This article presents EarSketch, a learning environment that combines computer programming with sample-based music production to create a computational remixing environment for learning introductory computing concepts. EarSketch has been employed in both formal and informal settings, yielding significant positive results in student content…

The Four Skills News Project is an example of communicative language learning, developed for final year German students at the University of Liverpool. It focuses on how students use and practise their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills via the creative use of news reports and digital technology. Each student creates an avatar using…

In this article, language policy is analysed in relation to multilingual practices in primary school through an understanding of the policy on different levels--as management, perception and practice. The article is based on longitudinal ethnographic action research that was conducted parallel to local school development. Here we draw on material…

This article has sought to contribute to discussions concerning the value of inter-sentential patterns of code-switching (henceforth ISPCS) particularly in the context of EFL classrooms. Through a detailed analysis of recorded data produced in that context, distinctive features in the discourse were discerned which were associated with males' and…

Over the past few decades, there has been a marked shift away from conceptualizing literacy as a functional skill set toward its recognition, particularly for children and youth, as a social achievement that is buttressed, in part, by access to digital tools and new media. Yet, beyond the mere consumption of multimedia and the mundane assemblage…

In response to the tendency for music to be under-represented in the discourse of medical humanities, we framed the question "how can music heal?" We answered it by exploring the lived experiences of musicians with lay or professional interests in health. Two medical students and a medically qualified educationalist, all musicians, conducted a…

This article reports on a small-scale study conducted among first and second-year students of English at the University of Graz in the winter semester 2013-2014. The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which students in their peer-group interactions were using language efficiently as a means of thinking and learning together. To this…

This study examined the role played by instructional resources in enhancing performance of students, especially that of high-achievers, in English Language. The study is descriptive in nature and it adopted a survey design. Simple random sampling technique was used for the selection of fifty (50) SSI-SSIII students from five schools in Ibadan…

For the impact of parent-child reading picture books have on the child's learning process has been recommended at the elementary level as the appropriate strategies to bridge preschool and family education. The purpose of the study is firstly, to investigate the key virtues of the implementation in children's reading in preschool and at home;…

Past efforts invested in computer-based education technology interventions have generated little evidence of affordable success at scale. This paper presents the results of a mobile phone-based intervention conducted in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in 2012-13. The BridgeIT project provided a pool of audio-visual learning…

The objective of this study is to bring out the period perception of 1980's period primary school students with their own words via center-periphery and gender variables. As it is known that the period perception of individuals cannot appear independent from the political and socio-economic conditions in which they are. It is possible to find out…

Extending earlier research on the concept of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) (e.g., MacIntyre et al., 1998), this paper tests the WTC concept on a secondary school in Singapore where English is used as a lingua franca. In doing so, a layer of complexity is added to the WTC concept. By focusing on classroom interactions involving one immigrant…

Currently, it is not clear whether professional development staff at Informal Science Institutions (ISIs) are considering the way exhibits contribute to the social aspects of learning as described by the contextual model of learning (CML) (Falk & Dierking in "The museum experience." Whalesback, Washington, 1992; "Learning from…

Background: Currently, there is great enthusiasm surrounding place-based initiatives for school reform, such as the Harlem Children's Zone, Promise Neighborhoods, and other initiatives that attend to the multiple contexts that influence child development. However, past efforts to bridge schools, families, and communities have been undermined by…

In an age of PowerPoint, much everyday public communication is semantically organized as an expository presentation. This contrasts with traditional approaches such as storytelling that are episodically organized and presented as narratives. The constructivist theory of narrative comprehension, along with other theoretical perspectives, suggests…