Purpose: The aim of this article is to provide an analysis of the features that have shaped the state's decision-making process in the United Nations, with regard to the humanitarian intervention in Darfur from 2003 onwards. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological approach to the study is a review of political statement papers grounded in…

Conceptions of learning are drawn from an individuals' learning experiences, which are theoretically built upon the phenomenographic research method. Seven conceptions of learning in the domain of science are identified: "memorizing," "testing," "calculating and practicing," "increase of knowledge," "application," "understanding," and "seeing in a…

Three-dimensional (3D) or volumetric visualization is a useful resource for learning about the anatomy of the human brain. However, the effectiveness of 3D spatial visualization has not yet been assessed systematically. This report analyzes whether 3D volumetric visualization helps learners to identify and locate subcortical structures more…

Fictional materials are commonly used in the classroom to teach course content. Both laboratory experiments and classroom demonstrations illustrate the benefits of using fiction to help students learn accurate information about the world. However, fictional sources often contain factually inaccurate content, making them a potent vehicle for…

"Bildung," a German pedagogical term with the sense of "educating oneself" refers to some of the most complex human activities. It is constitutive for human existence, because it is related to the characteristic of meaning. Because of the great relevance of Bildung for people, education is essential for furthering it. The two purposes of this…

The study examined two primary teachers' professional learning and joint knowledge construction in the context of co-teaching. The teachers narrated their learning as a collaborative process with serendipitous origins. Shared knowledge construction was crucial in the learning process, as was implementing the resulting new ideas in practice. It is…

Medical education has pioneered educational innovation in higher education as exemplified by the problem-based learning (PBL) movement. A multitude of reviews and meta-analyses indicate that the PBL movement has been successful in many ways. Innovations in medical education, however, are not limited to curricular reform and interactive…

Subtraction can be understood by two basic models--taking away (ta) and determining the difference (dd)--and by its inverse relation to addition. Epistemological analyses and empirical examples show that the two models are not relevant only in single-digit arithmetic. As curricula should be developed in a longitudinal perspective on mathematics…

Research on learning science in informal settings and the formal (sometimes experimental) study of learning in classrooms or psychological laboratories tend to be separate domains, even drawing on different theories and methods. These differences make it difficult to compare knowing and learning observed in one paradigm/context with those observed…

The Gain-Loss model is a probabilistic skill multimap model for assessing learning processes. In practical applications, more than one skill multimap could be plausible, while none corresponds to the true one. The article investigates whether constraining the error probabilities is a way of uncovering the best skill assignment among a number of…

This paper describes a secondary school experience which is intended to help students to think profoundly about some energy-related concepts. It is quite different to other experiences of mechanics because the focus is not on the quantitative calculation of energy conservation but on the qualitative understanding of energy degradation. We first…

Providing evidence for the universal tendencies of patterns in the world's languages can be difficult, as it is impossible to sample all possible languages, and linguistic samples are subject to interpretation. However, experimental techniques, such as artificial grammar learning paradigms, make it possible to uncover the psychological reality of…

Empirical and theoretical literature on cooperative problem solving in preschool children suggests that integrating features of play into structured, experimental settings should increase the benefits of joint peer interactions and task performance. Four- and five-year-old peer dyads completed a playful, flexible, and child-driven building task or…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the attentional mechanisms of multilingual children with differential degrees of language competence. For this purpose, 118 children (61 female/57 male; mean age 10.9 years (SD = 0.29); early acquisition multilinguals) from the Ladin valleys in South Tyrol, Italy, performed the Attentional Network…

In this concluding article of the special issue entitled "Identity Formation in Educational Settings", we explicate the notion of identity as an integrative concept, discuss its growing popularity in the social sciences, and point to its special significance to education in contemporary society. Following an Eriksonian psychosocial approach and…