The self-referential effect uses what students know and have experienced to help them learn. This method of teaching involves engaging students in the learning process by encouraging them to relate information to aspects of themselves. Several scholarly works by teachers and academics promote the use of students' interests in popular culture to…

The process of developing definitions is underemphasized in most mathematics instruction. Investing time in constructing meaning is well worth the return in terms of the knowledge it imparts. In this article, the authors present a third approach to "defining," called "constructive." It involves modifying students' previous understanding of a term…

Through relational dialogue, learners shape their identities by sharing information about the world and how they see themselves in it. As learners interact, they receive feedback from both the environment and other learners which, in turn, helps them assess and adjust their self-presentations. Although learners retain choice and personal agency,…

Stacy McKenzie is challenged to find new ways to involve students in their learning. She begins this journey by developing a lesson planning framework based on constructivist principles for learning. The perspectives Stacy applies in her program are shared in this article: First, by examining how she crafts a lesson framework that provides…

This article contributes to the growing social realist literature in the sociology of education. A world systems approach is used to explain the shift to the various forms of localisation, including the emphasis on experience in the curriculum, as a strategy of globalisation that contributes to the decline of universal class consciousness and…

The aim of the present study was to identify children's conceptions of learning mathematics and to assess the identified conceptions. Children's conceptions are identified by interviewing 73 grade 5 students in Taiwan. The interviews are analyzed using qualitative data analysis methods, which results in a structure of 5 major conceptions, each…

Today more than ever, students want their school experience to be relevant. They live and learn in a media-saturated environment where information abounds, but wisdom is often lacking. Teachers must tie their science curricula to students' real-life experiences: When their students see the utility of scientific thought and reason in helping them…

This book should be read by everyone who wants to understand special education today. "New Perspectives in Special Education" opens the door to the fascinating and vitally important world of theory that informs contemporary special education. It examines theoretical and philosophical orientations such as "positivism",…

Despite decades of research exposing its limitations, transmission-based pedagogy is notably resistant to change. This paper argues that reform efforts will continue to be limited without a concomitant historical, dialectical analysis of the origin of such pedagogy. The paper locates the origin of transmission-based pedagogy in the economic and…

Elwin, Juslin, Olsson, and Enkvist (2007) and Henriksson, Elwin, and Juslin (2010) offered the constructivist coding hypothesis to describe how people code the outcomes of their decisions when availability of feedback is conditional on the decision. They provided empirical evidence only for the 0.5 base rate condition. This commentary argues that…

This article develops a constructivist perspective on listening skill. Listening is conceptualized as "a process that involves the interpretation of messages that others have intentionally transmitted in the effort to understand those messages and respond to them appropriately." This definition allows listening to be understood both as a mindful…

Incorporating recent history into the educational curricula of countries that have experienced human rights violations combines the complexities of teaching history, teaching recent history, and human rights education. Recent history makes a historical analysis of social reality and a historiographical analysis of the immediate. It is located…

Chromosome structure is confusing to students at all levels, and chromosome behavior during meiosis is a notoriously difficult topic. Undergraduate biology majors are exposed to the process of meiosis numerous times during their presecondary and postsecondary education, yet understanding of key concepts, such as the point at which haploidy is…

This review of research (1990 to 2009) on constructivist teacher education synthesizes a growing but fragmented body of research and links it to practice in teacher education; it provides a guide for future research, program development, and policy and practice development which is consistent with empirical evidence. It includes a selection of 27…

The theory of constructivism states that learning is non-linear, recursive, continuous, complex and relational--Despite the difficulty of deducing constructivist pedagogy from constructivist theories, there are models and common elements to consider in planning new program. Reflective activities are a common feature of all the programs of…