For those working in adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) settings, finding practical options for professional development is a concern. The field has a range of program types, a largely part-time workforce, limited financial resources for training, and varied policies and requirements for professional credentialing or certification.…

The constructions of gender formed by elementary school children, aged 7 through 11 years, were studied in relation to their own lives and the issue of adult occupations as revealed in children's role plays. Data were collected from dialogue and role play with 145 children in primary schools in England, and these data were analyzed in a…

This study examines Finnish college students' views on learning in a virtual university. Respondents studied at Helsinki Virtual Open University (HEVI) and the Apaja Internet Service from 1995-99. HEVI is a Web-based learning environment where students can study, get advice, receive help from tutors, and use office services. Apaja Internet Service…

This research report relates to one aspect of a longitudinal study conducted into children's spelling development during the first three years of formal schooling. The study aimed to monitor the development of conventional spelling in the unaided writing of children 5-7 years of age attending one of six schools in Great Britain and to consider the…

The findings of this study support the positive effect of constructivist learning practices, specifically on emphasis on problem solving strategies and their effect on student mathematics achievement. The results also suggest that setting, certification, teaching experience, gender, and minority status are factors related to the use of…

Faculty members at St. Mary's University of Minnesota have been engaged in a process to develop a more student-centered curriculum. Administration and faculty taking the lead in this endeavor have begun to embrace much of the literature in the area of constructivism as a philosophical foundation for guiding this change. The result is the near…

This document identifies five types of learning experiences which are relevant to understanding students' understanding of concepts and principles. These include exploring existing concepts, honing and clustering concepts, developing analytical and reasoning skills, developing problem solving skills, and structuring knowledge in memory. Each of…

This conceptual framework is grounded in the data analysis of transcribed interviews with 50 Ontario teachers and the text of a 7-month online discussion group among 25 principals from England, Ireland, Canada, United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Both methods were employed with the stated purpose of understanding emotional experiences of…

The background of this paper is an internal research project at the German National Research Center for Information Technology, Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute, (GMD-IPSI) dealing with software engineering, computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL) and practical biotech knowledge. The project goal is to develop a…

This study evaluated the tendency toward positive beliefs about constructivism for teacher candidates at one university's teacher education program, identifying differences in the beliefs about constructivist learning between early childhood, elementary, and middle school teacher candidates who had taken early childhood methods courses and those…

This paper examines educational environments that promote learning and explores the ways that such environments produce differentially positive results. It is based on a study that investigated the effects of a theoretically based social-constructivist approach to education, in contrast to the more classroom-based "abstract" instruction used in…

The role of the principal in evaluating student achievement is discussed in this paper. The principal is in a leadership position and has the duty of improving the ways in which students are evaluated. Educators often are blamed for poor academic achievement for which they really cannot be held responsible, but there certainly are areas in which…

This study explored the cumulative effect of three years of exposure to teaching strategies being promoted in a local school district's systemic reform on elementary students' attitudes towards school science, awareness of science careers, and science achievement. The reform effort, referred to as the "Science: Parents, Activities, and Literature"…

This study examined the relationship between elementary teachers' pedagogical beliefs and the level of their instructional computer use. Participating teachers had 2 years of experience using a computer network that provided students with an integrated learning system, several word processing packages, desktop publishing, a multimedia…

This paper discusses the relationship between the political intentions of South Africa's educational policy and its educational outcomes, suggesting that the more learner-centered the curriculum and the lower the socioeconomic status of its recipients, the less likely it is to achieve its goal of social equity. The paper considers the proper…