This study investigated the perception of university teachers regarding what critical thinking skills are needed for successful undergraduate study, and determined the relative importance of these skills within and across academic disciplines. A total of 31 university teachers in 6 academic disciplines of Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences,…

A student perceptions measure of college and university classroom learning environment was developed to reflect the dynamic interplay among contextual variables and accommodates theoretical and practical applications in light of logistical concerns found in such complicated educational settings as a medical school. The 18-item Teaching and…

Fifteen studies comparing various educational outcomes of problem-based, community-oriented medical curricula with those of conventional programs are reviewed. The problems inherent in comparative research at the curriculum level are discussed. (MSE)

NAWeb 2001, the International North America Web-Based Learning Conference, focused on innovative and practical uses of the World Wide Web in teaching and learning. This proceedings contains the following papers: (1) "Roles of Parties Involved in Distance Learning" (Ahlam Al-Bassam, Peter Neubert, Ali Al-Shammari); (2) "The World…

Problem-based learning (PBL) has great potential for inspiring K-12 learning. KaAMS, a NASA funded project and an example of PBL, was designed to help teachers inspire middle school students to learn science. The students participate as scientists investigating environmental problems using NASA airborne remote sensing data. Two PBL modules were…

The NASA SCI Files is a series of instructional programs consisting of broadcast, print, and online elements emphasizing standards-based instruction, problem-based learning, and science as inquiry. The series seeks to motivate students in grades 3-5 to become critical thinkers and active problem solvers. In this program, the tree house detectives…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching technique that educates by presenting students with a situation that leads to a problem for them to solve. Rather than finding a single correct answer, students interpret the question, gather additional information, create possible solutions, evaluate options, and present conclusions. This book shows…

The problem-solving approach to teaching and learning has proved especially useful in vocational education as a way to relate classroom learning to real-life situations or problems. The problem-solving method of teaching places the responsibility for learning on students. Educators and special reform groups in other subject areas refer to a…

Southern Illinois University developed an instructional approach for supporting collaborative, problem-based learning (PBL) in medical education. A succession of software tools were developed and refined to implement this approach, and a technology-enriched facility, the "Collaborative Learning Lab" (CLL) was designed. The paper…

This paper describes the application of problem-based learning (PBL) design principles and the inclusion of teacher and study scaffolds to the design and implementation of a hypermedia-based learning unit for the upper elementary/middle school grades. The study examined the following research questions: (1) Does hypermedia-based PBL represent an…

Twenty-one schools from the United States and Singapore participated in this evaluation of a high-school biology multimedia CD-ROM called BioBLAST[R]. Results include a summary of teacher descriptions of their curriculum-based justifications for using this software as well as a compilation of program features that teachers describe as facilitating…

This paper discusses customer services in academic libraries. The first section addresses the concept of the "customer." Thereafter, the paper applies the metaphor of the producer and its consumers to the relationship between a university and its students. The second section looks at education as a process of refinement. Next, the…

Problem-based learning (PBL) has great potential for inspiring K-12 learning. KaAMS (Kids as Airborne Mission Scientists), an example of PBL, was designed to help teachers inspire middle school students to learning science, math, technology, and geography. The children participate as scientists investigating environmental problems using NASA…

This program is a self-guided professional development experience that explains how to use multiple intelligences (MI) theory to improve teaching, learning, and achievement in elementary classrooms and schools. The program consists of one manual and six VHS videos, each of which corresponds to one of the six modules listed in the table of…

Behaviorism was the dominant epistemology in education approximately 20 years ago, while constructivism has most recently been the dominant epistemology in the field. In this paper, differences between the assumptions of behaviorism and constructivism are briefly identified, and the behaviorist pedagogy of Individually-Guided Education and the…