The effects of a constructivist teaching approach on student academic achievement, self-concept, and learning strategies

The effects of a constructivist approach on academic achievement, self-concept and learning strategies, and student preference were investigated. The 76 six graders were divided into two groups. The experimental group was taught using the constructivist approach while the control group was taught using the traditional approach. A total of 40 hours over nine weeks was used to implement the experiment. The instruments used were as follows; mathematics tests administered by the teacher, self-concept inventory, learning strategies inventory, and a classroom environment survey. The results are 1) constructivist teaching is more effective than traditional teaching in terms of academic achievement; 2) constructivist teaching is not effective in relation to self-concept and learning strategy, but had some effect upon motivation, anxiety towards learning and self-monitoring; 3) a constructivist environment was preferred to a traditional classroom.     

From learning to development: a sociocultural approach to instruction

Theories of human development and learning provide an essential framework in which to understand the mechanisms involved in the process of formal instruction as a specific form of teaching and learning in the school setting. The sociocultural theory of development, founded on the works of Lev Vygotsky, espouses the view that social interaction among two or more people is the greatest motivating force in human development. Communication, via the use of language, provides one of the most effective means of social interaction. By collaborating toward a common cultural goal, people co‐construct new knowledge by building on each participant's contribution. Based on the main tenets of sociocultural theory, the following eight interrelated principles for instruction are presented, namely, that it should be: mediated; discursive; collaborative; responsive; contextualized; activity‐oriented; developmental; and integrated.     

Designing a telematic learning environment in a social constructivist paradigm

The authors of this paper are engaged in designing and developing telematic learning environments to assist in programmes of initial teacher training. Two aspects have been supported by European Union (EU) funded programmes: the Telematics for Teacher Training (T3) and Reflect projects. Telematics is a term describing the combined use of information technology and telecommunications. The authors are not searching for a pedagogy of telematics but are seeking ways in which telematics can assist pedagogy. Their work specifically addresses the question of whether it is possible to design such environments in a social constructivist paradigm and the evaluation of their work regularly returns to the theoretical model of learning central to their training programmes. The authors will show that whereas the aspect of video-conferencing keeps faith with their view of the nature of learning, the design of the website is raising some issues that have, as yet, to be resolved     

科学探究教学:在新课程标准下的探索与实践

引导学生进行科学探究,培养学生科学探究能力,是科学课程倡导的教育理念。科学探究既是学生的学习目标,又是重要的学习方式,更是一种教学理念,贯穿整个教学过程。科学探究具备一定的特征,包含诸多要素。本文在对科学探究的含义、特征及其要素的分析基础上,着重从在科学课程课堂教学中开展科学探究进行了探讨,并结合实例阐述了在探究教学中应注重的规律和方法。     

Lesson study: A collaborative approach to scholarship for teaching and learning in higher education

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning has become an important field of inquiry, focusing on the development of new and critical pedagogic approaches in higher education. It is a broad field leading to the emergence of a number of contrasting perspectives concerning the development of insights into teaching and learning. In this article, we explore the potential for Lesson Study to act as a framework for reflecting on and developing pedagogic practice in the university sector. Originating in Japan over a century ago, Lesson Study is a collaborative tool for analysing and developing understanding of student learning. This makes it an ideal tool for capturing and interrogating new and critical insights into teaching and learning. An outline framework is suggested for developing the use of Lesson Study in higher education and we discuss how it can form a positive methodology for extending the work of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.     

Understanding teacher learning in secondary education: The relations of teacher activities to changed beliefs about teaching and learning

In this study, relations between learning activities of teachers and changes in their beliefs were examined. Thirty-four teachers in Dutch secondary education were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their beliefs about teaching and learning on two occasions. They were also asked to report on learning activities that they undertook. Teachers who had changed their beliefs in a direction congruent with the aims of recent educational reforms often reported experimentation with colleagues' teaching methods. Teachers who changed their beliefs in a direction that was not congruent with the reform often reported experimentation with alternative methods due to discontent with the effectiveness of current methods.     

