The existing literature on Problem-based learning (PBL) mostly paints a positive picture. If there were more evidence of the limitations of PBL, more could be done to apply the appropriate interventions to optimize the experience of PBL for students. The purpose of this article is to discuss second year medical students' perceptions of the…

The Bologna Declaration has opened a stage of big and deep changes in the internal university organization, external cooperation, teaching models and methods, among other., all over the European countries. Here we will present and discuss a pilot experience conducted at the Engineering Department of the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro,…

Metacognition is the mind's ability to monitor and control itself or, in other words, the ability to know about our knowing (Dunlosky & Bjork, 2008). In mathematics education, the importance of the investigation of students' metacognition during their mathematical activity has been focused on the area of mathematics problem solving. This study…

To examine the notion of environmental education (EE) as context for integrating the elementary curricula, we engaged in a multi-case study analysis (Yin 2009) of two preservice elementary science methods courses that utilized an experiential reflective approach--case one (University A) through a science content focus (i.e., sustainability) and…

Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 2000) states, "Technology is essential in teaching and learning mathematics; it influences the mathematics that is taught and enhances students' learning." The focus on reasoning and sense making with technology in the lesson presented in this article will enable students to do more…

In a "post-NCLB era," the schooling experiences of mostly low-income students of color continue to be consumed by a test-prep pedagogy--narrowed curriculum, low expectations, and ignored relationships. In this article the author describes a pedagogical approach using educational dialogues to engage preservice teachers to critically…

This design-based research study was conducted to identify what importance of a tangible user interface (TUI) can add to teaching and learning. Over a 2-year period, teachers ("n"?=?39) and students ("n"?=?145) participated in the study. The identified problem for investigation was how students, including those with low fine…

Some of mathematics teaching is routine, like an exercise from a textbook for which you have received instruction and already know what to do. On other occasions, however, teaching mathematics is challenging, involving problems of teaching for which the solutions may not be readily apparent. These situations require the application of mathematical…

A central goal of the learning sciences is to discover principles that determine the optimal amount of instructional assistance to support robust learning (Koedinger & Aleven, 2007). We examined learning outcomes from providing and withholding stepwise instructional explanations as students studied worked examples and solved physics problems. We…

Educational robotics involves using robots as an educational tool to provide a long term, and progressive learning activity, to cater to different age group. The current concern is that, using robots in education should not be an instance of a one-off project for the sole purpose of participating in a competitive event. Instead, it should be a…

In this article, the authors aim to identify the causal effect of the use of graded problem sets on academic performance of Spanish students. The identification strategy relies on an experiment in which the authors exploit variation arising from observing the performance of nearly 300 students taking the same class during the same semester and…

This article will describe a project designed for use in a liberal arts mathematics course that satisfies an institutional quantitative reasoning requirement. Students, working in groups of four, are responsible for introducing and explaining new material to the rest of their class. Their "reporting" of mathematical information is…

The authors argue that deliberation should be an integral part of secondary civics classrooms and teacher education programs. Drawing on a wide range of research, they contend that teaching and learning deliberative skills has the potential to build individual and group civic capacity. They share some of the results of an evaluation of one…

E-portfolios are increasingly seen as a promising tool for facilitating learning as students engage in the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) process. Research that evaluates e-portfolios in the context of PBL is, however, limited. In addition, advantages of the use of e-portfolios both generally as well as in the context of PBL have tended to be…

The worked-example effect, an application of cognitive load theory, is a well-supported method of instruction for well-structured problems (Chandler and Sweller, 1991; Cooper and Sweller, 1987; Sweller and Cooper, 1985; Tuovinen & Sweller, 1999; Ward and Sweller, 1990). One limitation is expertise-reversal effect, where advanced students…