If you want to learn how to shoot a basketball, you begin by carefully observing someone who knows how to shoot a basketball. If you want to be a writer, you begin by carefully observing the work of accomplished writers. Recognizing the importance that modeling plays in the learning process, high school English teacher Kelly Gallagher shares how…

This paper describes a tutorial programme developed at the University of Western Australia (UWA) to enhance medical students' learning processes within problem-based learning contexts. The programme encourages students to use more effective learning approaches by scaffolding the development of effective problem-solving strategies, and by reducing…

The cooperative development discourse framework (Edge, 2002) has traditionally been used to help individuals-who-teach explore and improve their teaching practice by speaking openly and nondefensively to one of their colleagues, who will refrain from judging and evaluating them. This article presents the rewards of establishing such a…

Instructional coaching is an innovative approach to professional development that, while challenging, has significant benefits for teachers and children. Using reflective practice strategies--including posing open-ended questions to teachers and videotaping classes--coaches help teachers analyze their teaching and its impact on children. Coaches…

As intercultural competence among young people is one of the educational missions at European schools, teachers should themselves be able to deal constructively with cultural diversity, as well as encouraging and shaping intercultural learning processes in their classes. This article focuses on the intercultural competence of physical education…

The economic downturn and growing skills mismatch dramatically highlight the importance of programs that retrain workers for the demands of the current workplace. The career and technical education (CTE) system has played a large role in the development of these programs, and CTE educators are leading efforts to ensure that new and newly…

The role of the emotions in learning has long been acknowledged but is often overlooked. This article considers the impact one particular emotion, happiness, has on learning and the school curriculum. Recent reports have drawn attention to the importance of happiness (or the lack of it) by highlighting concerns about childhood well-being. At the…

Quality pedagogical tradition of Central European countries, in which the Croatian school system existed and evolved, helped in the establishment of the Department of Methodology of Teaching (in several disciplines) at the University of Zagreb and other Croatian universities (Split, Rijeka and Osijek). Unfortunately, it was not too long ago that…

Despite several years of successfully applying problem-based learning at Maastricht University, the Faculty of Medicine observed a slow erosion of problem-based practices and "PBL fatigue" among themselves and students. In response to this fatigue and new research into the development of the young adult brain, Active Self-Directed…

Korean teachers are generally considered well trained to integrate ICT into their teaching since the inception of the first IT Master Plan of Korea in 1996. However, the emergence and adoption of cutting-edge technologies create demands for evolving roles and competencies of teachers in the new knowledge society. Given this changing landscape of…

The ability to transfer learning across contexts is an adaptive skill that develops rapidly during early childhood. Learning from television is a specific instance of transfer of learning between a two-dimensional (2D) representation and a three-dimensional (3D) object. Understanding the conditions under which young children might accomplish this…

Over the last few years, cognitive load theory has progressed and advanced rapidly. The articles in this special issue, which document those advances, are based on contributions to the 3rd International Cognitive Load Theory Conference (2009), Heerlen, The Netherlands. The articles of this special issue on cognitive load theory discuss new…

In 1995 when "New Directions" issue No. 63, "Understanding Self-Regulated Learning," was published, the issue editor, Paul Pintrich, was one of the leaders in studying how college students learn and what helps or hinders them during the process. His contributions to the field have been tremendous and very significant both theoretically and…

Informances, informal and informative presentations of student learning that emphasize the learning process, provide an alternative to traditional concerts or programs, which may take general music classroom time away from activities not geared toward a specific performance. Informances are an excellent means of communicating educational…

In this article I argue that the contested concept of "Bildung," with its roots in the late 18th century, remains of interest in the postmodern era, even if there is also certainly a debate about it having had its day. In the specific discussion about "Bildung and democracy," I suggest that Dewey's reconstructed concept of experience has several…