students perceptions of their learning experiences and challenges faced while enrolled in a dental assisting course that is integrated with reading. The study was rooted in a constructivist framework both as a research paradigm and as a theoretical perspective regarding adult learning.…