Against the background of the Deweyan tradition of "Democracy and Education," we discuss problems of complexity and reductionism in education and educational philosophy. First, we investigate some of Dewey's own criticisms of reductionist tendencies in the educational traditions, theories, and practices of his time. Secondly, we explore…

The paper contrasts two different approaches to the educational challenges of the ubiquitous, rapidly developing information and communication technologies (ICT). The first is the constructivist "knowledge building" theory spearheaded by Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia and recently further developed by Kai Hakkarainen and Sami…

Video games offer an exciting opportunity for learners to engage in computational thinking in informal contexts. This paper describes a genre of learning environments called constructionist video games that are especially well suited for developing learners' computational thinking skills. These games blend features of conventional video games with…

Despite rapid growth in the numbers of students with disabilities enrolling in higher education, there is limited research about their experiences in colleges and universities, and information about their collegiate activism is even more limited. Through a constructivist grounded theory study of 59 college students and recent graduates, we…

This article explores the use and usefulness of carefully designed transdisciplinary pedagogical templates (TPTs) aligned to different learning theories. The TPTs are based on the Learning Design Framework outlined in the Larnaca Declaration (Dalziel et al. in this collection). The generation of pedagogical plans or templates is not new. However,…

The study depicts the procedure of writing a constructivist dissertation by reporting side by side the story of HIV-infected African American women's reproductive health decision-making. The context of these women served as the framework from which the dissertation was written. The article describes how these women and their stakeholders…

This paper provides a critical analysis of art-based research in education, that is, in constructivist learning and teaching. It presents the methodological features and advantages of art-based research in terms of the axiological, ontological and epistemological features of the constructivist, participatory and critical scientific paradigm, and…

The purpose of this dissertation is to test a model of relationships among factors characterizing aspects of a student-centered constructivist learning environment and student outcomes of satisfaction and academic achievement in introductory undergraduate chemistry courses. Constructivism was chosen as the theoretical foundation for this research…

The recent proliferation of technological devices with natural user interfaces (e.g., touchscreen tablets) is regenerating scholarship on the role of sensorimotor interaction in conceptual learning. Some researchers of mathematical education have adopted views from constructivism, phenomenology, enactivism, and ecological dynamics to interpret…

This design case describes the development of the Invention Coach, an intelligent exploratory learning environment (ELE) for the constructivist activity of Invention. The Invention Coach scaffolds students as they invent mathematical formulas to describe contrasting cases. In this paper, we detail our process and rationale for three key design…

Language educators consider student motivation as fundamental in supporting student learning and central to making sound pedagogical decisions in order to help students develop competence in the target language. However, many teachers opt for using simplistic and prescriptive formulas or one-size-fits-all motivational models that claim positive…

This 22-session constructivist teaching experiment set out to investigate a preschool student's number understanding relative to his subitizing activity. Subitizing, a quick apprehension of the numerosity of a small set of items, has been found to characterize perceptual and conceptual processes students rely on as their understanding of number…

The topic of models and modeling has come to be important for science and mathematics education in recent years. The topic of "Modeling" topic is especially important for examinations such as PISA which is conducted at an international level and measures a student's success in mathematics. Mathematical modeling can be defined as using…

Playground science has a great deal to offer in terms of creative learning; it is, after all, an environment designed for playful behaviour. Drawing sketches and words with chalk on the playground itself at first feels like breaking rules, but children soon become comfortable at "playing with ideas" in this way. They can then be used in…

Appreciative Leadership is unique among leadership theories both past and present. This uniqueness includes its strength-based practice, search for the positive in people and organizations, and the role this plays in organizational innovation and transformation. What follows is a summary of Appreciative Inquiry and the five main principles on…