"Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1" reviews the best available evidence to offer five recommendations for developing the maths skills of 3-7-year olds. Recommendations include integrating maths into different activities throughout the day -- for example, at registration and snack time -- to familiarise children…

There is a limited literature on pre-school children's experiences with "digital technologies" at home and little discussion of the ways in which children harness these technologies for their own purposes. This paper discusses findings drawn from three studies that investigated the role of "domestic technologies" and…

While much of the e-learning development at universities in the past 15 years has been on institutionally supported Learning Management Systems (LMSs), alternative educational technologies are being taken up following the rapid growth in emerging technologies, including social networking sites (SNSs). While teachers may choose educational…

One issue of interest to practitioners and researchers in science centres concerns what meanings visitors are making from their interactions with exhibits and how they make sense of these experiences. The research reported in this study is an exploratory attempt, therefore, to investigate this process by using video clips and still photographs of…

Immersion programmes in primary schools have gained more and more recognition over the last decades. Every new immersion school faces the problem of providing a concept which will be put into practise with the help of personnel who have normally not been trained specifically for this task. The purpose of this guide is to answer frequently asked…

This document makes the case for assessing prior learning and offers practical advice on how to do it within British English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and adult basic education (ABE) programs. Following an introduction, it is explained that a person's prior learning is obtained through prior study or life experiences. The next section…

Difficulties in teaching students whose general knowledge is limited are discussed by a teacher at the Nofe-Golan Regional High School. Suggestions are offered regarding obtaining information about each student, preparing first lessons, student and teacher ground rules, readying students for tests, and special activities. (LB)

This guide was developed in Great Britain to help colleges develop programs for assessment of prior learning (APL) for adult students. (APL involves careers and educational guidance, access to particular courses despite possible lack of traditional certification, accreditation, formal credit toward a particular qualification, and exemption from…

This manual provides an overview of the concepts and issues involved in the assessment of prior learning in the context of the increasing numbers of older, nontraditional students returning to higher education. Section 1 gives background information about prior learning assessment (PLA) and defines PLA as assessment by some valid and reliable…

Follow-up interviews with 79 adults and children about 6 months after their visit to Launch Pad, the interactive center in London's Science Museum, provide evidence of long-term impact of the visit. Although most of the memories were episodic rather than semantic in nature, over one-quarter of the memories showed evidence that respondents…

Based on widespread teacher perceptions that British upper secondary school students entering advanced language courses are poorly prepared, an approach for making the transition to advanced language instruction is suggested. Teachers are invited to use existing syllabuses creatively to develop language awareness as well as language skills. Four…

This course is designed to assist adults in documenting their prior experience, gaining an understanding of the policy and practices of recognition of prior learning (RPL), and then applying for RPL in either further education or employment. The 30-hour course is designed to be delivered over a series of weeks to allow time for students to reflect…

The starting point for curriculum planning for second language instruction is the learner, and a curriculum can claim to be learner-centered only if key factors about the learner are made the basis for curriculum design at all stages in the planning and development of learning activities and materials and in the sequencing of learning experiences.…

Identifies the unsophisticated assumptions and conjectures, both intuitive and empirical in character, underlying secondary school science students' (n=25) portrayal of scientific knowledge and its production. Structured interview protocols explored not only the students' substantive knowledge base but, perhaps more important, their ability to…

Describes a Canadian study attempting to relate the motivating power of interest to children's writing performance by supplementing background knowledge with topic relevant information. Reports that children with tutorial support on high interest subjects performed no better than others. Concludes that the motivational power of interesting topics…