Daily Bookmarks 11/13/2007

Scaffolding and Achievement in Problem-Based and Inquiry Learning: A Response to Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006)

• Paper cited by Stephen Downes in his critique of the KS&C article against constructivism. The authors argue that project-based learning and inquiry learning are not “minimally guided instruction” as argued by KS&C, but actually use a lot of scaffolding as “just-in-time” direct instruction.
   – post by christyinsdesign

Free Learning and Control Learning: On the So-Called Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching » SlideShare

• Stephen Downes presentation refuting the Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark article criticizing constructivism. Includes an introduction to connectivism.  One of the fundamental flaws in the KS&C article is that it assumes that all inquiry and problem-based learning methods are “minimally guided,” but these methods always include scaffolding. KS&C call scaffolding “direct instruction” and don’t include that as part of constructivism.
   – post by christyinsdesign

Resources for Teaching Middle School Science

• Free online book (from 1998) with resources for teaching MS science.
   – post by christyinsdesign

The National Academies Press Home Page

• Free online science books, including a number of education-related titles.
   – post by christyinsdesign

How Long Does it Take? Estimation Methods for Developing E-Learning

• Multiple methods for estimating the development time for e-learning projects.
   – post by christyinsdesign