If learning took the form of a vehicle, skills should be considered the gears that allow it to operate. Essential skills like keen observation and active listening are, according to this author, the first and second gears in the learning process. Yet in the age of information, where the name and likeness of a product is typically repeated five to…

Geometry is required for many secondary school students, and is often learned, taught, and assessed more in a heuristic image-based manner, than as a formal axiomatic deductive system. Students are required to prove general theorems, but diagrams are usually used. It follows that understanding how students engage in perceiving and reasoning about…

The problem. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the Irlen[R] method's use of colored overlays on the reading achievement of 3rd-grade students who were identified as having Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome/Irlen[R] Syndrome. Method. This was a true experimental, pre-test, post-test design. The Irlen[R] overlay, either present…

Learning in educational settings emphasizes declarative and procedural knowledge. Studies of expertise, however, point to other crucial components of learning, especially improvements produced by experience in the extraction of information: perceptual learning (PL). We suggest that such improvements characterize both simple sensory and complex…

In the face of 21st century economic challenges, community colleges must contend with complex pressures on their mission. The dueling missions of academic transfer and workforce preparation must sustain and grow the American economy in a global market and simultaneously meet the promise to community college students--open access to quality higher…

This study examined the effects of playing by ear in selected keys on the abilities of musicians (N = 28) to play by ear and sight-read in those keys. Middle school band students in the experimental group learned melodies by ear in one familiar and two unfamiliar keys, and did no music reading in the new keys, while students in the contact-control…

With research showing the benefits of pronunciation instruction aimed at suprasegmentals (Derwing, Munro, & Wiebe, 1997, 1998; Derwing & Rossiter, 2003; Hahn, 2004; McNerney and Mendelsohn, 1992), more materials are needed to provide learners opportunities for self-directed practice. A 13-week experimental study was performed with 75 ESL learners…

Despite the growing popularity of interdistrict choice plans over the past decade, the policy assumptions underlying their adoption have been subjected to very little empirical research. This study situates school choice within one metropolitan region, Denver, and examines the ways in which choice patterns relate to existing patterns of…

Reformers suggest that parental choice will improve equity by making it possible for parents to select better schools for their children. A key assumption behind this claim is that parents choose from a set of schools that range in quality. Data from this longitudinal interview study suggest this assumption may be false. In one Midwestern city,…

Introduction: We describe an example of simulation-based interprofessional continuing education, the multidisciplinary obstetric simulated emergency scenarios (MOSES) course, which was designed to enhance nontechnical skills among obstetric teams and, hence, improve patient safety. Participants' perceptions of MOSES courses, their learning, and…

This literature review focuses on the confirmed, suspected, and speculative effects of violent and non-violent video game exposure on negative and positive outcomes. Negative outcomes include aggressive feelings, aggressive thoughts, aggressive behavior, physiological arousal, and desensitization, whereas positive outcomes include various types of…

Purpose: Educational technologists make significant contributions to the development, organisational embedding and service provision of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) environments, which are key enablers for mass access to flexible higher education (HE). Given the increasing centrality of this role, it is advocated that institutions…

The "entrepreneurial university" is considered a desirable and achievable goal, but how do universities become entrepreneurial? The role of the enterprising academic in stimulating cultural change is often overlooked. This article presents as a case study the teaching team at the University of Derby, UK, who "acted as…

This article suggests that quality assessment in the UK has been largely set apart from learning and teaching and reports on a pilot project at the Hull York Medical School which attempted to integrate students' evaluation of their clinical placements into the curriculum. It outlines the operational demands of this integrated method and compares…

Purpose: This study examined children's self-reported quality of life with a cochlear implant as related to children's actual perceptions of speech and the emotional information conveyed by sound. Effects of age at amplification with hearing aids and fitting of cochlear implants on perceived quality of life were also investigated. Method: A…