Research using the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic suggests different models of how student learning may evolve in the progression of undergraduate mathematics coursework: from elementary courses in Calculus to more advanced courses in Analysis. An ideal model suggests that the theory-driven learning in the latter serves as a natural…

The Topic Hypothesis posits that Chinese language learners progress through a developmental sequence comprising five stages (Gao, 2009; Wang, 2011), which includes the Object-Subject-Verb (OSV) structure at stage 4 and the ba-construct at stage 5. According to this hypothesis, learners typically master the OSV structure before acquiring the…

The aim of our study was to explore how collaborative learning processes unfold when teacher education students apply learning theories in order to learn how to teach Physical Education in a project carried out in addition to the regular teaching in PETE. In the project's social practice, 46 student teachers worked in groups to complete four tasks…

Coordination class theory has proven to be a useful theoretical framework for describing processes of conceptual change in certain physical and mathematical concepts. Its development throughout different studies has allowed us to understand numerous mechanisms of conceptual learning by individual subjects. There have been attempts to implement…

Interleaving examples of to-be-learned categories, rather than blocking examples by category, frequently enhances category induction. The presently dominant theory is that interleaving promotes discriminative-contrast, and suggests that category similarity structure modulates this interleaving benefit: that blocking should benefit learning when…

This study investigates the use of manipulatives by elementary students working on a fraction task. Extending previous work on the role played by the manipulatives in students' activity, we aim at describing how the choices made for the task design disrupt students' activity, creating opportunities to learn. The theoretical underpinnings allow…

A large number of studies have explored grammar instruction through implicit and explicit instructional conditions. The general conclusion drawn from these studies points to the superiority of explicit instruction; however, the claim has been attenuated by a number of reservations raised regarding its generalizability across types of grammatical…

In this study we applied a discursive perspective of learning (Sfard, 2008) to a sequence of 21 geometry mini-lessons taught in a fourth grade classroom. From this perspective, learning is defined as changes in mathematical discourse. We first characterize and then compare discourse from the beginning and the end of the mini-lesson sequence. We…

In this paper, we draw on the contemporary perspective of inclusive materialism offered by de Freitas and Sinclair to contribute to current discussions on the role of the body in the learning of mathematics. Using the notions of "distributed agency" and "assemblage," we illustrate the way in which three students engage with a…

Taken together, the Coherence Principle of Multimedia Learning Theory and the Integrated Systems Hypothesis propose that co-occurring and semantically congruent verbal and visual information should be integrated into one mental representation that enhances memory. The purpose of this paper was to examine how learning pseudowords with matching…

The changes of learning environments and the advancement of learning theories have increasingly demanded for feedback that can describe learning progress trajectories. Effective assessment should be able to evaluate how learners acquire knowledge and develop problem solving skills. Additionally, it should identify what issues these learners have…

Reinforcement learning theories postulate that actions are chosen to maximize a long-term sum of positive outcomes based on value functions, which are subjective estimates of future rewards. In simple reinforcement learning algorithms, value functions are updated only by trial-and-error, whereas they are updated according to the decision-maker's…

In 5 experiments, results showed that when participants are faced with materials embedding relations between both adjacent and nonadjacent elements, they learn exclusively the type of relations they had to actively process in order to meet the task demands, irrespective of the spatial contiguity of the paired elements. These results are consonant…

The dissertation investigates the effect of a concept-based approach to teaching the Chinese temporal system to English-speaking university learners at the elementary level. The pedagogical framework, Systematic-Theoretical Instruction (STI), adopted in this study was proposed by Piotr Gal'perin and originated from Vygotsky's…

An overview of Robert M. Gagne's theoretical position of learning and instruction is presented with a discussion of possible applications and usefulness of the theory toward the development of technical instruction. (Author/AG)