Teaching and learning about human nutrition: a constructivist approach

The results of a constructivism‐based teaching programme on human nutrition for students in the second year of secondary education (13‐ and 14‐year‐olds) are analysed in light of the ideas held by the students before and after implementation of the programme. The results show how most of the students who participated in this programme reorganized their ideas concerning the nutritional process and achieved a fuller understanding of how nutrition comprises a series of related and integrated processes. Other students, who followed a more conventional method based on the teacher explanation and textbooks, tended to have erroneous or incomplete ideas concerning the nutritional process.     

EJS建模软件在中学物理探究式教学中的应用研究

EJS是一种基于现代教学思想的新型教学软件,其特点是创作过程简单、自动生成代码,界面友好,使学生可以利用特定的可视化模型来学习具体、抽象的概念,并在自己探究、理解、证明的基础上记忆,最终达到灵活运用、解决问题的目的。该文以中学物理教学为例介绍该软件的使用方法及基于EJS支持下的探究式教学的设计和学生开展探究的关键点,并进行实证了分析和反思。基于EJS支持的物理探究式教学可以增强学生对知识的理解,培养学生的问题解决能力,提高学生对相关知识的学习成绩。     

教学模式创新对英语教学的启示

教学模式论是20世纪70年代以来教学研究的一个新领域。本文从教学模式系列的角度详细介绍了基于不同学习理论下的各种教学模式,并简要探讨了教学模式的创新对未来我国的外语教学的启示。     

Motivation in a computer-supported collaborative learning scenario and its impact on learning activities and knowledge acquisition

Addressing a drawback in current research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), this study investigated the influence of motivation on learning activities and knowledge acquisition during CSCL. Participants’ (N = 200 university students) task was to develop a handout for which they had first an individual preparing phase followed by a computer-supported collaborative learning phase immediately afterwards. It was hypothesized that in both phases current motivation (in terms of expectancy and value components) influences both learning activities and knowledge acquisition in a positive way. According to main results, only goal orientations (before learning) were associated with knowledge acquisition respectively observed learning activities during the collaborative phase. Expectancy and value components of current motivation related neither to observed learning activities nor to knowledge acquisition during collaborative learning but were in part associated with learning activities and knowledge acquisition during individual learning. The discussion addresses several possible explanations for these unexpected results.     

案例教学在教育学教学中的应用

案例教学是教育者本着理论与实际有机整合的宗旨，遵循教学目的的要求，以案例为基本素材，将学习者引入一个特定事件的真实情境中，通过学生主体性的学习，培养学生反思、创新能力，使理论与实际紧密结合的一种有效教学形式。案例教学是通过分析、讨论和总结案例三个阶段进行，是弥补当前教育学教学不足的有效形式。     

Challenges of applying a student-centered approach to learning in the context of education in Kyrgyzstan

The challenge of maximizing student learning has been paramount in many societies. This issue has become especially salient in the context of drastic social and political changes that have taken place in countries such as Kyrgyzstan. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, teachers and students are confronted with new ways of thinking, which are challenging their understanding of how to promote efficient learning. In this paper, the challenges of applying and developing a new approach to learning, the student-centered approach, will be discussed within the framework of a Normative Theory of Social Change.     

探究式学习在政治理论课教学中的运用

探究式学习作为一种新型的教学模式和学习模式,更能有效地适应政治理论课的特点,是政治理论课教学不可缺少的方法;政治理论课的理论性、实时性、实践性等特点,以及目前我国社会转型的现实和大学生的思想特点、以学生为本的教学目标要求等都迫切需要对传统的说教式教学模式进行改革;实践表明,问题探讨模式、社会实践模式和自学思考模式作为探究式学习模式的具体体现,在政治理论课教学过程中的具体运用需要与接受式教学模式有机结合,合理搭配。     

Relations between student teachers’ learning patterns and their concrete learning activities

