This literature survey was conducted to provide information on Aboriginal language learning and teaching in Alberta. Specifically, it provides an overview of the current literature relating to: the language-to-culture connection, aboriginal language pedagogy and instructional practices, and parental and community involvement. The Aboriginal…

Applying concepts from lower grades, the author applies whole-group differentiation concepts to middle and high school, showing teachers how it is possible to differentiate within the whole-group setting in which many educators are comfortable. By allowing everyone to participate in the same activities at different levels of complexity or mastery,…

This document is a summary of the "First Experts' Meeting: Defining Areas of Action to Enhance Learning--From Access to Success," which took place at UNESCO Headquarters from March 26 to 28, 2007. The meeting brought together some 30 experts from around the world including researchers, educators, educational planners, representatives of United …

This issue of "Infobrief" concludes the exploration into the potential for high school reform in the United States. Earlier issues defined five components of an Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) proposal to effect reform: (1) multiple measures of assessment; (2) personalized learning strategies; (3) new models of…

This study examined the influence of critical reading orientation on use of external strategies such as note-taking and underlining while reading an expository text. In two experiments, undergraduate students were asked either to review an article on a linguistic policy (critical reading) or to summarise it (less-critical reading). Experiment 1…

Narrating stories of life experience has helped educators motivate adult learners with diverse goals. Working with culturally diverse learners in their community contexts, including adults who have been unable to advance their development and learning, educators have observed them become more able to learn and succeed in their varied pursuits as…

This case study deals with language awareness (LA) oriented instruction in the Irish language classroom, based on qualitative-type research conducted in a class of 21 English-medium secondary students studying Irish as a subject. Having outlined the general background to the teaching of Irish in secondary schools, the first section of the paper…

If education is a solution in working toward a sustainable future then initial teacher training (ITT) provides a strategic opportunity for ensuring that all teachers are able to teach for sustainability when they begin their teaching careers. This paper reports on a study of how four Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) student teachers…

Pupils with autism often present significant challenges to teachers. They seem to have real strengths in visual processing but a cognitive style that encourages them to focus on detail rather than the overarching connections between concepts. Veronica Roberts, currently undertaking doctoral training at the Institute of Education, University of…

Online discussions provide opportunities for learners to engage in argumentative debate, but learners rarely formulate well-grounded arguments or benefit individually from participating in online discussions. Learners often do not explicitly warrant their arguments and fail to construct counterarguments (incomplete formal argumentation structure),…

In this article I describe how a survey instrument was constructed to elicit from Year 7 learners their strategies for reading in French as a foreign language. The rationale for this project entails a brief review of the status of foreign language reading in England since the advent of the GCSE and the National Curriculum for Modern Foreign…

This case study investigated the ways pre-major and pre-minor students of Spanish interacted with a grammar application from four perspectives. Firstly, using the computer's tracking ability to collect learners' behaviors, the study set out to uncover the different ways learners approached the application. Secondly, the study assessed the…

The Assessment is for Learning programme has been implemented by Learning and Teaching Scotland over recent years and there will be further developments throughout the Scottish curriculum up until and beyond 2007. This article re-examines the techniques of formative assessment that can progress pupil learning and appeals to teachers to review…

Multilinguals appear to become better at learning additional languages the more languages they know, and in particular, to be faster at learning grammar. This study investigates the use of grammar learning strategies in 144 participants who knew between 2 and 12 languages each, using a language background questionnaire, a set of 40 grammar…

This study aims at identifying interpretable factors underlying Japanese language learners' attitudes toward "kanji" and their self-reported "kanji" learning strategies. It also examines the relationship between the two sets of belief factors. A questionnaire survey was conducted among Japanese language students at nine universities in the United…