Describes the affective, volitional face of the zone of proximal development. Suggests that the interpersonal character of the zone of proximal development closely resembles a caring encounter. Shows links between caring and the notion of the con-construction of knowledge. (SLD)

Discusses some of the emerging constructivist instructional design models and suggest three guidelines for instructional design that are based on an interpretivist philosophy of science and constructivist theories of learning. Explains recursive (iterative) non-linear design, reflective design, and participatory design. (Contains 72 references.)…

Changes in our concepts of work and career reflect a move from an industrial era to what has been termed a postindustrial, information or postmodern era, an era wherein our concepts of career guidance also need to change. A number of authors have commented on aspects of career guidance practice which need to incorporate changes, such as career…

Action learning has the ability to solve complex problems and to significantly increase the speed and quality of individual, team and organizational learning. Its theoretical base and relationship to adult learning orientations and the source of this power remain relatively unexplored. The authors conducted an extensive review of the literature in…

Virtual learning is a popular teaching modality, and it has been reported in research that there is no significant difference in academic outcome as compared with face-to-face courses. Not all researchers agree with this assertion and some claim it is more difficult to teach math-oriented subjects online. Given that educational psychology theories…

In the evolving world of higher education, both online and in the classroom, the discovery and integration of effective new practices is crucial in preparing today's growing number of adult students for tomorrow's dynamic and evolving workplace and to meet the educational demands of busy adult students. In "Authentic Instruction and Online…

In an era of reductionist approaches to teaching and assessment, this dissertation returns to the fundamental question: "What is the value of writing, particularly poetry writing, in our society today?" The poet's central task, to abstract reality through symbols, requires profound cognitive and emotional work (Vendler, 2004; Steele,…

Sensory overload and split attention result in reduced learning when instructors read slides with bullet points and complex graphs during a lecture. Conversely, slides containing relevant visual elements, when accompanied by instructor narration, use both the visual and verbal channels of a student's working memory, thus improving the chances of…

The best way to learn is by having a good teacher and the best language learning takes place when the learner is immersed in an environment where the language is natively spoken. 3D multi-user virtual worlds have been claimed to be useful for learning, and the field of exploiting them for education is becoming more and more active thanks to the…

This research demonstrates the design of a Joyful Classroom Learning System (JCLS) with flexible, mobile and joyful features. The theoretical foundations of this research include the experiential learning theory, constructivist learning theory and joyful learning. The developed JCLS consists of the robot learning companion (RLC), sensing input…

This article describes a project integrating mobile learning games into the author's course at Appalachian State University, in collaboration with a community partner and for the community as a whole. The process of constructing educational mobile games can be as beneficial as the act of playing. Therefore, the author's beliefs about integrating…

The use of online learning (OL) has increased dramatically in the last decade; however, many instructional methods used in OL training design have not been appropriately applied or developed. Complicating this phenomenon, learners of different organizations often find the application of training content problematic in variable application…

Formal schooling began centuries before scientists would discover how the brains of children actually learn. Not surprisingly, traditional teaching was often boring and brain antagonistic. But great teachers in every era intuitively recognized what has now been validated by neuroscience: powerful learning is an adventure of the mind. Students,…

Starting from a brief analysis of adaptive competence in mathematics, this article describes a series of research-based characteristics of the kind of learning processes that should be elicited in students to facilitate and support in them the progressive acquisition of such competence. Four major characteristics are discussed in some detail:…

Using the weird word order methodology (Akhtar, 1999), we investigated children's understanding of SVO word order in French, a language with less consistent argument ordering patterns than English. One hundred and twelve French children (ages 2;10 and 3;9) heard either high or low frequency verbs modelled in either SOV or VSO order (both…