Social constructivist principles and ideas are among those most cited in both educational and psychological circles today, and many current scholars and reformers ground their work in social constructivist theories. Yet the basic principles of social constructivism are notoriously difficult for students to understand and grapple with. This article…

This article attends to the affective-political dimensions of doctoral aspiration. It considers why doctoral students continue to hope for an 'academic good life' in spite of the depressed and precarious features of the academic present. The article emerges from 2013 research with ten doctoral students in the Arts and Social Sciences, at a…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was two-fold: to investigate the dialog about psychosocial aspects of health care in problem based learning (PBL) groups in a single medical school; and to describe the factors that learners and PBL facilitators identify as influencing dialog about these issues in PBL groups. Medical education is a…

Drawing on and reexamining theories on gender and literacy, derived from research performed between 1974 and 2002, this qualitative study explored the gender assumptions and expectations of Language Arts teachers in a graduate level adolescent literature course at a university in the Midwestern United States. The theoretical framework was…

This article examines how students' common-sense conceptualizations of "nation," specifically the Swedish nation, operate in teaching situations in which a critical constructivist theory of "nation" is part of the curriculum. Taking its point of departure from discussions of conceptual change, this article examines how students…

Higher student enrolment at North American tertiary institutions over the last decade has led to a greater reliance on lecturing in large classes (i.e., 50 students or more). The efficiency of lecturing as a method of instruction can sometimes come at the cost of student interaction, engagement, critical thinking and satisfaction. Implementing…

In this article, the author describes the use of active and collaborative learning strategies in an undergraduate sociological theory course. A semester-long ethnographic project is the foundation for the course; both individual and group participation contribute to the learning process. Assessment findings indicate that students are able, through…

What does it mean to be a graduate student and to "do" graduate school? What happens when we shift our focus away from learning as a process of gaining expertise in a field or being socialized into the literacy conventions of a discipline and instead consider the ontological component of learning--the idea that learning entails becoming a certain…

Theoretical foundation of Response mechanisms in networks of online learners are revealed by Statistical Analysis of p* Markov Models for the Networks. Our comparative analysis of two networks shows that the minimal-effort hunt-for-social-capital mechanism controls a major behavior of both networks: negative tendency to respond. Differences in…

These proceedings contain the papers of the IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2013), October 22-24, 2013, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS), co-organized by The University of North Texas (UNT), sponsored by the…