Distance education as a stand-alone approach has grown tremendously in the past 10 years. The other form of distance education, often called hybrid, supplements traditional classroom instruction with online resources. The instructors deliver classroom lectures, but homework, assignments, and supplemental material may be retrieved online.…

The term "culture" has been in common use for a long time. However there is no universally accepted definition and hence it is important to define clearly what culture means in a particular research context. The research reported here is part of a project undertaken at a large Australian university in late 2005. The overall aim of the…

This study analyzed gender differences in achievement emotions in the domain of mathematics. Based on Pekrun's (2000, 2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, we hypothesized that there are gender differences in mathematics emotions due to the students' different levels of control and value beliefs in mathematics, even when controlling…

Prior research on oppositional culture theory has generally focused on beliefs about the opportunity structure, or the "acting white" hypothesis, as an explanation for racial differences in school achievement. However, little attention has been given to the mechanism by which these beliefs affect achievement: schooling behaviors. The authors posit…

The term scientific literacy is defined differently in different contexts. The term literacy simply refers to the ability for one to read and write, but recent studies in language literacy have extended this definition. New literacy research seeks a redefinition in terms of how skills are used rather than how they are learned. Contemporary…

Learning is an active process, and, as such, interactive lectures are considered as the educational best practice. This study investigated the efficacy of interactive lecturing in a module of eight respiratory physiology lectures in a second-year Physiology course with two distinct subcohorts: students with strong science backgrounds and those…

This study sought to determine the effects of prior knowledge on the achievement of undergraduates in an economics course at the Open University of the Netherlands (OuN). A total the four law and seven economics students were given four instruments to test prior knowledge of economics, presented with a learning unit from the course "Economics…

The intent of this study was to explore the intrinsic aspects of motivation, and to see if the design of instruction could positively affect learners' levels of intrinsic motivation toward the subject matter. The following questions were addressed: (1) Will different computer-based instructional treatments which have been designed to reflect…

This inaugural issue of the Journal of the National Institute on the Assessment of Experiential Learning begins with the article, "Semantic and Conceptual Ambiguities in Prior Learning Assessment" (Richard J. Hamilton). It is the basis for a session presented at the National Institute on the Assessment of Experiential Learning in June…

One way of helping learners to develop knowledge, skills, and predispositions essential for independent learning is by teaching reading in content areas to help learners acquire the necessary strategies to use reading and writing to gain new knowledge. Conent area texts pose differing demands because each body of knowledge has its own framework…

A study determined if there would be any significant difference in comprehension from expository text between students instructed to use context clues and prior knowledge and those students not instructed in their use. It was hypothesized that students who only used a dictionary to understand words, not exploring context or prior knowledge, will…

This report describes the role of analogies in science instruction and presents research on a model for teaching with analogies. This model is being developed from research studies of textbooks and exemplary teachers; it provides guidelines for the strategic use of analogies during science instruction to explain fundamentally important concepts in…

A study examined how students use their prior knowledge and experience to help them understand a text, and how that influences what they recall from the text. Subjects, 46 sixth graders from 3 elementary schools in Nashville, Tennessee, were tape recorded as they thought aloud while reading either a passage on "sugar" or a passage on…

Opinions vary widely as to what young children should know or be capable of doing to be ready for kindergarten. This paper looks at the beliefs held by two groups who play critical roles in the early education of children: parents of preschoolers and kindergarten teachers. Two surveys that were sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and…

Noting that transfer and motivation are mutually supportive in creating an optimal learning environment, this Digest discusses transfer (the application of prior knowledge to new learning situations) and motivation (the impetus to create and sustain intentions and goal-seeking acts) in relation to language learning. It discusses the relationship…