Notes
The book reviewed here is M. Jayne Fleener Curriculum Dynamics: Recreating Heart (New York: Peter Lang, 2002), xix + 215 pp., $US 29.95 (pbk), ISBN 0‐8204‐5540‐7.
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. is a professor in the Department of Physics, MS 1570, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725‐1570, USA; e‐mail: [email protected]. His work has focused on the nature of understanding physical phenomena and the development of a pedagogy to induce change in student understanding concerning such phenomena. Recently this pedagogy has been demonstrated to routinely induce changes in understanding with effect sizes of 2.5 SD in non‐science majors as compared to typical 0.5 SD effect sizes from conventional pedagogy with science majors.
Since this view goes to the root, the nature of the central issue in education—the nature of knowledge, it can be called radical in the sense of ‘to go to the root of’, as opposed to the sense of being extreme or on the fringe. Since knowledge is seen as construct, then this view is constructivist—radical constructivist, very similar to that of von Glasersfeld (Citation1995).