This forum will initiate with a description of the implementation of a constructivist-based reform effort in k-12 classrooms in the US. The reform effort was an online collaboration among four teachers in 4 and 5 grades classrooms to implement a design problem-based unit meant to develop higher-order thinking responses in students. The unit design principles are correlated to current research i...

Reform is generating a great deal of excitement and energy is associated with many positive classroom changes. But policymakers and educators are also facing a number of challenges in designing and implementing the new policies. This policy brief examines these challenges as well as strategies states are using to address them. It draws from CPRE's studies of reform in 19 states and from discuss...

Constructivism learning theory is the further development as behaviorism arrives at cognitivism. According to its teaching theory: knowledge is uncertain; the learning process of knowledge is also the construction process of knowledge; students are the main body of learning activity and they construct knowledge on their own initiatives; teachers are the helpers and the drivers for students cons...

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate criteria by which the principles of curriculum reform can be judged. To this end, the paper presents an overview of standard critiques of medical education and examines the ways medical curriculum reforms have responded to these critiques. The paper then sets out our assessment of these curriculum reforms along three parameters: pedagogy, educational co...

www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 331 18 FEBRUARY 2011 811 COVER False-colored atomic force micrograph of two types of molecules forming a mixed self-assembled monolayer on a gold surface. The two molecules differ in height by 0.2 nanometers, giving the appearance of ripples. This image was awarded fi rst place in the photography category in the 2010 Science/NSF International Science & Engineering...

Title of Document: THE RELATOINSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER PERCEPTIONS OF AUTONOMY IN THE CLASSROOM AND STANDARDS BASED ACCOUNTABILITY REFORM Dina Sparks, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Directed By: Dr. Robert Croninger and Dr. Betty Malen, Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership Over the past 30 years, standards based accountability reform (SBA) has taken hold in public education. SBA ...

In 1990, the National Science Foundation (NSF) created the Statewide Systemic Initiative Program. The solicitation issued by the Directorate for Science and Engineering Education sought proposals “for projects intended to broaden the impact, accelerate the pace, and increase the effectiveness of improvements in science, mathematics, and engineering education in both K-12 and post-secondary leve...