New information technologies can act as a Trojan horse offering activities that will require major changes in the teaching-learning process. Computer aided learning applications are able to offer advanced students the opportunity to improve their skills and to maintain their motivation. In the spirit of "learning by doing", they are…

An active learning environment is one in which students are able to "seek" out new experiences, "interpret" them, and "relate" them to previous experiences. This approach allows students to engage in independent thinking, problem solving, and guided discovery as they explore broad movement concepts. An active learning means that students are…

Looking for relevant material for the Adolescent Psychology course she teaches, the author's attention was drawn to a book by Thomas Cottle, "Mind Fields: Adolescent Consciousness in a Culture of Distraction" (2001). Robert Frost's quotation, "Grant me intention, purpose, and design--That's near enough for me to the Divine," in the frontispiece…

Objective: To compare the effects of active and didactic teaching strategies on learning- and process-oriented outcomes. Design: Controlled trial. Setting: After-hours residents' teaching session. Participants: Family and Community Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics residents at two academic medical institutions. Interventions: We…

Active learning promotes higher-level reasoning, and it can be achieved in large classes without wholesale changes in class format. Applicable methods include in-class mini-investigations, robust multiple-choice exam questions, online quizzes or review, and cooperative learning, particularly during exams. Data gleaned from observing student…

Possessing communication-related skills is vital to student success within and beyond college. The utilization of these skills, or being considered socially competent, has been linked to personal, relational, and occupational success. But how do we teach the necessary social skills to today's students? Building on research from education and…

Teacher educators routinely encounter middle grades teachers who like to include more environmental literacy in their curricula. These educators of children in grades four through nine believe that it might be considered "fluff," take away from the class time needed to meet varying state mandates or standards, be difficult to implement, or all of…

The Chinese view of the child is in the process of changing from the dependent child of traditional Chinese society to the child as an active learner in contemporary China. The view of the child as an active learner forces early childhood practitioners to rethink the features of the child's learning and development, individuality, and needs and…

One reason students give for attending a community college is that the mathematics requirements appear to be less rigorous. Many of the author's students have told her that they have chosen to seek an associate's degree first because they do not feel confident that they could successfully complete the mathematics requirement at a four-year…

Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS) use computers to capture, store, and distribute knowledge in both an interactive and non-linear delivery. Using technology sources such as the Internet, Microsoft's Net Meeting, Connectix's color camera, and business software, it is possible to provide multiple site delivery and bring business…

This book provides a focused, extended response to the question How does standards-based science instruction look and feel in the classroom? This question is addressed by considering two related issues: (1) "How can teachers cultivate the quality of scientific thinking and understanding defined by standards?" and (2) "How can…

This report presents findings of a survey of engineering college faculty at eight participating institutions in SUCCEED (Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education) concerning their use of various instructional methods, their prior involvement in instructional development programs, and their perceptions about…

The purpose of this study was to introduce the Mole Solver, a computer based system that facilitates monitors and improves the students' problems solving skills on mole concept. The system has three distinct modes that: i) finds step by step solutions to the word problems on the mole concept ii) enable students' to solve word problems on their own…

Blended learning basically refers to using several methods for teaching. It can be thought to be a learning program where more than one delivery mode is being used with the ultimate goal of optimizing the learning result and cost of program delivery. Examples of blended learning could be the combination of technology-based resources and…

This article describes a challenge given to students completing a senior high school biology course. The scenario described encourages students to apply their knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of scientific and commercial principles. It permits them the opportunity to develop skills in research, collaboration, cooperation, delegation, and…