Describes "Concept to Classroom", a series of free, online workshops developed by channel Thirteen/WNET New York and Disney Learning Partnerships to help teachers explore issues in education including multiple intelligences, constructivism, academic standards, cooperative and collaborative learning, assessment, curriculum redesign,…

Explores young children's mark-making in a domestic play setting. Suggests mark-making indicates aspects of the relationship between semiotic and conceptual development. Focuses on contexts in which mark-making occurs and on the authenticity of the learning events in which children participate. (DLH)

Describes a qualitative action research study that investigated the effectiveness of an assignment for tenth graders that required primary research methods and an essay. Topics include authentic research; constructivist theory of learning; performance-based assessment; student journals; peer editing; teacher-librarian collaboration; and student…

The interactive science notebook (ISN) is a perfect opportunity for science educators to encapsulate and promote the most cutting-edge constructivist teaching strategies while simultaneously addressing standards, differentiation of instruction, literacy development, and maintenance of an organized notebook as laboratory and field scientists do.…

In this article, the author discusses his contention that even the best of the best of American schools are not quality schools. He also observes that the curriculum that has been in place since 1892 was the main reason why schools cannot offer the best in quality education. He cites the ten problems that have plagued the American educational…

This chapter examines how the study of popular romantic fiction was used to transform students' understandings of the ways in which gendered identities are constructed and their perception of the way textual meanings are determined.

Since biology is one of the most dynamic research fields within the natural sciences, the gap between the accumulated knowledge in biology and the knowledge that is taught in schools, increases rapidly with time. Our long-term objective is to develop means to bridge between the dynamics of biological discoveries and the biology teachers and…

This article proposes a model for a critical social-constructivist (CS-C) approach to the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in language/culture education. CS-C theories emphasize a critical approach to social interactions, interpersonal relations, communication, and the influence that these activities have on learning. I will use the…

Early years classroom practice in Northern Ireland is perceived to be dominated by a traditional teacher-directed model to the detriment of a more constructivist, play-based and child-initiated learning environment favoured in many nations' early education provision (see for example Walsh, 2000). In 2002, the Northern Ireland Council for…

Traditionally campus-based courses rely on student evaluations to provide instructors with feedback about their teaching effectiveness. However, current student evaluations of teaching instruments do not adequately assess many of the essential constructivist-based teaching practices recommended for quality online learning experiences. One of the…

The key elements of online course design and pedagogy suggested by research as promoting effective learning are discussed through the lens of constructivist epistemology. Presentation of content, instructor-student and student-student interactions, individual and group activities, and student assessment are each addressed, in turn. The focus is on…

Today's students are comfortable satisfying their immense curiosity on their own. This capacity for independent learning is essential to their future well-being, since they are likely to have multiple careers and will need to continually learn new skills they were not taught in college. Students will need to feel comfortable working in…

Over the last decade, research related to personal epistemological beliefs has offered insight into how to promote effective teaching and learning across educational settings. Personal epistemological beliefs reflect an individual's views about what knowledge is, how knowledge is gained, and the degree of certainty with which knowledge can be…

This qualitative study describes the differences in the lived experiences of two elementary teachers and the impact these differences have had on their beliefs and practices as teachers of science. Although both teachers experienced traditional, textbook-driven science instruction as students in schools, their experiences with science outside of…

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' use of literature-based collaborative Internet projects (CIP) in their elementary classrooms. These practices require two or more classrooms to read and analyze texts on specified topics and then share responses over the Internet. The participants, all female, represented 15 different U.S. states…