Taking a philosophical approach based on what Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes said about knowledge, this paper addresses some of the murkiness in the conceptual space surrounding the issue of whether prior knowledge does or does not facilitate text comprehension. Specifically, the paper first develops a non-exhaustive typology of cases in which…

Describes an analytical model which provides explicit criteria to identify possible causal relations that a reader might infer between events in order to arrive at a coherent representation of the text. Applies the model to a story, discusses its psychological validity, and compares it to other models of text representation, comprehension, and…

Examines and discusses the differences in mathematics learning and practice in and out of school maintaining the position that while some differences may be inherent, many differences can be narrowed so that mathematics learning and practice in school and out of school can build on each other and be connected. (Author/MKR)

Approaches to assessment of prior experiential learning (APEL) sit within Enlightenment theories of knowledge. Alternative epistemologies offered by postmodernist, feminist, and antiracist theories suggest a different basis for assessment: situated knowledge. APEL can give visibility to outsider knowledge and alter the relationship between…

Children must be involved and interested in order to learn. Children who come to kindergarten with background knowledge gained from enjoyable trips with their parents, when they explored the world around them, are usually more curious about their world and experience more success in school. Good teachers connect new information in their curriculum…

Increasingly educators and policy makers recognize that new teachers need help making the transition to independent teaching. One particularly important role mentor teachers can play is to help beginning teachers to focus on students' ''mind activity'' in order to build on their prior knowledge, experience, and interests, and to promote…

This article (which is mainly expository) sets up graphical models for causation, having a bit less than the usual complement of hypothetical counterfactuals. Assuming the invariance of error distributions may be essential for causal inference, but the errors themselves need not be invariant. Graphs can be interpreted using conditional…

Evidence seems to be a particularly newsworthy topic these days, prominent in stories about weapons of mass destruction, the President's record in the National Guard, Martha Stewart's stock sales, global warming and the EPA, and so forth. "Evidence," not surprisingly, derives from "evident," which the American Heritage Dictionary defines as…

The North West Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Workforce Development Strategy offers students in the Pilbara and Kimberley the opportunity to enrol in a Western Australian University's fully accredited Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) part time and externally--so they can continue to live and work in their communities. The…

This article reports on findings pertaining to education scholarship in higher education drawn from a wider study on all education research in South Africa from 1995 to 2006. After briefly outlining pertinent aspects of the wider study, it offers a preliminary and descriptive account of what were found to be primary research themes in higher…

Study abroad (SA) is one of the flagship offerings among United States higher education institutions. Approximately 220,000 students studied abroad in the 2005/2006 academic year, 52.8% of whom studied on programs that lasted eight weeks or less. The effect of these short-term programs on second language development has been little investigated,…

Talk is the foundation for thought and understanding and the key to literacy learning. Research demonstrates that powerful metacognitive strategies can be taught to help students self-monitor their comprehension when reading print and digital texts. This article provides a repertoire of speaking and listening strategies to develop the…

Buzzwords are as prolific in educational circles as bunny rabbits are in spring. Over the last 10 years everyone has heard the buzz of multiculturism, multiple intelligences, learning modalities, essential questions, cultural literacy, media literacy, differentiated instruction, learning by design, curriculum alignment, curriculum mapping,…

This article addresses the importance of opening space for young people to engage in critical media literacy learning using popular culture texts. Children's background knowledge includes a wide-variety of texts that are often ignored or excluded from school curriculum. The author shows how popular music, for example, can offer powerful…

Current theoretical conversations in the field of Rhetoric and Composition, particularly conversations related to first-year curricular design, are increasingly concerned with the issue of "teaching for transfer." While developing successful transfer pedagogy is a challenging undertaking, one that may require writing instructors to…