This article discusses the substantial changes in the system of adult education in Russia, in connection with a qualitative transformation of ideas about the possibility and necessity to learn new professions. The transition to the market economy has brought about a situation in which many people, both those who have obtained a professional…

Interest in prior learning recognition among Canadian adults is estimated on the basis of a large-scale national survey and illustrated by an account of the development of a prior learning assessment centre and the individual experiences of participants. Both the common principles and the distinctive activities that characterise the prior learning…

The purpose of this interpretive study is to situate teachers' understanding and interpretation of their experiences with indigenous students in city schools. This qualitative study examines six teachers' perspectives of indigenous students and reveals factors that potentially impede or promote the success of indigenous students in Taiwanese urban…

Varied academic ability is a problem across the country and is the focus of this action research project report. The four teacher researchers were searching for way to reach all learners with their mathematics instruction. The purpose of the research was to increase mathematical performance in a varied ability math classroom. To address varied…

Video is a powerful medium for communication and learning. With increased accessibility to digital video production equipment, an important question is what role teacher production of video might have in teacher education. Using the lens of design that highlights authenticity, efficacy, and expressiveness as goals, 38 in-service teachers designed…

This project was coordinated and funded by the California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS) and Girard Foundation. Cal-PASS is a data sharing system linking all segments of education. Its purpose is to improve student transition and success from one educational segment to the next. The original version, Version 1.0, of this…

Grade-5 teachers, who were nominated by their supervisors as effective in educating their students to be readers and writers, responded to questionnaires about their practice. The 33 teachers claimed commitments to: (1) extensive reading at the heart of their reading instruction; (2) diverse instructional activities (e.g., whole-group instruction,…

This course is designed to assist adults in documenting their prior experience, gaining an understanding of the policy and practices of recognition of prior learning (RPL), and then applying for RPL in either further education or employment. The 30-hour course is designed to be delivered over a series of weeks to allow time for students to reflect…

Two experiments examined developmental trends in children's lexical decisions for abstract and concrete words. The first experiment examined children's on-line comprehension of abstract and concrete words. Subjects were 15 second or third graders and 15 college adults at the University of Georgia. The second experiment provided a stronger test of…

The two purposes of this study were: (1) to determine the extent to which previous knowledge, on-going motivation and current social support influence performance in a college introductory statistics courses; and (2) to identify the thought processes used in statistics learning by students who preform well and perform well and poorly,…

This paper outlines the characteristics of validating and invalidating models of classroom instruction, the characteristics of good teachers, and assessment methods that support validating, therapeutic learning. The academically validating model suggests that: (1) students bring a rich reservoir of experience to the classroom; (2) the past is a…

This paper presents the results of a study designed to determine the computer anxiety, attitudes, and confidence levels of students enrolling in preservice teacher education computing courses. Specific questions compared these students with national norms, and looked to see whether sex, age, or past computer experiences had any effect on measures…

The role of prior knowledge in skill acquisition is to enable the learner to detect and to correct errors. Computational mechanisms that carry out these two functions are implemented in a simulation model which represents prior knowledge in "constraints". The model learns symbolic skills in mathematics and science by noticing and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an analogy activity designed to overcome junior high school students' misconceptions about the microscopic views of phase change. Eighth grade students (N=80) were randomly assigned to either a control group receiving traditional teaching, or an experimental group participating in the…

This document summarizes discussions held at a conference of the National Institute on the Assessment of Experiential Learning, which is concerned with prior learning assessment (PLA), a process developed for awarding college-level credit for out-of-class experiences. The conference consisted of two tracks, beginning and advanced; this format…