In three sixth-grade classrooms, students' independent writing activities and interviews were analyzed to identify affective links to prior experience that were used in students' knowledge construction efforts. Learner-centered teacher strategies related to classroom dialogue and activity choice can increase affective/emotional affordances in the…

Describes a 30-year-old new teacher's first year in an Oregon fourth-grade classroom, as he grapples with his students' diverse learning needs, inadequate textbooks, the isolation of being a rookie, and the pressures of simultaneously engaging his students' interest and meeting state standards. Lists four helpful books for new teachers. (SV)

The main research question of this study was: How do selected high school chemistry students' understandings of the elements, structure, and periodicity of the Periodic Table change as they participate in a unit study consisting of inquiry-based activities emphasizing construction of innovative science graphics? The research question was answered…

Extending inquiry-based learning to allow students to develop their own questions and design and perform their own experiments can greatly enhance education. Students gain an appreciation of how knowledge is acquired and insights into evaluating data. Although easily applied to laboratory courses, the technique is also applicable to lecture…

This paper explores the effects of specific teacher threshold knowledges about boys and gender on the implementation of a so-called 'boy friendly' curriculum at one junior secondary high school in Australia. Through semi-structured interviews with selected staff at the school, it examines the normalizing assumptions and 'truth claims' about boys,…

A clinical study was designed and used to show the relationship of health and medicine, in a typical clinical scenario, where many chemical principles are involved and that an integrated knowledge of chemistry and biology is essential to the understanding, diagnosing and treating of illnesses. A case study would be a positive learning experience…

Active engagement in the classroom is one of the best tools available for overcoming conceptual difficulties. Science educators agree that students of all ages learn more by participating actively in the interpretation of scientific phenomena (NAS 2003; NSF 1998). In this article, the authors describe demonstrations in class using paper wads as an…

The topic of social structure and interaction presents social science professors with a notable teaching opportunity. The active learning technique described in this article requires students to briefly analyze the statuses and roles of individuals with whom they are familiar. They then role play assigned characters as they would interact at a…

Basic writing students and online learning are not necessarily an ideal match. In hopes of stimulating more conversation and research on how technology can best advance the basic writing curriculum, this article first classifies the problems students and faculty encounter when a basic writing class moves online and discusses the pedagogical…

A Mind Map is an outline in which the major categories radiate from a central image and lesser categories are portrayed as branches of larger branches. The author describes an in-class exercise in which small groups of students each create a Mind Map for a specific topic. This exercise is another example of an active and collaborative learning…

Outlines how students develop a price index based on candy-purchasing decisions made by class members. Explains that students used the index to practice calculating inflation rates and to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the consumer price index (CPI). States that the exercise has been used in introductory and intermediate macroeconomics…

Virtual project rooms (VPRs) may support collaborative project-based learning groups by facilitating project management, documentation and communication. In this study a set of experiments was carried out at Eindhoven University of Technology using the MS Outlook/Exchange software as a groupware platform for design-oriented group projects. The…

This study explores a fourth grade classroom, hypothesizing about the possibilities for using drama to teach elementary school science. The case study provides one with the author's first glimpse into a fourth grade science classroom, as well as a preliminary examination of whether or not room exists for drama in the elementary science classroom.…

This project involved the use of two small, closely matched non-majors introductory biology classes to test the use of the Jigsaw method of teaching vs. a passive, instructor-oriented model of teaching. In this study, the Jigsaw method was used as a jumping off point for the teaching-learning of the material. Students were to learn the concepts of…

This article is about enhancing critical thinking as a crucial aspect of the competence citizens need to participate in society. First empirical research into the question which instructional strategies are "effective" in enhancing critical thinking is reviewed. Characteristics of instruction that are assumed to enhance critical thinking are:…