An understanding of student learning and of the reasons for differential student performance is crucial to improving teaching and learning practices in tertiary education. This article aims to contribute to that understanding by reporting on an empirical study which examined two sets of student texts on the topic "What is law?", written…

This article looks at the ways in which people learn informally through artistic expression such as dance, drama, poetry, music, literature, film, and all of the visual arts and how people access this learning through their emotions. The author begins with a look at the limitations of relying primarily on technical-rational learning processes.…

Schools are central, public institutions. On any given day, about 20 percent of the Canadian population spends at least part of its day in a school building. By age 18, students will typically have spent about 15 percent of their lives in schools. Administrators and teachers in contemporary schools face significant challenges. Globalization…

Showcasing assessment practices that can help teachers plan effective instruction, this book addresses the real-world complexities of teaching literacy in grades K-8. Leading contributors present trustworthy approaches that examine learning processes as well as learning products, that yield information on how the learning environment can be…

Over the last forty years, popular music in America has consistently shown great variety, originality, and evolution. While American music has clearly flourished and evolved over the last several decades, it is difficult to say the same for American music education. Although there are important reasons to preserve long-standing traditions of…

Accountability and evidence-based decision-making have become the mantra of government policymakers, and even private foundations. Yet most attempts to foster cultures of evidence have not brought about change in practices, notably because they are treated as management tools rather than learning processes. Equity for All is an approach to…

In this article, the author explores the promising practices of Audrey Union (all names in this article are pseudonyms), a white principal of Integration Middle School (IMS), which served nearly 400 students in sixth through ninth grades. Approximately 40% of the students were of color and a similar percentage qualified for free and reduced lunch.…

This article integrates the literature on group interaction process analysis and group learning, providing a framework for understanding how patterns of interaction develop. The model proposes how adaptive, generative, and transformative learning processes evolve and vary in their functionality. Environmental triggers for learning, the group's…

Jean Louis Nicolet is a Swiss teacher of mathematics who found his subject so fascinating that he was puzzled as to why so many pupils could not share this enjoyment in their studies. He came to a conclusion which is now supported by the results of psychological research into the learning process: he suggested that the mind does not spontaneously…

Researchers who use video to record interactions usually need to translate the video data into another medium at some stage in order to facilitate its analysis and dissemination. This article considers some methodological issues that arise in this process by examining transcripts, diagrams and pictures as examples of different techniques for…

Although Robert M. Gagne's work is often thought of as learning theory, his contributions can most appropriately be considered as an "instructional theory." This denotes an integrated set of principles based upon learning theory, other relevant theories, and sound replicable research, that permits one to predict the effects of specific…

This essay explores the characteristic failure of traditional formal educational methods to teach the learner much which will remain for long in that person's memory. It discusses a physiological model of learning/remembering and compares it to some other models and metaphors of cognition. It distinguishes between learning and remembering, and…

This paper describes the methods and techniques called Conceptual Analysis (CA), a rigorous procedure to generate (without involuntary omissions and repetitions) knowledge bases for the development of knowledge-based systems. An introduction is given of CA and how it can be used to produce knowledge bases. A discussion is presented on what is…

The paper presents a description of and a rationale for a single-stroke LOGO package for physically handicapped students. The package is intended to promote cognitive decision making via a simplified single-stroke keyboard approach. Sequential behaviors of nonhandicapped students learning to use the system are described. Physically handicapped…

Beginning students of English as a second language want to have a natural use of the language to get things done, express thoughts, and get information. Most English learners have to invent an interlanguage to express time, because most language courses focus only on the present tense at first. A cyclical approach to grammar instruction allows the…