Research on object cognition in infancy suggests that children from (at latest) 1 year of age are capable of individuating objects according to property/kind information. It remains unclear from previous work, however, whether infants in such studies truly apply sortal (kind) concepts or whether they merely track objects on the basis of…

Prior knowledge, in the form of a mental schema or framework, is viewed to facilitate the learning of new information in a range of experimental and everyday scenarios. Despite rising interest in the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying schema-driven facilitation of new learning, few paradigms have been developed to examine this issue in…

This paper follows undergraduate students' engagement with the concept of childhood presented to them during a year-long childhood and youth studies module. Through the application of "threshold concepts" as concepts which transform students' understandings of a subject, the challenges of learning new ideas or concepts of childhood are…

Children recognize that people who know more are better informants than those who know less. How does an individual's prior knowledge affect children's decisions about whom to inform? In 3 experiments, 3- to 6-year-old children were invited to share a novel piece of information with 1 of 2 potential recipients who differed in their recent history…

This paper reveals the significant historical traces which informed the learning practices of teachers at one particular school site in a rural and regional educational district in Australia. Drawing upon recent theorising into professional practice, the paper argues that teacher learning practices are intrinsically "ecologically"…

Direct experience is a powerful learning and teaching tool. However, when trying to teach students about natural hazards such as earthquakes, direct experience is not the best idea. Depending on location, it might be difficult to help young students understand the impact of natural hazards on their lives. Students will naturally find it…

Concept maps have a long history in educational settings as a tool for teaching, learning, and assessing. As an assessment tool, they are predominantly used to extract the structural configuration of learners' knowledge. This article presents an investigation of the knowledge structures of a large group of beginning CS students. The investigation…

The history of Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) can be traced back to World War II when the American Council on Education (ACE) began conducting credit evaluations of military training. However, it wasn't until the 1970s with the inception of adult-serving colleges such as Charter Oak State College (COSC) and others, the altering of ACE to expand…

Student satisfaction and the quality of education are of compelling interest to students, academic staff, policy-makers and higher education researchers internationally. There is a widespread belief in their "cause and effect" relationship. This paper tests these beliefs and explores how the level of student satisfaction is linked with…

The purpose of this study was to identify instructional technology integration strategies and practices in preservice teacher education that contribute to the transfer of technology integration knowledge and skills to the instructional practices of early career teachers. This study used a two-phase, sequential explanatory strategy. Data were…

This poster reports on a study that compared three types of summaries at the end of natural-language tutorial dialogues and a no-dialogue control, to determine which type of summary, if any, best predicted learning gains. Although we found no significant differences between conditions, analyses of gender differences indicate that female students…

Purpose: In 2 experiments, we examined the influence of prior knowledge and interest on 4th- and 5th-grade students' passage comprehension scores on the Qualitative Reading Inventory-4 (QRI-4) and 2 experimenter constructed passages. Method: In Experiment 1, 4th- and 5th-grade students were administered 4 Level 4 passages or 4 Level 5…

In foreign language classrooms we often find that, in addition to their mother tongue (L1), learners already speak--or are learning--at least one other language. As a result, they already have an array of linguistic and cognitive skills that may prove very useful if they are adequately exploited during the language learning process. However, in…

The ratio of internship applicants to internship positions listed in the online directory of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) is estimated at 1.23:1. In 2014a, approximately 14% of all students who participated in the match were not placed. Although the internship crisis impacts students in clinical,…

Self-efficacy and knowledge, both concerning the chi-squared test of independence, were examined in education graduate students. Participants rated statements concerning self-efficacy and completed a related knowledge assessment. After completing a demographic survey, participants completed the self-efficacy and knowledge scales a second time.…