The process of giving official acknowledgment to formal, informal and non-formal prior learning is commonly labelled as assessment, accreditation or recognition of prior learning (APL), representing a practice that is expanding in higher education in many countries. This paper focuses specifically on the assessment part of APL, which undoubtedly…

In this review of literature we examine empirical research of individual differences in younger readers' knowledge and use of expository text structures. The goal of this review is to explore the influence of reader and text characteristics in order to better understand the instructional needs of elementary school readers. First we review research…

In this paper we provide an overview of the literature on understandings of drop out/opt out from science, technology and mathematics (STM) higher education programmes. After outlining the literature on students leaving higher education programmes in general, we then explore the research on drop out/opt out from STM programmes in particular, with…

The Content-based Reading Approaches (COBRA) framework, constructed by Heerman (2002), was made up of the instructional goals designed for reading-learning integrations in subject matter classrooms. ELL and LD students often fail to have sufficient reading skills to succeed within their different academic subjects, consequently it is important for…

Focusing primarily on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this article reviews evidence regarding the roles of subregions of the medial temporal lobes, prefrontal cortex, posterior representational areas, and parietal cortex in source memory. In addition to evidence from standard episodic memory tasks assessing accuracy for neutral…

In this study, the different types of research designs used to assess the impact of prerequisite courses are presented. Supported by an in-depth literature review, the challenges that are faced in the assessment of the impact of prerequisites, from statistical to political, are identified and their pitfalls are pointed out. In particular, the…

Describes the nature and occurrence of knowledge-construction links (KCLs) in 3 6th-grade classrooms that varied in degree of learner centeredness. KCLs are operationalized as prior learning that students bring to their current classroom experiences and include school and nonschool experiences. They are hypothesized to facilitate a…

Comments on this special issue on cognitive load theory and suggests three new basic directions for research: (1) the potential of cognitive load theory (CLT) to ground approaches to learning and instruction; (2) monitoring activities that occur in the learning process; and (3) the study of the notion of prior knowledge in the context of CLT. (SLD)

Presents the psycholinguistic view of reading, which holds that the reader uses his/her prior knowledge of language, facts, and concepts to process language nad comprehend meaning. (FL)

Reviews literature on the transformational nature of creativity, in which the individual, during and after interacting with his or her environment, takes information provided by the culture and transforms it based on previous experience. Notes that young children can develop transformational ability through dramatic play in which they are involved…

Examination of transformative discourse in South African worker education 1970-2000 shows early links to emancipatory education; a shift to human capital discourse in the 1990s; and changing understanding of how and where knowledge is produced, the kinds of knowledge valued, the social purpose of education, and the meaning of worker experience for…

Prior research has established that peer tutors can benefit academically from their tutoring experiences. However, although tutor learning has been observed across diverse settings, the magnitude of these gains is often underwhelming. In this review, the authors consider how analyses of tutors' actual behaviors may help to account for variation in…

As part of the activities at the Research Institute in Education of Learning Disabled Children, work was carried out with a group of about 30 children (grades 4 through 6) disabled in the comprehension of written language. Most of these children, when reading, went beyond using prior knowledge to provide schemata and interpretations; they…

Viewed as discourse, official forms exhibit identifiable text characteristics and elicit strategies for comprehension that take into account these characteristics, as well as context and the user's prior knowledge about the world. However, forms also have unique characteristics that require processes and strategies which differ in systematic ways…

Research findings concerning the relationship of personal knowledge and human cognitive processes are reviewed. Ways in which the impact of prior knowledge typically is not obvious to the teacher, and ways in which prior knowledge can disrupt the learning processes, are examined. Implications for education are discussed. (Author/MSE)