Radical constructivists advocate discovery-based pedagogical regimes that enable students to incrementally and continuously adapt their cognitive structures to the instrumented cultural environment. Some sociocultural theorists, however, maintain that learning implies discontinuity in conceptual development, because novices must appropriate expert…

The process of collaborative inquiry learning requires maintaining a mutual understanding of the task, along with reaching consensus on strategies, plans and domain knowledge. In this study, we explore how different supportive measures affect students' consensus-building process, based on a re-analysis of data from four studies. We distinguish…

This paper explores the relationship between practitioners' pedagogical purposes, values and practices in designing for inquiry-based learning in higher education, and the affordances of the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) as a tool for creating learning designs in this context. Using a qualitative research methodology, variation was…

This study was designed to explore the effectiveness in student performance and confidence of limited and full device simulators. The 30 employees from an information technology company who participated in this study were assigned to one of three groups. Each group received practice for learning a complex software procedure using traditional…

The present study expands the design of Warschauer (1996) surveying freshman foreign language students at a Turkish university. Motivating aspects of computer assisted instruction in terms of writing and e-mailing are explored through an exploratory factor analysis conducted on the survey developed by Warschauer (1996). Findings suggest that…

The present study expands the design of Warschauer (1996) surveying freshman foreign language students at a Turkish university. Motivating aspects of computer assisted instruction in terms of writing and e-mailing are explored through an exploratory factor analysis conducted on the survey developed by Warschauer (1996). Findings suggest that…

In Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois a group of schools has united together to form the Beloit Educational Computing Consortium (BECC). A recent survey of selected teachers in BECC schools indicated that even though the schools do not consciously set out to teach creativity via computers, substantial creative behavior is demonstrated by the…

The "Talking Typewriter" is a computerized electric typewriter with visual and audio capabilities. It was designed to create an environment where learning to read would be a successful, enjoyable experience for the student by allowing him to explore, discover relationships, to progress at his own speed, and to receive feedback. This…

Explores families of parabolas that result from the graphs of quadratic functions. Computer software allows students to quickly depict a series of graphs and make conjectures about emerging patterns. Discusses cases in different parameters in the quadratic are varied to produce different effects in which the parabolas. (MDH)

Many people are interested in computer aids to rhetorical invention and want to know how to evaluate an invention aid, what the criteria are for a good one, and how to assess the trade-offs involved in buying one product or another. The frame of reference for this evaluation is an "old paradigm," which treats the computer as if it were…

The effects of the availability of behaviorally stated objectives on the learning process were studied. It was hypothesized that objectives would serve as orienting stimuli which would help students to attend to, process, and organize relevant aspects of displayed information in accordance with stated objectives. Therefore, the presentation of…

This paper contains the results of a study on the importance of discovery learning using computer simulations. The purpose of the study was to identify what constitutes discovery learning and to assess the effects of instructional support measures. College students were observed working with an assignment and a computer simulation in the domain of…

A mult tile is a set of polygons each of which can be dissected into smaller polygons similar to the original set of polygons. Using a recursive LOGO method that requires solutions to various geometry and trigonometry problems, dissections of mult tiles are carried out repeatedly to produce tile patterns. (MDH)

Discusses the use of the computer software MINITAB in teaching statistics to explore concepts, simulate games of chance, transform the normal variable into a z-score, and stimulate small and large group discussions. (MDH)

Describes the Microworld Chance, a simulation-oriented computer environment that allows students to explore probability concepts in five subenvironments: coins, dice, spinners, thumbtacks, and marbles. Results of a teaching experiment to examine the effectiveness of the microworld in changing students' misconceptions about probability are…