Teachers need to stay abreast of the latest trends in the language arts to offer an updated curriculum. The language arts areas are vital in each academic discipline and integrate well with diverse subject matter areas. Some common trends when reading the literature on teaching the language arts are: portfolios; journaling; computerized reading…

This report, the forth in a series from the spring 1998 national survey, "Teaching, Learning, and Computing," examines teachers' survey responses that describe the frequency with which their teaching practice involves those five types of activities and the frequency with which their practice involves more traditional transmission and…

This paper reports on an on-going action research study of the elementary school science education courses at the University of Victoria. The Department of Social and Natural Sciences requires that professors evaluate their teaching effectiveness annually using a variety of methods including student evaluations, peer observations, course outline…

This paper describes how the experience of carrying out qualitative research contributes to student teachers' development of reflective thinking, promotes constructivist approaches in teaching and learning to teach, and supports feminist perspectives in teacher education. Data was collected from a Research on Teaching class at an Israeli teacher…

There is consensus in the United States that schools are not succeeding. This paper presents recent research in mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, and the arts to discuss ways in which to improve instruction and learning in these areas. Featured topics include cooperative learning, problem solving, use of technology, whole…

This study examined changes in student teachers' beliefs related to behaviorist and constructivist learning theories as a result of student teaching and the impact of their cooperating teachers' beliefs on those changes. Participants included all 38 spring 1998 student teachers in an elementary education program at a small state university in…

This study involved a longitudinal examination of a program designed for paraeducators enrolled in an Urban Preservice Degree Articulation in Teacher Education (UPDATE) program. During the first year, 16 paraeducators successfully completed a series of mathematics courses taught using constructivist instructional methods. These user-friendly…

To dispel concerns that career education does not belong in middle school, it may help to reinterpret a career more broadly as life, not just work. Middle school students should view career paths as a broad range of options available to them. In addition, early career education may help to dispel sex-role stereotypes and self-limiting practices of…

World-Wide Web-based instruction (WBI) has become a powerful tool in recent years. However, WBI utilizing a constructivist theoretical framework has not been explored. A database-driven WBI is the solution for this implementation. Another critical issue is the difficulty encountered in creating, editing, and maintaining WBIs, particularly for…

Facets of problem solving instruction (PSI) were studied in German mathematics classrooms. Nine different facets of PSI were identified from the research literature, and a video rating form was developed to assess these facets and teacher effectiveness. Videotaped mathematics lessons (n=147) for German eighth graders from the sample for the Third…

This paper reports the perceptions of inservice teachers participating in a World Wide Web-based university course. The pedagogical soundness of distance education courses that model constructivist learning theory and that are available to learners at times and places convenient to them are also examined. Qualitative methods were used to collect…

Describes a classroom technique designed to inject an interactive discussion framework into the classroom and to focus students' attention on reading and absorbing information from a textbook. (DDR)

Reconceptualizes a cultural perspective for science education that offers an account of life in a science classroom by characterizing students' experiences as crossing borders between subcultures. Contains 160 references. (DDR)

Suggests that a holistic approach to teaching prospective teachers should encompass a knowledge base drawn from three paradigms: (1) instrument/technical; (2) interpretive/constructivist; and (3) emancipative/social reconstruction. Argues that use of such an approach will result in professional maturation and an expansion in influence in the…

Focuses on the understanding of the concept of function and presents discussions of the topological properties of functions and of students' mathematical thinking when they are asked to determine whether a property of a function is a topological property or not. Contains 15 references. (DDR)