This book reports on the professional development program Model Science Lab Project which provides a new perspective of science teaching and learning to both teachers and students. During the project, participants benefited from additional time during the study year, science content training, pedagogy training, curriculum resources, reduced…

The "learning cycle" is not a teaching method but rather a teaching procedure that allows for many methods of teaching. If teacher preparation courses are organized and delivered as learning cycles, then preservice teachers will discover that the learning cycle is an instructional model that: (1) allows science to be taught as it is…

This book is about children's needs for intellectual rigor, as seen through the work and discourse of five undergraduate elementary education students who constructed a number system in base five and then reflected on their experience in the light of what they know about young children's mathematics. The deeper purpose of developing a number…

Because state mandated testing has become so important in indicating student achievement in mathematics, measurement has become equally important in indicating student achievement. At the other end of the continuum of assessment, constructivists advocate assessing student achievement within an ongoing lesson or unit of study. The everyday…

For those working in adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) settings, finding practical options for professional development is a concern. The field has a range of program types, a largely part-time workforce, limited financial resources for training, and varied policies and requirements for professional credentialing or certification.…

The constructions of gender formed by elementary school children, aged 7 through 11 years, were studied in relation to their own lives and the issue of adult occupations as revealed in children's role plays. Data were collected from dialogue and role play with 145 children in primary schools in England, and these data were analyzed in a…

This study examines Finnish college students' views on learning in a virtual university. Respondents studied at Helsinki Virtual Open University (HEVI) and the Apaja Internet Service from 1995-99. HEVI is a Web-based learning environment where students can study, get advice, receive help from tutors, and use office services. Apaja Internet Service…

This research report relates to one aspect of a longitudinal study conducted into children's spelling development during the first three years of formal schooling. The study aimed to monitor the development of conventional spelling in the unaided writing of children 5-7 years of age attending one of six schools in Great Britain and to consider the…

The findings of this study support the positive effect of constructivist learning practices, specifically on emphasis on problem solving strategies and their effect on student mathematics achievement. The results also suggest that setting, certification, teaching experience, gender, and minority status are factors related to the use of…

Faculty members at St. Mary's University of Minnesota have been engaged in a process to develop a more student-centered curriculum. Administration and faculty taking the lead in this endeavor have begun to embrace much of the literature in the area of constructivism as a philosophical foundation for guiding this change. The result is the near…

This document identifies five types of learning experiences which are relevant to understanding students' understanding of concepts and principles. These include exploring existing concepts, honing and clustering concepts, developing analytical and reasoning skills, developing problem solving skills, and structuring knowledge in memory. Each of…

This conceptual framework is grounded in the data analysis of transcribed interviews with 50 Ontario teachers and the text of a 7-month online discussion group among 25 principals from England, Ireland, Canada, United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Both methods were employed with the stated purpose of understanding emotional experiences of…

The background of this paper is an internal research project at the German National Research Center for Information Technology, Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute, (GMD-IPSI) dealing with software engineering, computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL) and practical biotech knowledge. The project goal is to develop a…

This study evaluated the tendency toward positive beliefs about constructivism for teacher candidates at one university's teacher education program, identifying differences in the beliefs about constructivist learning between early childhood, elementary, and middle school teacher candidates who had taken early childhood methods courses and those…

This paper examines educational environments that promote learning and explores the ways that such environments produce differentially positive results. It is based on a study that investigated the effects of a theoretically based social-constructivist approach to education, in contrast to the more classroom-based "abstract" instruction used in…