Blended learning has become an increasingly popular form of e-learning, and is particularly suitable to the process of transitioning towards e-learning from traditional forms of learning and teaching. This paper describes the use of the blended e-learning model, which is based on a mixture of collaborative learning, problem-based learning (PBL)…

This paper revisits the discussion about the objectives of scientific literacy-oriented chemistry teaching, its connection to the German concept of "Allgemeinbildung", and the debate of "science through education" vs. "education through science". About 10 years ago the sociocritical and problem-oriented approach to…

The concurrent improvement in average grades earned by college graduates would seem to indicate better quality students, although some observers attribute that to grade inflation. From the author's perspective derived from almost four decades of teaching at one institution, students are intellectually as good as ever; however, the author sees a…

This paper discusses how to increase the diversity of engineering education by making it more relevant and gainful for all students, as well as more attractive to women. Questions were raised whether, and in which ways the problem-based and project-based learning (PBL) method is apt for increasing gender diversity from both the quality and the…

In this paper, we focus on the efforts of educators at nine different research sites within the United States, funded by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), to develop and implement innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum on the relationship of the environment and human health. The NIEHS correctly…

Law classes help reveal the successes of the American legal system. Students observe that the law is honorable, workable, and effective. At the same time, law classes offer the opportunity to look at those situations where the legal system sometimes struggles to achieve its justice goals. Students certainly need to learn that lesson, but they also…

Hypothesis testing is one of the more difficult concepts for students to master in a basic, undergraduate statistics course. Students often are puzzled as to why statisticians simply don't calculate the probability that a hypothesis is true. This article presents an exercise that forces students to lay out on their own a procedure for testing a…

This article describes the process of planning and implementing a problem-based learning community. Business and communication students from a large university in the Western United States competed in teams to solve an authentic business problem posed by a Fortune 500 company. The company's willingness to adopt some of their recommendations…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between student influence, students' strategic approaches to studying and academic achievement, and to examine differences between students in a Master's programme in Engineering with conventional teaching and one based on problem-based learning in a sample of 268 students. A version of…

The purpose of this article is to present the results of a study conducted to investigate how the attributes of 3-D technology such as avatars, 3-D space, and comic style bubble dialogue boxes affect participants' social, cognitive, and teaching presences in a blended problem-based learning environment. The community of inquiry model was adopted…

This paper reports on one aspect of a larger case study that explores the nature of motivation to learn in an online distance environment. The study adopts self-determination theory (SDT) as a theoretical framework and focuses particularly on the underlying concepts of autonomy and competence. These are used to investigate ways in which certain…

In this paper we explore students' engagement in a new media enhanced problem-based learning (PBL) environment and investigate the characteristics of these environments that facilitate learning. We investigated both student experiences using a new media enhanced PBL environment and the specific elements students found most supportive of their…

Knowledge translation (KT) interventions can facilitate the successful implementation of best practices by engaging and actively involving various stakeholders in the change process. However, for novices, the design of KT interventions can be overwhelming. In this article, we describe our experience as participants in a problem-based case study on…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of using renewable energy data, obtained from a comprehensive data acquisition system, on improving students' learning and developing their higher-order learning skills. This study used renewable energy data available through a data acquisition system installed and tested by the Green Research…

This study examined science teachers' conceptions of creativity in science education, pedagogical ideas, and contextual factors perceived as constraints on teaching for creativity and any differences in the conceptions of teachers from South Korea and the United States. Participants in the study consisted of 44 South Korean and 21 US secondary…