The authors use digital photographs to help children recall "key events" in a practical activity--those moments that provide rich learning opportunities. The captured images of particular events helped the children to recall what they were doing at a particular time and prevented confusion over which event was being discussed. They also…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the use of an existing instrument, the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES)(Taylor, Dawson & Fraser, 1995; Taylor, Fraser & Fisher, 1993, 1997), for providing insights into the classroom learning environments of beginning science teachers. In the first year of the study, the CLES was…

Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) integrates inquiry, problem- and project-based learning, cooperative learning, and authentic assessment. Case studies were carried out on 21 teachers who used CTL to teach science in elementary schools to diverse groups of children. The findings indicated that the conditions that fostered the implementation…

This article describes Project Breakthrough, federally funded as a demonstration through the Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act. Project staff worked for 3 years with three elementary schools in South Carolina to train teachers in the use of language arts and science curriculum developed by the Center for Gifted Education at the College of…

In view of increasing concern about the Nation's serious waste of natural resources and the growing interest in a permanent program of conservation education, it is fitting and desirable that schools should be able to secure help from the U.S. Office of Education in introducing the subject into the regular school curriculum. Courses of study and…

This report describes how the education system in the United States compares with education systems in the other Group of Eight (G-8) countries. The G-8 countries--Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States--are among the world's most economically developed countries. Comparative…

Students' abstract reasoning abilities can differ from one society to another. Students' profiles play significant roles in these differences. The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between middle school students' cognitive development levels and their profiles (age, gender, and science achievement) using the Science Cognitive…

This book offers a unique perspective on history instruction in the elementary and middle grades. Through case studies of teachers and students in diverse classrooms and from diverse backgrounds, the text shows children engaging in authentic historical investigations, often in the context of an integrated social studies curriculum. The authors…

This thesis describes a project to design a primary school physics learning environment which takes into account teachers' needs, design procedures, properties of the learning environment, and pupil learning outcomes. The project's design team has wide experience in research and development work in relation to science education, the use of ICT in…

In this article, the authors show how oceanography can enlighten and energize the teaching of middle- and high-school social studies on a grade-by-grade basis, and they describe "hooks" from oceanography that will heighten students' interest in various social studies topics. They base the article on their own experiences--as a…

For the first time in the 30-year history of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, the organization is focusing on the nurturing of scientific talent in preschoolers and very young children. SACNAS, whose mission is to encourage Chicano/Latino and American Indian students to pursue graduate education and advanced…

The development of technology education in Taiwan has been in a huge change since the new Grade 1-9 Curriculum was fully and nationwide implemented in the 2004 school year; the two curriculum, Living Technology and Science, have been combined into the new learning areas--named "Science and Technology" for the new Grade 1-9 Curriculum.…

As part of a larger project aimed at promoting science and literacy for culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students, this study has two objectives: (a) to describe teachers' initial beliefs and practices about inquiry-based science and (b) to examine the impact of the professional development intervention (primarily through…

In this project, we suggest building a real model of solar village inside schools, which use only solar energy. Such projects emphasize the importance of energy for a technological society and the advantage of alternative energy sources. In this study, we report on pupils in the 6th grade in three elementary schools in Israel who were active…

Creighton University, a private Jesuit institution in the Midwest, included a Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI) to increase the pool of qualified underrepresented minority applicants by identifying students early and encouraging their progress through elementary and middle school, high school, college, and professional schools.…