All 15 subscales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1993) were administered to 352 undergraduate students taking Introductory Psychology. Their scores were evaluated with respect to incremental validity (in addition to ACT scores) they provided for predicting course grades. Results…

This article addresses critical factors that impact learning for a growing population of students in American classrooms, the English Language Learner (ELL). Even in the smallest school districts, it is common for teachers to have one or more students with limited or no command of the English language in their classrooms. Many students in schools…

While the application of geoinformation (GI) in German schools is becoming increasingly important, a systematic integration in school curricula, arranged in a cumulative and competence-oriented manner, is still lacking. Here the authors discuss existing approaches to the problem and propose a learning strategy based on the stepwise gain of GI…

Understanding of ratio and proportion is critical to the development of higher level mathematical skills. Following Carpenter, Gomez, et al.'s (1999) proposal of a four-level trajectory in the development of proportional reasoning, a 12-week investigation was undertaken of the developmental trajectory of proportional reasoning of girls in two…

This paper is about how immigrant bilingual students use their languages in the learning of mathematics. Our research has been with immigrant bilinguals in Catalonia, Spain, who arrived at a young age from South-American countries. We use a critical sociolinguistic approach, which draws on social theory in the analysis of how language is involved…

A model of expertise in chemistry problem solving was tested on undergraduate science majors enrolled in a chemistry course. The model was based on Anderson's "Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational" (ACT-R) theory. The model shows how conceptualization, self-efficacy, and strategy interact and contribute to the successful solution of quantitative,…

It was assumed that the effect of motivational regulation strategies on achievement is mediated by effort management and moderated by intelligence. A sample of 231 11th and 12th grade German high-school students provided self-reports on their use of motivational regulation strategies and effort management and completed an intelligence test.…

The involvement of working memory capacity (WMC) in ruled-based cognitive skill acquisition is well-established, but the duration of its involvement and its role in learning strategy selection are less certain. Participants (N=610) learned four logic rules, their corresponding symbols, or logic gates, and the appropriate input-output combinations…

Contemporary learning research and development that is embedded in primary and secondary schooling is increasingly acknowledging the significance of a variation approach for enhancing the possibility of learning. However, the variation approach has so far attracted very little attention in higher education, but where it has, the results have been…

With the increasing number of older people in the world and their interest in education, universities play an important role in providing effective learning methodologies. This paper presents a new instructional methodology implementing inquiry-based learning (IBL) in two courses focused on alternative energies in the Program for Older People at…

This article discusses the use of self-assessment to chart the course of students' learning. Rather than experiencing school as a journey on an unknown sea to an unknown destination, it is possible for students to use formative self-assessment as a navigational chart and compass--to know where they are going, how they are going to get there, and…

The focus of this article is on the analysis of reflection and peer learning in the pedagogical environment. The research draws on findings from a three-year Australian study, which aimed to develop and critically evaluate a model of vocal pedagogy influenced by sociocultural theories. The model sought to position Vygotsky's theories in the…

Many undergraduate institutions are dealing with less-than-prepared students entering the biology major. When the biology department at College of Notre Dame of Maryland analyzed data from five past cohorts of prospective biology majors, it was evident that there was a significant correlation between their success in the introductory course in the…

This article focuses on the potential of competitive games involving physical movement to facilitate the acquisition of a second or foreign language and argues that such activities can promote educational development too. It first provides a critical overview of the literature on physical games in language learning. Then, it outlines our…

There is plenty of evidence in many fields of knowledge that storytelling is a bona fide human activity for problem-solving. We believe that a storytelling model for problem-solving can be constructed to organize this discourse. To that end, we carried out a qualitative study using the Grounded Theory tradition to build such a model always mindful…