Argues that "Borderlands" discourse has served, and continues to serve, as a theoretical framework to advance educational theory by accounting for multiple subjectivity and difference. Provides historical background of Chicana/o Studies and its contribution to Borderlands theories. Analyzes critical pedagogy in relation to Borderlands…

An interview with American Indian educator Karen Gayton Swisher explores the learning styles of American Indian children and the application of ideas about these learning styles in the programs at Haskell Indian Nations University. Native American children should be taught from a constructivist, rather than a deficit, point of view. (SLD)

Discusses the process of designing a series of case-based interactive videodiscs to be used within a constructivist learning environment for elementary school science. Topics include assumptions about learners and learning; implications for learning materials; and implications for the instructional design process, including process-based versus…

Introduces the "Pet and Me" project, a thematic unit that explores the relationships among humans, other animals, and nature. Provides the definition of thematic units by focusing on three levels of thinking: facts and information, topics, and themes. Concludes that the thematic unit is applicable to other areas of curriculum. (MOK)

After a brief critique of behaviorist pedagogical assumptions that learning is something done to learners, constructivist learning theory is presented as a framework for understanding experiential education, in that learning is a process involving the active engagement of learners, who adapt the educative event to fit, and expand, their individual…

Presents a computational framework for modeling cognitive development that provides a language paradigm with which to compare and contrast different facets of children's knowledge. Describes the generative connectionist algorithm "cascade-correlation," the successful use of the algorithm to model cognitive development in various…

Discusses a constructive approach to instructional hypermedia. Highlights include attributes of hypermedia, including links and nodes, multimedia environments, nonlinear access to information, and interactivity; instructional applications that stress the learners' active interaction and their control of the learning process; associative or…

Describes outcomes of the K-6 Core Knowledge curriculum at Crooksville Elementary School. Core Knowledge was developed in the late 1980s by University of Virginia Professor E.D. Hirsch, who says that the "learning-how-to-learn" philosophy has produced generations of children ignorant of world history, geography, and literature. Some…

Describes an undergraduate chemistry curriculum, designed to capitalize on the strengths of mechanistic organic chemistry, that enables students to grasp the powerful conceptual unity that allows professional chemists to understand unfamiliar results according to a few well-defined principles. Discusses the philosophy, curriculum, and the nature…

Recommends that art be shown to toddlers, while being receptive to the different ways in which they respond. States that images should relate to the toddler's interests and be placed at their eye level. Discusses how to involve the toddlers' parents. (DAJ)

Describes a study of gifted freshmen in a magnet high school that investigated whether learning style would change after a year in a technology-rich educational environment using constructivist learning techniques. Conclusions regarding learning style were inconclusive, but results showing effects on the curriculum and the social context are…

Examines the performance of children in different grades as they attempt to solve simple equations involving addition and subtraction of integer numbers. The extended task involves creating a story that matches the equations. (DDR)

Outlines an investigation into the nature of metacognition and its relation to the learning process in a constructivist interactive multimedia learning environment. Topics include the relationship between metacognition and learning technologies (and an example), the learner's perspective, the designer's perspective, and the teacher's perspective.…

Explores the interaction and sequencing of hands-on activities, writing, and reading in the science classroom viewed from a constructivist perspective. Describes the Hands-On, Writing and Reading for Understanding approach designed to accommodate various learning styles and to challenge and direct student learning. Discusses sequencing of…

Argues that inventions are of the utmost importance in knowledge development, and that conventions play an important role in inventions by providing support for their development. This position borrows from Piaget's perspective regarding figurative and operative aspects of thought. Contains 22 references. (DDR)