In the present study, the personal epistemological beliefs of group leaders in toddler child care programmes are investigated. Epistemological beliefs are beliefs about knowing and learning. It is considered that the quality of these beliefs is influenced by educational experiences. In this study, such beliefs are assumed to be mediating factors…

Epistemological beliefs, or beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing, are currently a target of increased research interest. The present study examined two research questions: (1) how do epistemological beliefs change over time? and (2) what role do gender, ethnicity, SES, and achievement play in their development? The study was…

This paper characterizes the views on mathematical learning of five high school students based on the students' reflections on their mathematical experiences in a longitudinal study that focused on the development of mathematical ideas and reasoning in particular research conditions. The students' views are presented according to five themes about…

A "science of e-learning" involves the scientific investigation of how people learn in electronic learning environments. Three elements of a science of e-learning are: a) "evidence"--a base of replicated findings from rigorous and appropriate research studies; b) "theory"--a research-based theory of how people learn in electronic learning…

When we reflect on the emergence of online education and e-learning as the leading contender to confront the traditions of face-to-face teaching and learning, it is not only a case of better understanding the characteristics of online environments, but also timely to assess the relevance of theories and frameworks informing the design and…

The work we report in this special issue attempted to exploit the power of technology and cognitive theory to help make conceptual systems taught in large college courses truly useful in students' future lives. Facing evidence that traditional instructional models have not succeeded in this regard, we sought feasible course designs and…

This document contains the final program and abstracts for the 1997 annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). Strands of the meeting included "Learning: Students' Conceptions and Conceptual Change"; "Learning: Classroom Contexts and Learner Characteristics"; "Teaching";…

This paper examines the degree to which women faculty and administrators are able to engage in connected knowing and interdependent definitions of self and reality within an institutional environment that values and rewards individualism, separateness, competition, and objectivity. The paper notes that connected knowing is essentially the process…

The move toward inclusive education potentially threatens the very heart of the Deaf cultural community, and may be an example of "epistemic violence" where the dominant ideology of equality of access to educational resources actually serves to reproduce structured inequalities. Deaf education has been moving away from a view of deafness as a…

The assertion that there is a social component to children's construction of knowledge about natural phenomena is supported by evidence from an examination of children's classification schemes for plants. An ethnographic study was conducted with nine sixth grade children in central Texas. The children classified plants in the outdoors, in a…

Based on materials originally prepared for a course being developed at an Australian university, this book examines critical issues in distance education and open learning. The book is organized in five parts. The first part locates distance education in relation to education and social science and provides a general introduction and orientation.…

In the literature since the 1970's, the notion that education should serve as a social leveler has given way to the image of the educational institution as a business-like enterprise. This change in the perceived role of higher education has been accompanied by increased pressure on institutions to provide measurements of educational outcomes. For…

This paper examines the context from which educational reform is approached and suggests that rather than restructuring the traditional educational model, rethinking that model might be more appropriate, particularly the model of the classroom. Drawing throughout on insights from the writings of John Dewey and John Goodlad, the paper has a…

In a framework of cognitive theory, an exploratory study examined eye movements of learners studying print materials combining text and illustrations. Eye movement patterns were used as indicators of the cognitive strategies employed. Both design and learner variables were emphasized. Twenty-four graduate education students were randomly assigned…

There is more to teaching than the teacher possessing a body of information and using group dynamics in passing the information to the students. Teachers must be enthusiastic in order to motivate their students to progress through the levels and stages of learning. One-to-one teaching can be better achieved and more successful through the study of…