Meaningful learning is the fundamental process that underlies the acquisition of useful information and the construction of new knowledge. By creating meaningful relations, learners are able to organize the information in bigger and more organized chunks of information; an organization that reduces memory overload and increases processing…

This article presents a longitudinal case study investigation of three young cellists' self-directed preparation of a new piece of music for an informal performance. The investigation considers how musical understanding starts to emerge in children's practice and performance. It explores practice at early stages of learning and examines the…

This paper looks at sources of frustration in students of "prerequisite" mathematics courses (PMC), that is, courses required for admission into undergraduate programs in a large, urban, North American university. The research was based on responses to a questionnaire addressed to students and interviews with students and instructors. In the…

Increasing multicultural course offerings in the undergraduate curriculum is a challenge for geography programs. Effective approaches to teaching multicultural geography of the United States include emphasizing institutional affects on minority populations and the life experiences and geographic expressions of minority groups. This article shares…

The claim that "learning how to learn" is the central ability required for young people to be effective "lifelong learners" is examined for various plausible interpretations. It is vacuous if taken to mean that we need to acquire a capacity to learn, since we necessarily have this if we are to learn anything. The claim that it is a specific…

At what point does a paradigm become so prevalent that it loses its utility? Probably when attempts to simplify complex concepts become oversimplification. A case in point may be the use of the term "millennials". The designations "millennials" and "millennial generation" are frequently used, allegedly to paint a nuanced portrait of today's…

This article is about a small-scale research project which aimed to investigate in one local authority (LA) in England some of the outcomes of the nationwide PNS/EMA (Primary National Strategy/Ethnic Minority Achievement) pilot project, begun in 65 LAs in England in January 2004. The research project itself was conducted in the summer term of 2006…

Upper secondary students' task solving reasoning was analysed, with a focus on grounds for different strategy choices and implementations. The results indicate that mathematically well-founded considerations were rare. The dominating reasoning types were algorithmic reasoning, where students tried to remember a suitable algorithm, sometimes in a…

Scott Snair proposes a mnemonic for students to use when critically examining written opinion. The acronym, RATTKISS, represents a "step-by-step method for understanding and evaluating written opinion." (Contains 1 figure.)

The underlying structure of the Revised Two Factor version of the Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F), a 20-item instrument for the evaluation of students' approaches to learning (SAL), was examined at item level using two independent groups of undergraduate students enrolled in the first (n = 314) and last (n = 522) years of their studies. The…

Educational learning environments have changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Advances in technology have enabled the World Wide Web and a sundry of other tools. In response, many researchers have argued that one way to understand learning in a complex world is to examine user interactions within Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) [Gee…

This study evaluated how people learn about encoding strategy effectiveness in an associative memory task. Individuals studied two lists of paired associates under instructions to use either a normatively effective strategy (interactive imagery) or a normatively ineffective strategy (rote repetition) for each pair. Questionnaire ratings of imagery…

When scaffolding is done correctly, students are encouraged to develop their own creativity, motivation, and resourcefulness. How teachers interact with students and how students interact with one another as they complete a task is important to students' ability to perform the activity. This article shows how scaffolding can be effectively applied…

This article provides a review of research in cognitive strategy instruction for improving mathematical problem solving for students with learning disabilities (LD). The particular focus is on one of the salient components of this instructional approach--self-regulation. Seven studies utilizing this approach for teaching problem solving to…

Graphic organizers are instruments of representation, illustration and modeling of information. In the educational practice they are used for building, and systematization of knowledge. Graphic organizers are instruments that addressed mostly visual learning style, but their use is beneficial to all learners. In this paper we illustrate the use of…