Background: Adaptation to learning styles has been proposed to enhance learning. Objective: We hypothesized that learners with sensing learning style would perform better using a problem-first instructional method while intuitive learners would do better using an information-first method. Design: Randomized, controlled, crossover trial. Setting:…

Within Education Queensland's recent "new basics" curriculum initiative, Education Queensland developed 20 transdisciplinary learning and assessment tasks for Years 1 to 9, called "rich tasks". This paper critiques two of the rich tasks that were most closely aligned to knowledge and skills within the health and physical…

This article examines the components of a theoretical problem-based learning framework adopted by a reform-minded tertiary institution in Singapore in order to shift away from traditional models of didactic instruction. The goals of this framework are to enhance the ways in which students think and augment knowledge building within authentic…

Increased attention to preparing addictions counselors and related professionals to use evidence-based practices has brought new attention to the preparation programs for addictions counselors. Research and theory about adult learning emphasizes the importance of students as active participants in problem and experience based learning. This paper…

Gaps between teaching practices and research recommendations have been well documented. One challenge for research is in understanding the processes and systems that promote a bridging of these gaps. A year-long study with four primary teachers documented ten support mechanisms, or connection levers, that the teachers raised as important for…

In this article, the author describes an activity he introduced to his engineering drafting students that involved a Tootsie Roll product. In this particular activity, he assigned his students to find out how many licks are needed to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. He first asked his students to do some research if an answer exists for…

This article discusses certain aspects of mathematics teacher education in Russia. To be able successfully to teach through problems, a teacher must know how to select the necessary assignments, to construct mathematical tasks according to methodological principles, and to organize work on these assignments in the classroom; in short, as they say…

Previous research on students' learning strategies has examined the relationships between either perceptions of the learning environment or personality and learning strategies. The focus of this study was on the joint relationships between the students' perceptions of the learning environment, their personality, and the learning strategies they…

Small-group problem-based learning (PBL) is widely embraced as a method of study in health professions schools and at many different levels of education. Complexity science provides a different lens with which to view and understand the application of this method. It presents new concepts and vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to practitioners of…

Books and courses on research methods, statistics, or both, often necessarily focus on one topic at a time. This compartmentalized approach prevents students from seeing the big picture. To address this shortcoming, I developed an exercise through which students experience the whole research process in a single class period. From posing a…

The professional expertise of educational leaders has been defined through the lens of problem-solving processes. Problem-based learning has therefore become an increasingly popular instructional approach in principal preparatory programs. As such, this study represents an initial attempt to explore learning from success (i.e., success-based…

This article provides an overview of problem-based learning (PBL) in Canadian undergraduate medical education and continuing medical education (CME) programs. The CME field in Canada is described, and the major professional associations that require physicians to take annual courses and programs are noted. A brief history of PBL in undergraduate…

This study compared a traditional lecture-based life span development course to the same course redesigned using Fink's (2003) taxonomy of significant learning. The goals, activities, and feedback within the course corresponded to Fink's 6 taxa (knowledge, application, integration, human dimension, caring, learning how to learn). Undergraduates in…

In this problem-based learning activity (PBL), students embark on a science trek to answer the question "Where is the science in my neighborhood?" The project serves as an excellent review of science curriculum in anticipation of Virginia's year-end standardized test--the Standards of Learning (SOL). This has proved to be an interesting…

This paper describes a problem-based chemistry education model in which students perform scientific research on a local environmentally relevant problem. The project is a collaboration among The University of Montana and local high schools centered around Missoula, Montana. "Air Toxics under the Big Sky" involves high school students in collecting…