This study investigates how working memory (WM) capacity and L2 linguistic knowledge affect L2 literal and inferential reading comprehension, considering the presence or absence of background knowledge. Eighty upper-intermediate to advanced adult English learners participated, completing tasks to assess WM capacity, background knowledge, L2…

Students benefit from receiving and providing peer feedback, but the degree of participation limits the benefit. Further, students sometimes resist participation, providing few or only short comments. Prior researchers have examined the role of general attitudes toward peer feedback in limiting participation. However, little research has examined…

Past research on knowledge has differentiated between dimensions (e.g., amount, accuracy, specificity, coherence) of knowledge. This paper introduces a novel dimension of knowledge, the Motivational Utility of Knowledge (MUK), that is based on fundamental human needs (e.g., physical safety, affiliation, actualization, reproduction). Adults in the…

The adult participants in this study range in age from 20 to 50 years. They describe their remembered experiences of learning mathematics in both primary and secondary education. None of the participants achieved the qualifications in mathematics which would allow them access to higher education. They are now studying mathematics after many years…

This study examined "backward transfer," which we define as how students' ways of reasoning about previously encountered concepts are modified when learning about new concepts. We examined the backward transfer produced when students learned about quadratic functions. We were specifically interested in how backward transfer may vary for…

Despite the growing awareness of the environmental crisis, few studies have examined how early childhood educators conceptualise the environment and the funds of knowledge they draw upon to describe these. Using 'funds of knowledge' as a theoretical lens, this study explores how early childhood educators in Malta describe the environment. Guided…

Stress is ubiquitous in life and creates a need for effective responses in any domain. In this exploratory study, our goal was to understand better how business students learn and use stress management techniques in the classroom context and how this learning applies to different domains. We used thematic coding and textual analysis of weekly…

Self-derivation through integration is the process of integrating novel facts and producing new knowledge never directly taught. Knowledge integration has been studied with the presentation of two novel facts. However, in educational settings, individuals are required to integrate new information with prior knowledge learned days, months, or years…

This qualitative multi-case study explores the exercise and development of the design judgment of eight instructional design (ID) students working on design projects over one semester in graduate programs at four different institutions in the USA. Their design processes were explored through interviews and their design documents using the concepts…

Bilingual environments present an important context for word learning. One feature of bilingual environments is the existence of translation equivalents (TEs)--words in different languages that share similar meanings. Documenting TE learning over development may give us insight into the mechanisms underlying word learning in young bilingual…

Lortie's original conception of the apprenticeship of observation was one of conservative schooling practice and negative impact on teacher learning for school change. Schooling practices have changed in the 60 years since the original research that established the apprenticeship of observation as launch pad to teaching, changing prospective…

In this study, we posit a new category of products provided by diploma mills, which we term Life Experience Degree Offerings (LEDOs). LEDOs uniquely capitalise on the misuse of the principle of Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) by granting higher education qualifications based on a resume or CV alone. Through a comparative analysis with…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) promotes creating resources that build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding through intentionally sequenced tasks that draw on students' prior knowledge and move from simple, concrete representations to more complex and abstract representations (Boston et al., 2017). Liljedahl…

Understanding when it is appropriate to make causal inferences from a statistical result is a fundamental skill for science literacy. Prior research has concentrated on erroneous causal judgments about observational studies, but there is little research on whether people understand that experiments provide stronger justification for causal claims.…

Productive Failure (PF) is an instructional design that implements a problem-solving phase which aims at preparing students for learning from a subsequent instruction. PF has been shown to facilitate students' conceptual knowledge acquisition in the mathematical domain. Collaboration has been described as a vital design component of PF, but…