Folklife, a type of inquiry that focuses on "ways of life" as its central lens, is constantly changing. Rather than focus on cultural loss or salvaging, folklife inquiry is more powerful when it is positioned to offer insights about human experience through the sharing of personal lived histories in safe and supportive environments. At…

Learners' autonomous learning is at the heart of modern education, and the convenient network brings new opportunities for it. We notice that learners mainly use the combination of online and offline learning methods to complete the entire autonomous learning process, but most of the existing models cannot effectively describe the complex process…

Many comparative education researchers have tackled the question of how we could understand the relationship between social and cultural contexts and education. Based on the criticisms of School Effectiveness research that prospered during the 1980s, researchers started to pay closer attention to the embeddedness of education in the broader…

The meaning of a certain policy is not given. It is shaped by the interaction among written policy, people, and contexts in which people do the policy (Honig, 2006). From this perspective, pedagogical reform is a complex social practice in which various actors construct and reconstruct the meaning of teaching and learning. In the case of…

Research has shown that playful learning helps foster the development of young children. Adult guidance of this play in meaningful ways can unlock the transformative power of education. Lack of knowledge about guided play, however, often leads to children growing up without opportunities to learn through play. Considering this, the authors analyze…

Dialogue can be an excellent weapon for justice and liberation, which 'silenced' groups could use to challenge the status quo and authenticate their efficacy. Over the years, there has been a preconceived negative focus on Africans which has suppressed African children's autonomy. Consequently, there is a need to liberate the position of children…

Learning resources have been created to represent digital units of exchangeable materials that teachers and learners can pull from in order to support the learning processes. They resource themselves. Leveraging the web, one can often find these resources. But what characteristics do they need in order to be easily exchangeable? Although several…

This paper presents a piece of educational software covering a comprehensive number of topics of chemical kinetics, which is available free of charge in Portuguese and English. The software was developed to support chemistry educators and students in the teaching-learning process of chemical kinetics by using animations, calculations, and…

Distance education, particularly online education, is becoming a standard experience in formal learning environments, particularly at the postsecondary level. As more faculty and students have expectations that distance education is a part of the learning experience, we need to build a deeper understanding of how to design effective environments…

This paper introduces Ontoolsearch, a new search system that can be employed by educators in order to find suitable tools for supporting collaborative learning settings. Current tool search facilities commonly allow simple keyword searches, limiting the accuracy of obtained results. In contrast, Ontoolsearch supports semantic querying of tool…

An analysis of student verbatim responses in the Student Outcomes Survey provides suggestions for how the vocational education and training (VET) system could be improved. Eight major domains are discussed: course relevance and design; staff attributes and behaviours; teaching and learning practices; access to courses; facilities and services;…

Current cognitive learning theory stresses the importance of observational learning and interactions with other people. Motion pictures have value for instruction for two reasons: film is a popular medium due to its visual format and its resulting sensory impact; and film is a form of vicarious interaction with other people. (Author/AEF)

The task of synthesizing descriptive data from the "root social sciences" to form a usable model for applied research is quite different from the task of employing, verbatim, the theoretical and methodological constructs of those same sciences. This study conceptualizes the instructional encoding conditions that potentially effect and/or affect…

This article explores the potentials of new pedagogical approaches, assisted by digital technologies, to transform today's learning environments and create learning for the future--learning environments which could be more relevant to a changing world, more effective in meeting community expectations and which manage educational resources more…