This article explores whether WebCT, a virtual learning technology, meets organisational and customer goals at Coventry University Business School (CBS). Lecturer and student perceptions about the benefits of WebCT as a teaching and learning resource are examined as well as the goals of WebCT for the university as an organization. CBS students…

This paper uses Baxter Magolda's (1992) framework on ways of knowing to examine the effects of using multimedia case studies with beginning pre-service teachers (PSTs). Baxter Magolda referred to these ways of thinking as absolute, transitional, independent, and contextual. The written responses to two sets of tasks were analysed for 36 PSTs…

Cries for increased accountability through additional assessment are heard throughout the educational arena. However, as demonstrated in this study, to make a valid assessment of teaching and learning effectiveness, educators must determine not only what students do, but also why they do it, as the latter significantly affects the former. This…

Purpose: Aims to examine trends in the development of e-learning in Northern Ireland, report on existing policies, practices and issues affecting its implementation across the sectors. Design/methodology/approach: The present study draws on e-learning policies and strategies that have been developed for Northern Ireland. Examples were drawn from…

Purpose: Aims to outline the issues and debates about a five-week fully online staff development program piloted in the University of Paisley, Scotland. Design/methodology/approach: A case study was the approach taken. Findings: The programmer was designed to introduce lecturers to the theoretical and pedagogical issues surrounding online…

Purpose: Aims to investigate reactions to online delivery, student perceptions of the rates and depth of participation, and levels of engagement with the learning process in a Western Australian University. Design/methodology/approach: The sample for this study comprised 108 students who were enrolled in both undergraduate and postgraduate…

This paper briefly introduces the trends towards e-learning and amplifies some examples of state of the art systems, pointing out that all of these are, to date, limited by adaptability and shareability of content and that it is necessary for industry to develop and use an inter-operability standard. Uses SCORM specifications to specify the…

This article reviews the impact of broader policy change and practices on in-service teacher education (INSET) in the Limpopo province. The author argues that name changes from INSET to staff development to continuous teacher professional development or continuous professional development to capacity building and training tend to generalise…

Identifying gifted and talented children and providing appropriate educational experiences for them has been firmly placed on the educational agenda in England by the Labour government since 1999. In the U.S.A., gifted education has received a high profile for several decades. In both countries, however, the needs of the younger gifted child have…

This paper looks at current reforms by the Government and Ministry of Education, which are moving from a tight national system to a more locally based system, where schools and teachers will have more choice over what they study and teach. This paper addresses this reform at three levels. First, it highlights the changes in the Singaporean…

The paper reports some of the findings of a qualitative case study that examined the perceptions of the role of cooperating teachers as they supported pre-service teacher colleagues. The study revealed a number of significant issues related to professional learning and teachers' "ways of knowing". One of the most significant results to…

Within a constructivist philosophy of learning, teachers, as students, are introduced to different perspectives of teaching with robotic technology while immersed in what Papert called a "constructionist" environment. Robotics allows students to creatively explore computer programming, mechanical design and construction, problem solving,…

In this retrospective case study, the author describes the process of initiating a new partnership between the Master of Education in Teaching (MET) program at the University of Hawaii and a public elementary school, which would service as the field site for the student cohort in this two-year field-intensive certification program. Included in the…

Technology can facilitate a pedagogy-based on neo-Vygotskian sociocultural theory, and on developmentally appropriate instruction. This article reviews the basic principles of such a pedagogy, and then presents a detailed case study of one day's instruction in a preschool classroom, that is richly infused with a system employing digital…

"Constructionism" is a theory of learning proposed by Seymour Papert of MIT. Co-instructors for a first year seminar for undergraduate students provided education students with a one-semester constructionist experience to learn by engaging with technology. Students used LEGO[R] construction bricks and pieces to solve problems by building, working…