Compares outcomes of open-inquiry and expository versions of a chemistry laboratory experiment at the university level. Investigates whether the two versions would result in different outcomes depending upon students' attitudes towards learning. Indicates that the open-inquiry version shows the most positive outcomes, and students with low…

Uses situated abstraction to understand nurses' conceptions of intensive quantity of drug concentration. Explores nurses' conceptions to undertake a pointed examination of the degree of situatedness of nurses' knowledge and reasoning. Demonstrates that nurses' conceptions were abstracted within their practice when they coordinated mathematical…

Examines the cognitive supports that underlie achievement in science using a cultural historical framework and the activity setting (AS) construct with five features: personnel, motivation, scripts, task demands, and beliefs. Reports four emergent phenomena--science activities, the building of learning, meaning in lessons, and the conflict over…

Challenges a critique of phenomenography and the idea that college students approach studies in ways leading to either "deep" or "surface" learning. Finds the description of phenomenography to be unrecognizable and based on inadequate review of the literature. Sees this attempt to invalidate this approach to research about…

Responds to criticisms of a paper rejecting phenomenography and the notion of "deep" and "surface" learning, noting that important arguments were not addressed, including the nature of the research relationship in phenomenography, the ahistorical stance of phenomenographers, their lack of appreciation for…

Presents research suggesting that college women's friendships are learning relationships in which intellectual play and performance are risk-free and in which college women reconcile the constructed barrier between autonomous and interdependent learning and engage in dynamic articulation of thinking and knowing. Discusses implications of the value…

Presents a conceptual framework for distance learning that focuses on the relationship between the tutor and the learner but also includes relationships with the course team. Highlights include established theories, implications of Vygotsky's theory for the role of the tutor, and the role of language in learning. (LRW)

A case study of a small high-tech business explains how they created a virtual cluster of innovation through supply networks, enhancing their own learning and facilitating integration of knowledge. This process overcomes limitations to management learning for small companies in isolated regions. (Contains 66 references.) (SK)

There is no substantial difference between adults' and children's learning processes: both use task-conscious and learning-conscious methods. The difference in teaching adults and children lies in differential power relationships between teachers and learners, the identities they construct, and the ways in which power and identity affect teaching…

Describes a study that explored learning in a Web-based online MBA (Masters of Business Administration) program and the structures necessary to support and enhance learning from the perspective of the learners. Findings indicated that the collaborative nature of the teamwork required provided major benefits as well as challenges for the students.…

Explains the effect of students' epistemological beliefs on their approach to physics courses. Discusses instructional practices and curricular elements suitable for both college and high school that help students develop substantially more sophisticated beliefs about knowledge and learning as measured by the Maryland Physics Expectations Survey…

Features responses to a problem that appeared in the February 2000 issue. (KHR)

Proposes a means by which inflectional paradigms can be promoted from their present status as references at the end of textbooks to a more central role in the language learning process. Suggests a computer setting can enhance this process. (Author/VWL)

Explores how children from kindergarten to 6th grade think about the same fraction problem and what that should mean for instruction. (Author)

Describes constructivism as an educational theory promoted by the National Council of Teachers of Education (NCTM), the ideals of NCTM's standards, the validity of NCTM's approach, and the research behind NCTM's recommendations. Includes examples of what teachers can do to promote student construction of knowledge in the classroom and resources…