This report has been prepared in direct response to the Action Plan on Adult Learning "It is always a good time to learn" (European Commission, 2007), and, more specifically, to its stated objective of increasing the opportunities for adults to achieve a qualification at least one level higher than they previously held. The document…

This study investigated the extent to which learning readiness, prior-to-school experiences, and child and family characteristics influence children's literacy and numeracy achievement across the first year of primary school. A sample of 104 kindergarten children was recruited from 16 classrooms and followed from the beginning to the end of their…

The experiences of Chinese learners on two e-learning programmes in China were investigated, focusing particularly on the formation of learning communities. Data were collected using a range of instruments to access the learners' perspectives in depth and detail. Archer's account of reflexivity as the mediating power between structure and agency…

Distance education is not a new concept for all kinds of learners in the modern societies. Many researchers have studied traditional distance education programs for adult learners in the past, but little research has been done on Web-based distance education (WBDE) for adult learners. There are also many popular online universities in the U.S. or…

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of presentation formats of worked examples and the interaction effects between the presentation formats of worked examples and the prior knowledge of learners. An investigation with 97 middle school students working in four conditions (CPWE, CWE, PWE, and the control group) was conducted. The…

This study was designed as a confirmatory study of work on "productive failure" (Kapur, "Cognition and Instruction," 26(3), 379-424, 2008). N = 177, 11th-grade science students were randomly assigned to solve either well- or ill-structured problems in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment without the provision of any…

New literacies researchers have identified a core set of strategies for locating information, one of which is "reading a Web page to locate information that might be present there" (Leu et al. in: Rush, Eakle, Berger (eds) "Secondary school reading and writing: What research reveals for classroom practices," 2007, p. 46). Do middle-school, high…

Jacky, an 11-year-old biliterate Latina, was the subject of this case study. She used her home funds of knowledge to become computer literate through the development of a website focused on Mexican heritage. The website, created via funds of knowledge drawn from the community, in turn involved families and the local community in computer…

We evaluated Samaniego and Reneau's 1994 novel weight method for eliciting subjective probability estimates. Experiment 1 replicated their experiment (subjects weighed their prior estimate against 10 new observations), with an additional weight judgment against 50 observations. In Experiment 2, subjects gave prior estimates to questions in a…

This study examined how learners construct textbase and situation model knowledge in hypertext computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) and documented the influence of specific self-regulated learning (SRL) tactics, prior knowledge, and characteristics of the learner on posttest knowledge scores from exposure to a hypertext. A sample of 160…

The purpose of this action research case study was to explore attitudes and beliefs regarding strategies to improve math placement scores for low-socioeconomic community college students at an urban campus. Using a pragmatic worldview, qualitative techniques were used to gather data to explore this problem at a single community college located in…

This article reports on the research whose specific objective is to improve student retention in mathematics included in the first-year ICT study programme by means of improving teaching methods, with an emphasis on gender issues. Two principal reasons for this research are, first, the fact that first-year mathematics courses are often viewed as…

This thesis uses empirical research in order to understand effective strategies for successfully teaching of the expository essay to ninth grade students. Five focal areas are studied for targeted intervention in order to discover best practices for maximizing student learning of the essay format. The study hypothesizes that in order for ninth…

We examined the influence of prior exposure to specific animal properties on 15-month-old infants' inductive generalization. Using picture books, 29 infants were trained on properties linked in a congruent or incongruent manner with four animal categories. A generalized imitation task was then administered to assess patterns of property extension…

This paper reports on the findings of a study conducted with a group of early childhood education undergraduate students. The study trialled a number of guided reflection techniques that acted to stimulate and provide a structure for reflection. These techniques were further supplemented by focus group discussions based on reflective principles,…