Play is an essential component of childhood, but parents and educators sometimes view it as an optional add-on, which gets in the way of learning. This view persists in spite of evidence that play is helpful and sometimes critical to learning in multiple domains, perhaps because precise mechanisms whereby play occasions learning are not well…

Background: Mobile devices facilitate learning activities in a self-paced way. However, the current understanding of learning participation and its consequence are minimal when learners take advantage of opportunities provided by mobile technologies worldwide. Aims: The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of environmental…

Creativity is an increasingly recognized construct in technology-enhanced learning. However, our understanding of how creativity interacts with the design of online learning environments to affect learning experiences is still limited. For example, do creative students benefit from different learning environment designs than those benefitting…

In judgment and categorization, the task is to infer the criterion value of an object based on cues. The cognitive mechanisms underlying such inferences are often distinguished in terms of whether they rely on an abstracted cue-criterion rule or on retrieving exemplars. The use of cue-based and exemplar-based strategies (and the associated…

The acquisition of a sound system is an integral component of second language (L2) communication, yet it is one of the most difficult skills to teach and is therefore largely ignored in L2 classrooms (Derwing, 2010). In laboratory settings, phonetic training studies have typically examined syllables, rather than words, with no referential meaning.…

We investigate whether infant-directed speech (IDS) could facilitate word form learning when compared to adult-directed speech (ADS). To study this, we examine the distribution of word forms at two levels, acoustic and phonological, using a large database of spontaneous speech in Japanese. At the acoustic level we show that, as has been documented…

It is well known that self-efficacy positively affects students' learning behavior. However, less is known about this association in self-directed learning, which additionally promotes student's control strategies. To close this gap, this study tested whether control strategies mediate the association between self-efficacy and effort investment,…

The learning process in architecture at Universidad Simon Bolivar is based on confronting students with practical or theoretical situations to let them acquire knowledge about the discipline. The core of this process is on design studio courses, and from the early stages of the program they have to discover for themselves the role of architecture…

The current study probes into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' conceptions of their professional development during practicum course. The study merits a mixed methods approach and has utilized both quantitative and qualitative data gathering and analysis. To gather quantitative data, 100 EFL teachers were asked to complete a…

In the current study, we investigated the ways in which the acquisition and transfer of spatial knowledge were affected by (a) the type of spatial relations predominately experienced during learning (routes determined by walkways vs. straight-line paths between locations); (b) environmental complexity; and (c) the availability of rotational…

The authors' objective was to study the role of error detection and retroactive self-regulation as determinants of performance in secondary education students. A total of 198 students participated in the quasiexperimental study, which involved a control group and two experimental groups. This enabled the authors to analyze the effects of both…

Technology transition stage in 21st century try to reach the goal of elaborate the educational quality for knowledge transfer in learning process. Blended learning is interest variety of technologies utilization that combined from "face-to-face" learning and "E-learning" process. This study intends to convey the role of blended…

This dissertation research aims to better specify the role of context in the development of second language interactional competence. Drawing on conversation-analytic methods and Wong and Waring's (2010) model of interactional practices, I described and compared the opportunities that two study abroad contexts--the homestay and the language…

This article introduces the new translation by Stanley Mitchell of a very well-known Vygotskyan text, which has become the locus classicus for Vygotsky's concept of the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). It outlines the history of Vygotsky's text and compares Mitchell's new translation with the version found in Chapter 6 of "Mind…

The unstructured conversations of students who chatted with Freudbot in his Second Life virtual office over a 32-month period were examined in order to better understand the nature of the virtual relationship between students and conversational agents (CA) as historical figures. This research builds on past work that examined these conversations…