This study describes an elementary science model of professional development through mentoring by university science education professors working with teachers at a private elementary school in a regional city in Queensland, Australia. A cross-cultural collaboration involving professors from the United States and Australia resulted in the socially…

Talking about religion in public middle schools has moved from taboo to necessity during the past few years. Although some middle schoolers hold knowledge of their own religion, most remain uninformed about any of the world's religions, including, for many, their own. The purpose of this article is to make the case for religious literacy--the…

This article recounts the battle in the "math wars" that took place in Massachusetts, United States in 1999-2000 over the scope, content and teaching of the state's K-12 mathematics curriculum. Harsh controversies arose between the partisans of a "reform-math" movement stressing an undefined "conceptual understanding"…

A central focus in the study of metacognition is that readers need to recognize what they know about a topic, they need to realize when they have read something they do not understand, and they need to know how to remediate any discrepancies in their understanding. This paper is presented in three sections. The first section discusses what is…

This document consists of one volume year (four quarterly issues) of the journal "HyperNexus," containing articles on hypermedia and multimedia use in education. Typical article topics are: language-learning software; teaching and learning HyperCard; hypermedia-based teacher education; the use of music in virtual reality; integrating…

This study examined curriculum change involving teacher development based on the intellectual development of teachers, parents, and children by means of the theory of schema development. The paper describes constructivist pedagogy and schema and their importance for young children's learning, then reports on a qualitative study of over 300…

The advance of science and technology, the rise of mass consumerism, the deterioration of families, and other factors have enormous implications for career counseling. This digest outlines a constructivist career counseling perspective. This perspective is based on the following concepts: there are multiple realities and no single "God's…

Educational research shows that technology can enhance student acquisition of discrete skills through drill and practice. This document presents findings of a study that examined whether technology could provide significant support for constructivist, project-based teaching and learning approaches. It also identified the elements necessary for…

This paper is an analysis of a project that involved African American middle school students in a drama program that was based on their lives and the stories of their community. Students were trained in performance skills, participated in the development of a script, and then performed the script in local schools. The 10 student participants, 5…

The purposes of this paper are to: share insights into the development of online collaborative learning experiments; discuss the role of instructional systems design (ISD); and present examples of design components within an ISD-based framework. The model presented explains the people, processes, and products that are involved in creating online…

Scaffolding refers to the instructional support that instructors or more skillful peers offer learners to bridge the gap between their current skill levels and the desired level. An aspect of scaffolding that is often ignored is the fading of support as the learner masters the skill. It has been suggested that there is a risk of over-relying on…

This study presents work in progress that investigates the use of visual learning logs by preservice elementary teachers as one component of developing visual literacy for science teaching and learning. The purpose of the study is to explore the use of visual learning logs as an alternative mode for thinking and communicating about experiences in…

Many primary school teachers feel a lack of confidence in teaching science and technology. This paper aims to demonstrate useful and practical strategies for non-specialist science teachers to use in stimulating a positive scientific attitude among primary school students. It proposes that teachers should strive to develop children's natural…

The case can be made that school-to-work programs can be a college preparatory strategy because they can teach academic skills as well as and possibly even better than more traditional approaches. The skepticism about its potential as a means of preparing students for college is based on misconceptions about its characteristics. Its three basic…

This videotape and viewing guide present an emerging learner-centered paradigm of teaching and learning and contrast this new paradigm with traditional concepts. An associated guide describes the elementary school in the videotape, noting the full inclusion of 50 students identified as disabled, the team approach in which teachers are renamed…