It is widely recognized that lectures continue to dominate college chemistry instruction, especially in developing countries, and that lectures limit student intellectual engagement. To address this concern, a General Chemistry course in a Philippine university was reconstructed to implement an instructional cycle consisting of three phases: a…

This study examined the influence of group structures upon six groups of distributed graduate students as they pursued a six-week problem-based learning activity by communicating in an asynchronous computer conference. Henri and Rigault's (1996) content analysis framework and Howell-Richardson and Mellar's (1996) guidelines for interconnectedness…

This article comprises the results of a qualitative study designed to examine community college leaders' attitudes toward problem-based learning as a method for teaching leadership. The respondents in the study participated in a year-long community college leadership academy, which used problem-based learning as the primary instructional method.…

A mother and daughter share their insights on what American schools can learn about cooperative, student-centered, problem-solving approaches to instruction from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter books. (Contains 11 references.) (PKP)

As with natural numbers, a greatest common divisor of two Gaussian (complex) integers "a" and "b" is a Gaussian integer "d" that is a common divisor of both "a" and "b". This article explores an algorithm for such gcds that is easy to do by hand.

Using the problem of determining where a Flatland artist was standing, this article takes another look at perspective.

Not only are rubber bands great for binding objects together, but they can be used in a simple science experiment that involves predicting, problem solving, measuring, graphing, and experimenting. In this article, the author describes how rubber bands can be used to teach the force of mass.

In order to facilitate the transition from learning from worked examples in earlier stages of skill acquisition to problem solving in later stages, it is effective to successively fade out worked solution steps--in comparison to the traditional method of employing example--problem pairs that is frequently used in cognitive-load research. In the…

This article discusses the use of a problem-based instructional task in an elementary classroom. After estimating the number of blades of grass on a football field, students write letters to explain the results of their research.

This article describes some benefits of using problem posing in the classroom, and provides suggestions to teachers for how to begin implementing this strategy.

Too often, looking at middle school math classrooms through the eyes of the students reveals a monotonous routine with no clear application to life outside of school. In this article, the author suggests a few strategies for putting the life back into middle school mathematics: (1) mix it up by changing the physical environment and classwork…

Chinese nursing education levels have developed fast over the past few years. Many nursing educators are devoted to the research of nursing teaching. How to cultivate nursing students, creative thinking is one of the principle researches and has received increasing attention. In the course of nursing teaching, we renewed the teaching design based…

This article explores the origins and potential benefits of the empty number line for the development of mental computation. It also provides a learner's perspective of its use through the reflections of nine-year-old Emily. (Contains 3 figures.)

This article proposes an instructional idea where students can figure out an individual's secret personal information using the power of mathematics, particularly the power of algebraic thinking. The proposed examples in this article start with a personalized context that other people do not know and end up with generalized patterns of solutions.…

Research was conducted on the impact of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) on the information seeking and literacy of veterinary students at University College Dublin. Data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods from students, academics and the librarian. Results showed that PBL has a significant impact on how students find and…