The article addresses the issues related to the use and evaluation of educational materials during the teaching process and independent learning. The first part defines the didactic function of educational materials, placing particular emphasis on the optimum explicitness of the educational contents under discussion, the improved rationalization…

In this article, I develop a perspective on learning as multilayered phenomena. I take a socio-genetic approach in order to understand human activity and to show how categories are a fundamental part of learning in a specific type of institutional practice. In the empirical section, student dialogue is analysed in relation to a set of categories…

The main objective of the paper is to present an outline for an approach studying young people as learners across contexts, presented here as a "learning lives approach". For youth, the two most time-consuming aspects of their daily lives are schooling and media use. In research, we tend to study these as two separate worlds. The challenge is to…

Along with the development of new technologies, orchestrating computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has become a topic of discussion because new learning spaces challenge teacher to support collaborative learning in new ways. However, despite the optimistic notions of teachers' orchestration in CSCL situations, there are still no…

This special issue describes important recent developments in applying reinforcement learning models to capture neural and cognitive function. But reinforcement learning, as a theoretical framework, can apply at two very different levels of description: "mechanistic" and "rational." Reinforcement learning is often viewed in mechanistic terms--as…

The present research examined how learning a new ankle-hip coordination influenced the preexisting postural repertoire. Standing participants learned a new ankle-hip coordination mode (relative phase of 90[degrees]). Before and after practice, postural patterns were evaluated in two different tasks. In the required task, specific ankle-hip…

Purpose: This paper seeks to examine the impact of information communication technology on the learning process and on the profession of teaching. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews arguments for and against the use of technology in the classroom and draws on student comments on technology use in the classroom. Findings: The paper…

This paper seeks to contribute new insight to the process of learning during idea generation (i.e., brainstorming) by proposing and evaluating two alternative operationalizations for learning, which we refer to as connection-based learning and multi-perspective learning, during a carefully designed idea-generation task in the earth-sciences…

In a world dominated by change and transformation, this article explores instructional technology connections to and applications of transformative learning. The author provides an overview of the theory of transformative learning, which embraces the hallmarks of 21st century learning. Rather than focusing solely on how to use technology,…

The purpose of this article is to gain knowledge about how interactions in a gaming context become constituted as effective resources for a student's learning trajectory. In addition, this detailed study of a learning trajectory documents how a computer game becomes a learning resource for working on a specific topic in school. The article reports…

The reported exploratory study consisted primarily of classroom visits, videotaped sessions, and post-treatment interviews whereby second graders (n = 12) worked on problems in planar geometry, individually and in triads, using physical and virtual manipulatives. The goal of the study was to: 1) characterize the nature of geometric thinking found…

In this paper, we report on the structural nexus of one youth's gaming practices across contexts and over time. We utilize data from an ethnography of youth science and technology learning, as well as expertise development, across settings and developmental time. We use Ole Dreier's theory of persons to understand how this youth is able to develop…

This paper examines the Knowledge Age and how economic factors are causing educators to rethink and reinvent education. Two key factors in education in the Knowledge Age will be education for an economy of innovation, and the increasing virtualization of education. We present knowledge building pedagogy as a model for education in the Knowledge…

This mixed methods concurrent triangulation study was designed to examine instructional leaders' descriptions of their experience with integrating technology into their teaching. Seminal studies from the 1990s were found to remain true today--that teachers are not ready to incorporate technology into their teaching (Becker, 1999; Ertmer, 1999). In…

The fact that language teaching can be operationalized through computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has directed researchers' attention to the learning task, which, in this case, is considered to be the unit that demands analysis of the communicative processes in which the learner is involved while working with CALL. Research focuses on…