As societies become more aware of the importance of early socio-emotional skills for children's later success, teachers report that they are ill-equipped to support and enhance these skills within their 'traditional' teacher role. This paper turns to the contributions that Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky and his adherents have made to our…

The Matthew effects suggest that children who struggle when learning to read are less likely to read for pleasure later in life compared to children who ease into reading quickly. One aspect of early literacy instruction that might hamper reading progress is learning to read simultaneously in two languages. Despite the long-lasting and widespread…

One of the challenges of understanding the complexity of so-called reform mathematics instruction lies in the observational tools used to capture it. This article introduces a unique tool, drawing from commognitive theory, for describing classroom discussions. The Realization Tree Assessment tool provides an image of a classroom discussion,…

The Norwegian folk high schools have a legally defined role in the national educational system as a value-based pedagogical alternative without grades, exams or pre-defined curriculums. The roots of the schools can be traced to the theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig and his ideals of a learning that develops not just the mind but the whole student. The…

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) and task-supported language teaching (TSLT) are often seen as incompatible as they draw on different theories of language learning and language teaching. The position adopted in this article, however, is that both approaches are needed especially in instructional contexts where 'pure' task-based teaching may be…

Prior research has revealed resistance against wiki collaboration in higher education classrooms. Compared with small-group projects, whole-class knowledge building (KB) on a wiki is difficult, given students' lack of similar experiences, which requires scaffolding intersubjectivity and transfer of responsibility. This paper focuses on the second…

Lo's variation theory is a learning and teaching theory based on Marton's phenomenographic approach and is one of the most important backbones of learning studies. The proponents of variation theory demarcate their approach from constructivist learning approaches, stressing constructivism as philosophical framework, but not as learning theory. At…

Despite the growing popularity and frequency of science festivals in the United States (US), the body of science festival research is limited. Using the lens of experiential learning theory, we examined the lasting impacts of science festivals on individual family members' perspectives of the experience, and the similarities and differences in…

In recent years, researchers have questioned the legitimacy of the so-called myth of learning styles and expressed confusion about exactly when and why the idea first emerged. This historical study traces the origin and emergence of the learning style idea. The author argues that the learning style idea originated in the 1960s as part of a broader…

Past research has shown that student problem-solving skills may be used to determine student final exam performance. This study reports on the relationship between student perceived problem-solving skills and academic performance in introductory programming, in formative and summative programming assessment tasks. We found that the more effective…

Using computers as cognitive tools or mindtools has created impact in education since their introduction in the 1990s. One main characteristic is the notion of learning with computers as intellectual partners: engaging learners in higher level thinking while taking away the lower level cognitive load such as computing and digital storage. In…

This paper gives a brief summary of Halliday's theory of how children learn to talk, illustrating the development of children's language from the microfunctions through the macrofunctions and into the metafunctions of adult language. The paper points to a possible source of the misinterpretation of Halliday's theory in the work of Frank Smith…

In this article, we explore longitudinal video data from the student activist group Fossil Free UofT to analyze what it means to become politicized. We argue that politicization is a sociocultural learning process, not merely a process of conceptual development or cognitive change, but a simultaneous process of conceptual, practical,…

This article is concerned with age in second language learning. It steers well clear, however, of the well-worn issue of maturational constraints and the intractable problems of locating their consensual offset point and finding indisputable evidence for or against them. Instead we propose something completely different in our agenda for…

Since the introduction of connectivism as a learning theory in 2004 a body of literature has developed both offering criticisms and expanding on applications and empirical validation. This article surveys recent literature on the topic, grouping it into themes, and developing an understanding of current perspectives in connectivism. It surveys…