Education should endeavour to include the competences that students need to participate in a democratic society in a responsible and adequate way. The crucial question is how this can be realized in a curriculum aimed at domain-specific knowledge and skills and organized in school subjects. In this article we present a study on teaching…

Misconceptions of Finnish secondary students about phases of the moon illustrate the separation of school learning from experience and cognition outside of school. Three approaches to overcome the encapsulation of school learning are suggested based on theories of V. V. Davydov, J. Lave and E. Wenger, and the author. (SLD)

The present study investigated the effects of motivational instructions on interest, test anxiety, and text learning. Instructions to facilitate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were compared with a "neutral" instruction. The sample consisted of 375 ninth-graders. Text-related interest and test anxiety were assessed before and after the…

A new computerized environment introducing a variety of metacognitive support mechanisms (MSMs) in different phases of the problem-solving process was designed to influence students' transfer from solving structured problems (near transfer) to solving open-ended problems (far transfer). Two hundred and thirty one students (aged 13-14 years) were…

Conducted a phenomenographic analysis of the conceptions of teaching and learning held by 16 secondary school teachers in 2 Australian schools. Identifies four categories derived from pooled data of the ways in which these teachers thought about teaching and learning, their teaching strategies, and their focus on student or content. (SLD)

Interviewed 53 secondary school teachers about their subjective interpretations and the ways they implement "learning to learn." As was consistent with previous research, two groups of teachers were identified: those who have a broad vision about learning to learn and those who have a narrow vision. Describes characteristics of both groups. (SLD)

Studied the influence of task characteristics on the characteristics of elaboration of conceptual knowledge in social interaction using 40 secondary school students working in dyads on a collaborative task in 1 of 4 conditions. A phase of individual preparation created better learning results. In the concept mapping condition, elaboration was…

Studied individual differences in learning to teach for 30 secondary school teachers in the Netherlands. Findings from interviews identified five orientations to learning to teach. These orientations may be indicative of how progress in the quality of individual learning evolves. (SLD)

The effects of four different instructional formats (orthographic drawing, isometric drawing, physical model, and isometric and physical model together) on learning outcomes and strategies for spatial tasks were studied with 40 secondary students. Findings indicate that physical models cause the least extraneous cognitive load. (SLD)

Characteristics of motivated and demotivated students in humanities and high and low technical secondary education were studied for 1,824 Belgian students in the eighth, tenth, or twelfth grade. Subgroups based on motivation were formed using student self-ratings, teacher ratings, and scores on predictor measures. (SLD)

System-initiated adaptive advice and learner-requested nonadaptive background information were investigated in computer simulation game experiments with 64 seventh graders, 38 college students, and 80 seventh and eighth graders in Germany. Results are discussed in terms of theories of problem solving, intelligence, memory, and information…