Originating in a recent NSF conference held at the University of Michigan, this book examines the latest ideas about how children interact with objects and through that interaction acquire new understandings, attitudes, and feelings. Although museum education provides the primary setting within which object-centered learning is explored, the analyses apply to a wide range of learning environments. Despite the demonstrated importance of object-centered learning for both academic and life-long learning, until now there has been little psychological research on the topic. Key features of this...

This book looks at how teachers implement national math and science standards in their classrooms. A collaboration between Richard Lehrer and Leona Schauble (education researchers) and elementary school teachers, these teacher-authored chapters provide important insights about how children think and reason as they pose questions, collect data, and build data models to answer their questions. While the spotlight is primarily on student understanding and its development over time, the text also highlights teachers' professional development of a specific form of knowledge. Becoming a virtual...