By the 1970s a fundamental shift had taken place in German science education. This was a shift away from the learning of more-or-less isolated facts and facets in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics towards a restructuring of science teaching along the general principles of the respective science domains. The changes included also the addition of…

Problem based learning has more recently become a common term in public education. There is much positive potential when implementing problem based learning at the high school level. Here I review positives while not completely ignoring some of the negatives associated with implementing a problem based learning model at the high school level. More…

Over the last few years, WTAMU Mathematics, Engineering and Science faculty has used interdisciplinary projects as the basis for implementation of a linked-class approach to Problem-Based Learning (PBL). A project that has significant relevance to engineering statics, fluid mechanics, and calculus is the Hydrostatic Pressure Project. This project…

This paper describes some ideas and experiences with training student engineers in creativity and critical thinking. In our survey, a large majority (82%) of respondents felt that as compared to all other kind of academic engagements, their projects had contributed most to develop their creativity. About 50% had also felt that their projects were…

In problem-based learning (PBL), students working in collaborative groups learn by resolving complex, realistic problems under the guidance of faculty. There is some evidence of PBL effectiveness in medical school settings where it began, and there are numerous accounts of PBL implementation in various undergraduate contexts, replete with…

This article describes an undergraduate lab exercise that demonstrates the importance of students thinking critically about what they see through a microscope. The students are given growth data from tip-growing organisms that suggest the cells grow in a pulsatile manner. The students then critique this data in several exercises that incorporate…

This article presents a case study of how a business school has developed enterprise education to incorporate ethics and social responsibility. The authors describe the process of developing volunteering opportunities and embedding them in the curriculum, and outline the underlying pedagogy. They describe how existing approaches to project-based…

This paper discusses a study of students learning core conceptual perspectives from recent scientific research on complexity using a hypermedia learning environment in which different types of scaffolding were provided. Three comparison groups used a hypermedia system with agent-based models and scaffolds for problem-based learning activities that…

When it comes to technology, many schools know what they want. They want targeted and scalable solutions that enhance learning and meet the NETS.S. And the teachers in those schools want simple, strategic instructional frameworks for developing their students' basic and digital age skills while meeting diverse learning needs. But as many…

In many areas of applied sciences, such as management and engineering, the generation and dissemination of theory and knowledge is increasingly woven into practice. This leaves teaching and research institutions with the challenge of developing and organising teaching activities that are effective from a student learning perspective. This paper…

School superintendents' role has shifted from the traditional emphasis on managerial aspects to one on instructional leadership (on teaching and learning issues) achieved by generating collaborative learning opportunities at the both school and district levels. Whereas collaborative learning processes in schools have generally been associated with…

This study examines the effects of two learning environments (i.e., problem-based learning [PBL] versus lecture-based [LB] environments) on undergraduates' study motivation. Survey results demonstrated that PBL students scored higher on competence but did not differ from LB students on autonomous motivation. Analyses of focus groups further…

In this regular feature of "Educational Technology," Michael F. Shaughnessy and Susan M. Fulgham present their interview with Ryan Watkins, Associate Professor of Educational Technology at the George Washington University and the author of 10 books and more than 95 articles. In this interview, Watkins discusses the following topics:…

Creating an innovative suite of courses within the Bachelor of Arts has required the development of a complex pedagogy, particularly when the needs of the context require an interdisciplinary approach. This paper, which utilises reflection on practice as its methodology, explores the Social Enterprise core stream which has been a significant…

This article describes an initiative to provide IS management a capstone course that builds on the zone of proximal development concept, oriented towards developing prioritization and critical reasoning skills, and to promote self-learning. Request for proposal business cases appear to offer effective mechanisms for retaining context, while…