Interactive immersive entertainment, or videogame playing, has emerged as a major entertainment and educational medium. As research and development initiatives proliferate, educational researchers might benefit by developing more grounded theories about them. This article argues for framing game play as a "designed experience." Players'…

For this article, the development of 1 teacher's pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986) was tracked longitudinally across 2 years as she taught a new instructional unit in middle school mathematics. Growth in pedagogical content knowledge is characterized as the interanimation of 2 Discourses (Gee, 1999). One Discourse refers to…

This workshop began with a questionnaire that asked participants: how often in a normal week their students use a textbook; their thoughts on the average percentage of use of the textbook in North American classrooms; what a student would be likely to reply if asked whether a particular statement in the textbook was true; how a text is chosen for…

Many students view statistics as their worst college course. Four heuristics that can improve students' proficiency in statistics and in interpreting reports of research are presented in this paper. The heuristics guide students' judgments about significance, generalizability, cause-and-effect, and strength of independent-dependent variable…

Some personal reflections on instructional design and its relation to constructivism are explored. Instructional design in its present form is out of sync with the times in that its orientation, methods, and research base are behavioristic, or positivistic. However, a constructivist theory of instructional design is possible, particularly if…

Computer learners often develop explanations of events they observe during training. Recent work on generalization suggests that explanations may be valuable in permitting learners to develop generalizations from one or a few examples. This study explores the idea by describing four generalization paradigms in which explanations play a part:…

Posing as an avuncular letter writer, the author discusses the problems faced by first-time teachers teaching fourth-grade composition. Proposes exercises to motivate children to write, communication inspiring ways to arrange classroom environment, guided free-writing assignments, and heuristics prompts for writing a fairy tale. (JG)

Describes a deterministic computer model that incorporates: (1) initial framework composition; (2) abrasion factors for quartz, feldspar, and rock fragments; and (3) a fragmentation ratio for rock fragments to simulate the recycling of coastal sands by rivers and beaches. (TW)

Examines various types of problems that researchers have used to demonstrate problem solving. Focuses on genetics problems. Discusses classes of learning outcomes, conceptual knowledge gains, content-independent heuristics, content-specific procedures, understanding the nature of science and a typology of genetics problems. (CW)

Examines the hypothesis that there are preliminary stages in problem solving that are often neglected in teaching chemistry. Discusses correlations calculated between the student's ability to handle disembedding and cognitive restructuring tasks in the spatial domain and ability to solve chemistry problems. (TW)

Compares BASIC and LOGO systems in developing artificial intelligence systems. Provides listings of programs used for translating and sentence making. Describes methodology and compares the BASIC and LOGO programs. (MVL)

Describes a computer simulation based on quarterly models of the U.S. economy during World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and World War II. Recommends using these simulations to teach facts and knowledge, and as heuristic devices to develop an understanding of complex economic and historical relationships. (LS)

Five women university students' representations of their learning were analyzed and related to their on-going adaptations to course demands. Representations involved their goals, working plans and perceptions of difficulties. Qualitative data from students' accounts were tabulated schematically in relation to Duncker's concepts of productive…

Explores the community as an important context of both legitimate and illegitimate female behavior. Based on the principle of the centrality of the structures of gender relations for behavior of males and females, the original community model is expanded to include population characteristics relevant to that structure. (SLD)

Presents an activity in which students develop their own theorem involving the relationship between the triangles determined by the squares constructed on the sides of any triangle. Provides a set of four reproducible worksheets, directions on their use, worksheet answers, and suggestions for follow-up activities. (MDH)