Recent developments of e-learning specifications such as Learning Object Metadata (LOM), Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), Learning Design and other pedagogy research in semantic e-learning have shown a trend of applying innovative computational techniques, especially Semantic Web technologies, to promote existing content-focused…

Three experiments were conducted that provide a direct examination of within-category discontinuity manipulations on the implicit, procedural-based learning and the explicit, hypothesis-testing systems proposed in F. G. Ashby, L. A. Alfonso-Reese, A. U. Turken, and E. M. Waldron's (1998) competition between verbal and implicit systems model.…

Our claim is that semantic metadata are required to allow a real reusing and assembling of learning objects. Our system is based on three models used to describe the domain, learners, and learning objects. The learning object model is inspired from knowledge representation proposals. A learning object can be reused directly or can be combined with…

Secondary schools are not meeting the needs of students, and the call has gone out for reform. The application of rigor, relevance, and relationships is a current model of instruction. One teacher can make a difference to a twice exceptional student who is struggling. They must create classroom environments that welcome diversity, not just in…

Students learn important concepts and ways of thinking by building on their own actions and experiences. In much of higher education, the primacy of textbooks and the lectures that accompany them are inconsistent with the nature of student learning. Some students manage to learn despite the problems from this emphasis, but educators can do much…

A model for workplace learning is presented, which intends to integrate formal and informal learning with the use of e-learning. An important underlying assumption is that the integration of formal and informal learning is necessary in order to create desirable competencies, from both an individual and an organisational perspective. Two case…

Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the literature and practice on beginning principal socialization by identifying the features of post-industrial work that create a more complex work environment for the practice and learning of the principalship in the USA. Design/methodology/approach: Based on recent literature on the changing nature of…

Despite a long history and considerable study, leadership remains a notoriously perplexing and enigmatic phenomenon. Although the "new leadership" perspective has revived convictions and general interest in leadership studies, conceptual and methodological problems nevertheless remain a feature of the research and theory-building terrain, and some…

This article argues that school improvement requires the consultation of pupils to see learning from their perspective. It reports on a video-based research approach to the investigation of pupil-teacher reflections and identifies an apparent disjunction between teacher-pupil views on what constitutes learning. It describes how the use of…

Whether it is volcanoes or video games, teachers know that when children enjoy a subject, they are far more motivated to take charge of their education. What teachers are learning now is that offering high interest topics may be less important than offering kids challenging tasks--new problems to solve--that tap into the way children's brains are…

In this paper, I reflect on equity research in order to describe a perspective on the mathematics classroom as a non-neutral place where issues of power and identity play out in teaching and learning processes. This view of the mathematics classroom takes seriously issues of equity in the form of power and what becomes constituted as legitimate…

Robertson discusses the "perceived dichotomy" that permeates science teaching: teachers can either stress inquiry learning with lots of hands-on experiences or stress content knowledge and swap hands-on inquiry for direct instruction. Although a curriculum of unstructured hands-on science activities leads to shallow content knowledge, it is…

In sixth grade, students understand that Earth gets visible light from the Sun, but students may also believe the Earth gets heat from the Sun. This last part is incorrect because the Sun is too far from the Earth to heat it directly. So, how does the Sun heat the Earth? When light strikes an object, it can be reflected or absorbed. Absorbed light…

At first glance Sioux Lookout is a typical northern Ontario town, situated within an intricate lake and river system, socially focused on year-round outdoor activities, and enveloped by kilometres and more kilometres of undomesticated Canadian Shield landscape. One might think this would be an ideal spot for outdoor education, just as these…

The use of visual representation to learn science can be traced to Louis Agassiz, Harvard Professor of Zoology, in the mid-19th century. In Agassiz's approach, students were to study nature through carefully observing, drawing and then thinking about what the observations might add up to. However, implementation of Agassiz's student-centered…