If educators want students to practice and prepare for challenges they might eventually face, there are a number of useful strategies to connect academic learning to the "real world." One is to ask students to complete what are variously called "performance tasks," "case studies," "simulations," or "project- or problem-based learning units."…

What do we mean by reflective practice? What does it involve? How can it help you develop as a teacher? "The Teacher's Reflective Practice Handbook" is an essential source of advice, guidance and ideas for both student and practising teachers. Helping you to translate pedagogical knowledge into practice, this "Handbook" guides you through studying…

This article describes a structure to help preservice teachers get invaluable field experience by aligning theory with practice supported by the integration of elementary school children into their university mathematics methodology course. This course structure allowed preservice teachers to learn about teaching mathematics in a nonthreatening…

This Digest discusses Problem-Based Learning (PBL), a method developed by H.S. Barrows (1986), and originally created to prepare medical students for real-world problems by letting them solve medical problems based on real cases. The Digest contends that PBL can situate language learning in the real world by posing problems like those found in…

Three principles based on research in cognitive psychology explain the potential power of problem-based learning: (1) learning is a constructive, not a receptive process; (2) metacognition affects learning; and (3) social and contextual factors influence learning. These principles are more likely to be activated when specific teacher behaviors and…

A University of Toronto pharmaceutics course which organizes information about physical chemistry around real problems, presented as case studies or laboratory projects, is described. Problems were addressed in class discussions or by unsupervised eight-student groups using self- and group evaluation procedures. Results are discussed, and three…

The conceptual framework of the Modes of Problem Solving Action (MPSA) model integrates Dewey's pragmatism, critical science theory, and theory regarding the three modes of inquiry. The MPSA model is formulated in the shape of a matrix. Horizontally, there are the following modes: technical, interpretive, and emancipating. Vertically, there are…

Research on how the brain works has resulted in wider-scale adoption of the principles of problem-based learning (PBL) in many areas of education, including technology education. The PBL approach is attractive to curriculum developers because it is based on interdisciplinary learning, results in multiple outcomes, is integrated and…