The nation's recent preoccupation with reshaping academics and raising academic performance has all but overpowered a task of vital importance--educating our young people to become engaged citizens of their communities. Traditionally, students are taught citizenship skills in either a civics education class or through citizenship courses in the…

This article will review educational literature relevant to the design and implementation of a learning technology interface (LTI) into an undergraduate music technology curriculum. It also explores through empirical enquiry some of the advantages and disadvantages of using learning technology. This case study adopted a social-constructivist…

Informed by an amalgam of notions drawn from constructivist, socio-cultural, metacognitive and self-regulation theory, the discourse created to describe assessment to enhance learning has gone through a number of iterations or discursive shifts. As a result, the current discourse is both ambitious and complex with the roles and responsibilities…

This study investigated the journey of four Thai pre-service chemistry teachers as they sought to develop their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) throughout a PCK-based chemistry methods course and field experience. In an interpretive case study approach we drew upon classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, chemistry content knowledge…

Variations in group co-construction of knowledge and the extent to which participants engaged in negotiating meaning were directly related to instruction. The authors examined social interaction resulting from controlled variation in instruction using a counter-balanced design in two professional development courses for teachers. Both courses were…

This book illustrates the breadth of theoretical and philosophical perspectives that can be brought to bear on mathematics and education. Part 1, "Constructivism and the Learning of Mathematics," contains the following chapters: (1) "A Radical Constructivist View of Basic Mathematical Concepts" (E. von Glasersfeld); (2) "Interaction and Children's…

The persistence of the constructivist agenda within learning and developmental theory suggests that underneath the seemingly disparate views of Piagetian, socioculturalist, and ecological perspectives lie some unifying concepts that find their mutual expression in constructivism. The paper contends that semiotics provides the conceptual means to…

This document discusses an introductory biology course that uses constructivist principles. Students observed phenomena and were engaged in activities before studying the content to ensure that the laboratory sections of the course were more than "look and see" or confirmatory experiments. The student handout is provided. (YDS)

At the heart of the debate over validity in qualitative research are ontological, epistemological, methodological, and axiological questions that are themselves blurred in a postmodern/poststructuralist matrix. This paper explores some of the foundations and criteria for establishing, representing, and evaluating the truth, rigor, and accuracy of…

Two experiments examined theory of mind in middle childhood by examining changes in the organization of mental verbs of knowing. Found that older children and comprehension monitors placed greater emphasis on the certainty aspects of mental activity than did younger children and comprehension nonmonitors, suggesting that important aspects of a…

The understanding of cause and effect situations is described in terms of the construction of a generative mental model and is exemplified through instances from science teaching. The absence of understanding is described in terms of failure of construction, reconstruction, or allied processes. (Author/SLD)

Presents a vision of authentic academic achievement and specific standards for pedagogy and student performance that are consistent with active learning or constructivist perspectives. The restructured and authentic pedagogy is based on standards of intellectual quality rather than teaching techniques or processes as the central target of…

Compares children's literacy learning to a mouse playing basketball--namely, that children are doing what they have been trained to do, and do not understand the rules of the game. Discusses behaviorist theory in both examples, and contrasts behaviorist theory with constructivist theory. (PA)

Examines how to reconcile constructivist pedagogy that emphasizes free student inquiry and self-correction with the demand that students learn content and inquiry methods required in the discipline-based educational standards, tracing this dilemma to an ambivalent regard for professional knowledge related to the pragmatist epistemology and…

Examined how student teachers constructed their teacher identities by using autobiographical stories. Analysis of 35 student teacher essays shows that autobiographical studies are a powerful tool in making the moral dimensions of teachers' identities visible. (SLD)