This study aims to unravel the relationships between student teachers’ learning patterns and how they actually learn in practice as measured during multiple concrete learning experiences. In previous research aptitude and event measures often pointed in different directions. 90 student teachers’ learning patterns were measured with an aptitude instrument, designed for the specific context of learning to teach. Multiple concrete learning activities were measured with a structured digital log. Results showed meaningful relations between students’ learning patterns and their learning activities, taking multiple learning experiences into account. Survival oriented student teachers show more inactiveness in their learning, reproduction oriented student teachers learn by doing to improve their teaching behavior, dependent meaning oriented student teachers are more influenced by previous negative experiences and independent meaning oriented student teachers show the most deep and most active way of learning. But interestingly, the results also show that some relations as described in literature did not show up. The choice for a particular processing strategy and also the intentionality of the learning experiences was not related to student teachers’ learning patterns. This study demonstrates the added value of combining both types of instruments in research and practice.     

Innovation in Teaching and Assessing Mathematics at University Level

Increasing numbers of ‘teaching-only’ staff are being appointed in higher education institutions in the UK. At one research-intensive university, a new category of academic staff was recently introduced: University Teachers, who are required to engage in scholarly activity as part of their conditions of employment. For many this scholarly activity equates to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). In an attempt to support this growing body of staff in their engagement with SoTL, a year-long Learning Community (LC) was formed. This paper outlines the activities of the LC and presents the outcomes of a collaborative project to explore its members' experiences. We describe the developmental process of LC membership and consider the parallels between our findings and theories of social capital and transformative learning. We conclude with a consideration of how LCs might be used as an engaging form of academic staff development.     

浅议AutoCAD探究式学习的教学

以AutoCAD课程《常用符号库的创建与应用》课堂教学为例,依据国内外先进的教育理论,通过阐述探究式学习的教学策略和教学过程,探讨以“激趣设疑--分析探究--归纳总结--拓展延伸“为基本程序的探究式学习的教学,让学生在探究中学习和理解探究,培养创新意识、实践能力和团队精神.     

Systems,transfer, and fields: Evaluating a new approach to energy instruction

Energy is a central concept in science in every discipline and also an essential player in many of the issues facing people everywhere on the globe. However, studies have shown that by the end of K-12 schooling, most students do not reach the level of understanding required to be able to use energy to make sense of a wide range of phenomena. Many researchers have questioned whether the conceptual foundations of traditional approaches to energy instruction may be responsible for students' difficulties. In response to these concerns, we developed and tested a novel approach to middle school physical science energy instruction that was informed by the recommendations of the Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012a) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (NGSS Lead States, 2013). This new approach differs substantially from more traditional approaches to energy instruction in that it does not require energy forms and it emphasizes connections between energy, systems, and fields that mediate interaction-at-a-distance. We investigated student learning during this novel approach and contrasted it with student learning within a comparable unit based on a more traditional approach to energy instruction. Our findings indicate that students who learned in the new approach outperformed students who learned in the traditional approach in every quantitative and qualitative aspect considered in this study, irrespective of their prior knowledge of energy. They developed more parsimonious knowledge networks in relation to energy that focused primarily around the concept of energy transfer. This study warrants further investigation into the value of this new approach to energy instruction in both middle and high school.     

Conceptions of learning and approaches to learning in Portuguese students

The article describes a study that attempted to characterise Portuguese students’ conceptions of learning and approaches to learning. A sample of university students answered open questions on the meaning, process and context of learning. Results, derived from content analysis, replicate most conceptions of learning described by phenomenographical research (i.e. distinction between learning as memorisation and learning as comprehension). Moreover, new variants of known conceptions of learning emerged (e.g. learning occurs through: exploratory practice; learning to learn; motivation) and an apparently new conception (i.e. learning as understanding and application). The same sample answered a questionnaire which attempted to measure motivation and learning strategies. Through factorial analysis of results it was possible to confirm the presence of three well-known approaches to learning: surface, deep and achieving.     

大学英语网络自主学习策略和能力培养探析

高校英语教学网络自主学习模式具有坚实的教育理论基础和现实实践条件,在教学过程中应侧重培养学生积极有效的自主学习策略和能力。教师应从建构主义和人本主义的角度出发,以现代认知语言学理论为基础,激励学生的自主学习意识,帮助学生形成积极有效的学习策略,拓展学生的自主学习空间。