This paper examines university teachers' conceptions of effective teaching. It reports a small illuminatory study of eight teachers. Their narratives identify rich insights. Conceptions of "learning through dialogue", "community of learners" and "meta-learning" emerge as crucial in supporting students' learning. These conceptions extend…

Improving retention and identifying "at risk" learners are high profile issues in higher education, and a proposed solution is to provide good learner support. Blending of online learning with classroom sessions offers the potential to use a virtual learning environment to deliver learning activities, and to support learners using a…

This article is a result of a completed survey of the mainly cognitive science literature on the transferability of those skills which have been described variously as "core", "key", and "generic". The literature reveals that those predominantly cognitive skills which have been studied thoroughly (mainly problem solving) are transferable under…

Little research has been done examining the role of errors in learning computer software. It is argued, though, that understanding the errors that people make while learning new software is important to improving instruction. The purpose of the current study was to (a) develop a meaningful and practical system for classifying computer software…

This study compared the learning and study strategies college students used in a course with the learning and study strategies their professors believe to be most important for success in the course. The learning strategies investigated here derive from an extensive body of cognitive research that indicates different ways in which students learn…

This paper reports on degrees of awareness and use of specific metacognitive strategies by 16 students in a final-year high school biology class in New Zealand. The aims of the intervention were to broaden students' thinking about bioethical issues associated with cancer and to enhance students' use of metacognition. Cues and prompts were used in…

Paraprofessionals are an important part of the instructional team for students with disabilities. The primary job duties for most paraprofessionals included making copies, monitoring students during lunch, and taking attendance. Today, their jobs look more like those of teachers: Paraprofessionals help with instructional tasks and sometimes teach…

Twenty years of research shows that using interactive techniques more often can make a class more effective. For example, a study of six thousand physics students compared classes using passive lecture to classes using interactive techniques that allowed for discussion among students and between the professor and students. The study showed that…

In this article, we describe how the concept of "learning to learn" has developed in Spain, and give you an overview of relevant Spanish projects. First, we sketch out how this approach has developed in Spanish educational laws. We then give examples of research projects, assessment instruments and instructional programmes pertinent to…

This project draws on a large body of seminal research showing that the approaches students take to learning, and the subsequent quality of their learning, is closely related to their perceptions of their learning experience. Recent research has demonstrated these findings also hold for non-standard modes of delivery such as distance education…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the fact that conferences for professionals rely on massive one-way communication and hence produce little learning for delegates--and to introduce an alternative, the "learning conference", that involves delegates in fun and productive learning processes.…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to show that a key aspect of learning and development of individual employees is that of self-directedness. This paper will consider the role of the leader in facilitating workforce development in terms of employees' self-directedness for learning. The research was designed to investigate the views that…

Purpose: The paper seeks first to present an overview of the corporate university landscape in Germany contrasting it with the US-American corporate university market and, second, to outline the development in Germany during the last 15 years and to have a look at future trends such as learning alliances. Design/methodology/approach: The…

This article reports on part of a larger study of the impact of strategy training in listening on learners of French, aged 16 to 17. One aim of the project was to investigate whether such training might have a positive effect on the self-efficacy of learners, by helping them see the relationship between the strategies they employed and what they…

The development of immersive learning technologies in the form of virtual reality and advanced computer applications has meant that realistic creations of simulated environments are now possible. Such simulations have been used to great effect in training in the military, air force, and in medical training. But how realistic do problems need to be…