As early as 1923, Jean Piaget challenged teachers to reevaluate their goals for students and to promote critical thinking rather than conformity. Piaget described two important educational goals. The first "principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have…

This article briefly describes CVS All Kids Can, a program launched by CVS/Pharmacy Charitable Trust and CVS/Pharmacy designed to make life easier for children with special needs. CVS is America's largest retail pharmacy, operating more than 5,400 retail and specialty pharmacy stores in 36 states and the District of Columbia. Through this…

This study examines the benefits of reading strategy training on adolescent readers' comprehension of science text. Training was provided via an automated reading strategy trainer called the Interactive Strategy Trainer for Active Reading and Thinking (iSTART), which is an interactive reading strategy trainer that utilizes animated agents to…

This paper reports on a 2-year study designed to investigate the trajectory of change in an urban 5th grade teacher as she introduces science inquiry using the Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE). Data for this study included videotapes and transcripts of classroom instruction, and audiotapes and transcripts of interviews conducted with…

The Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach enables the student to construct knowledge in his/her own way. Piaget, the founder of constructivism, saw the development of intelligence as a process involving the relationship between brain maturity and individual experience. The technology PBL (TPBL) approach confronts the student with a personal…

The effect of intervening use of molecular visualization software was tested on 73 first-year general chemistry students. Pretests and posttests included both traditional multiple-choice questions and model-building activities. Overall students improved after working with the software, although students performed less well on the model-building…

Past research has indicated that a number of problems in the teaching of science in elementary classrooms are rooted in the preparation of inservice teachers. One continuing concern is elementary teachers' lack of science content knowledge. As indicated by numerous research studies reporting positive results, one method of addressing these…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This October 29, 2004 issue of "Chronicle of Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "A Job-Hunting Guru Comes up Short" (Zimbleman, Dana A.); (2) "Distinctive Words That are Seldom Heard…

As a science subject leader and year 6 teacher in North Bristol, the author has spent the last few months exploring how an interactive whiteboard (IWB) can be used to teach science skills, particularly those that are repeatedly highlighted as problematic, such as analysis and evaluation of evidence. The IWB came with software called…

The Virtual Grand Tour (VGT) is a paradigm for integrating a presentation of an overview of a larger subject with the possibility of launching at any time an exploratory study of a given sub-topic. The name derives from the paradigm's emulation of those 18th-century travels intended to educate (especially) young, affluent British men; today, with…

This paper describes how information and communication technology (ICT) is used in the modular Open University course "T209 Information and Communication Technologies: People and Interactions", first presented in 2002. In this course ICT is used to provide students with practical experience and to support an active and collaborative approach to…

Path analysis was used to test theoretical models of relations among variables known to predict differences in children's memory--strategies, capacity, and metamemory. Children in kindergarten to fourth grade (chronological ages 5 to 11) performed different memory tasks. Several strategies (i.e., sorting, clustering, rehearsal, and self-testing)…

Botswana does not intend to be left behind in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the support of research, education, development and communication with the rest of the world. It intends to introduce computers with connections to the Internet and computer-based communication to all schools. "Excellence in Education…

Advances in information and communication technology are changing organisations, including those in educational settings. Old practices are being altered, and new practices, spaces and possibilities created. The changes are such that it is timely to consider whether our current leadership conceptions remain useful. In non-educational sectors there…

As teachers, an important part of planning curriculum is considering the relevance of what they teach their students. The author believes that project-based learning that integrates technology, language arts, and critical media literacy can be a powerful tool for learning. Not only does this kind of work connect students to the curriculum, it also…