This article is a response to commentaries on the article, "Microvariation in Multilingual Situations: The Importance of Property-by-Property Acquisition" (EJ1300541). This response is divided into sections focusing on the following issues: (1) full transfer and the notion of copying; (2) the definition of linguistic proximity; (3) some…

In this commentary, we briefly review the collective effort of design researchers to weave theory with empirical results, in order to gain a better understanding of the processes of learning. We seek to respond to this challenging agenda by centring on the evolution of one sub-field: namely that which involves investigations within a…

The majority of recent research on language learning motivation has reportedly focused on English as a target language, typically in relatively homogeneous, secondary and postsecondary "foreign language" settings. How applicable, then, are the theories and findings undergirding that research to our understanding of the contemporary…

In this article, the author explores practices and economies of learning that make visible particular practices where educational work is embedded in places other than schools, colleges and universities, or at least in complex interaction with them. To do this, she draws on a body of work she has been involved with over the past ten years,…

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework has become a prominent model of teaching and learning in online and blended learning environments. Considerable research has been conducted which employs the framework with promising results, resulting in wide use to inform the practice of online and blended teaching and learning. For the CoI model to…

Brain science already has much to contribute to education and will become even more important in the future. Brain research is not going away; it is increasing and will continue to do so. As such, educators need better tools to deal with it. In this article, the author argues that educators desperately need new understandings, new ways to think…

One of the strengths of narrative research in TESOL is its potential to provide insight into long-term language learning experiences that cannot be investigated in real time. Reliance on retrospection, however, brings two problems that are addressed in this article through the concept of "language learning careers". The first problem is…

Using the British "Index to Theses", we found forty-seven Ph.D.s relating to second and foreign language learning and/or teaching defended in English universities in 2006. Objective criteria led us to fourteen theses which had investigated both teaching and learning. Over half of these adopted a process-product research design with the…

When examined across studies and fields, navigation research is fragmented and inconsistent. In this article, we argue that this is the result of navigation research having generally been conducted without guidance from an overarching theoretical framework. In order to illustrate our position, we have included results from a very simple…

This paper considers the bottom-up vision of the learning society. Unlike the top-down approach, the bottom-up approach does not start by specifying the purposes of learning which should direct the development of the learning society, but from observing interactions among learning individuals as agents. While in the relevant literature and…

Experimental rather than statistical studies are needed to further research in the learning processes of coding and planning, since the variables need to be manipulated. Quantitative measures may mask qualitative factors. (MSE)

Provides a dialog about the evolution of qualitative research methodology and examines where it is headed in light of where it has been. Describes different phases in the development of qualitative research and briefly considers how qualitative research contributes to an understanding of educational phenomena and process. Suggests why such…

Sees Dobbert et al's model of cultural transmission (this issue) as generalizing, structural, mechanical, predetermined, formal, digital, and etic. Posits an alternative approach that is idiographic, processual, organic, open, nonformal, analogical, and attentive to emic data. Argues that the Dobbert model accounts inadequately for the implicit,…

Uses a phenomenographic perspective to interpret and integrate the results of relational research in analyzing the experiences of teaching and learning in higher education. Describes conditions associated with two qualitatively different approaches to teaching that are associated with differences in the quality of student learning. Argues that…

Examines the notion of "deep" and "surface" approaches to learning and phenomenography, the associated methodology and theory of knowledge; explores reasons for the heightened status of the deep/surface notion within higher education research; discusses problems of phenomenographic research methodology. Introduces the idea of…