Purpose: This paper aims to understand what drives people -- their motivations, autonomous learning attitudes and learning interests -- to volunteer as mentors for a program that helps families to ideate technological solutions to community problems. Design/methodology/approach: A three-phase method was used to build volunteer mentor profiles;…

Players of epistemic games--computer games that simulate professional practica--have been shown to develop epistemic frames: a profession's particular way of seeing and solving problems. This study examined the interactions between players and mentors in one epistemic game, Urban Science. Using a new method called epistemic network analysis, we…

The objective of this study was to identify factors that predict resilience and social mobility in persons living in extreme poverty in Mexico by analyzing an extensive set of school-related variables. A total of 913 adults were surveyed, with 65.2% women and an average age of 43.71 years. Significant correlations were found between the seven…

Today's students will require knowledge and skills that differ from those typically provided by schools. Comparisons of learning and assessments in informal, everyday settings (e.g., homes, businesses) with those that occur in typical school settings provide ample evidence that new assessment strategies are needed. Those comparisons reveal many…

Many students who enter colleges and universities seem to be focused on memorizing and regurgitating information rather than on developing critical thinking and problem solving skills. Mentoring is crucial to help these students transition from the current approach to one that will be successful in college. Successful mentoring requires a…

Deficits common among secondary students with learning disabilities or mathematics deficiencies are considered, along with a strategy to teach upper level mathematics, such as algebra or calculus. The strategy involves use of a mentor to help students to comprehend mathematics vocabulary, develop their own problem-solving strategy, and create a…

Describes a qualitative study that explores students' perceptions of their own learning. Document review, participant observation, and open-ended interviews were used to gather and triangulate data. Factors that were perceived as helpful were woven into a theoretical model. The uses of the model are discussed. (Author/KR)

This paper describes a Personal Intelligent Mentor (PIM) that facilitates metacognitive development in the domain of solving logic word puzzles. Metacognition is an important aspect for critical thinking skills. High school students must develop logical and critical thinking abilities as a prerequisite for higher-level math and computer…