Research reveals that in highly structured learning environments pedagogical agents can act as tools to direct students' learning processes by providing content or problem solving guidance. It has not yet been addressed whether pedagogical agents have a similar impact in more open learning environments that aim at fostering students' acquisition…

This study examined the mathematics experiences of talented children in an impoverished rural school district located in a coal-mining area of Appalachia. Using interview methods, the researchers explored the children's ideas about the nature of mathematics, their perceptions of the mathematics instruction they received at school, and their…

Simulation output analysis has received little attention comparing to modeling and programming in real-world simulation applications. This is further evidenced by our observation that students and beginners acquire neither adequate details of knowledge nor relevant experience of simulation output analysis in traditional classroom learning. With…

Extensive studies have been conducted on programming knowledge, instructional environments and effective pedagogies in order to improve the teaching and learning of computer programming. However, there have been few studies on the usefulness and effectiveness of using simulation. The aim of this paper is two-fold: to describe the design and…

This article reports the findings of a survey of 558 teachers in England. It describes how conceptual and empirical insights from the literature informed the construction of questionnaire items to provide answers to questions about the way in which teachers value different classroom assessment practices and how congruent with these values they…

This article deals with brain research. It discusses how a growing understanding of the way the brain functions offers new insights into the minds of students at all stages of development. Brain-based research deals with classroom-relevant concerns, such as sensory perception, attention, memory, and how emotions affect learning. The goals for…

The nature of interaction in higher education environments impacts not only end outcomes, but also the approach to learning itself. Using a quasi-experimental research design, this empirical study tests the impact of social and academic interaction on student approaches to learning. Findings demonstrate significant correlations between contextual…

Contemporary theories of learning postulate one or at most a small number of different learning mechanisms. However, people are capable of mastering a given task through qualitatively different learning paths such as learning by instruction and learning by doing. We hypothesize that the knowledge acquired through such alternative paths differs…

The classified honours degree has so much prestige and so venerable a tradition that only very serious and systemic changes could justify the question as to whether classification has a future. However, while this paper argues that such changes have indeed taken place in the past 30 years, the main arguments for change are pedagogical. The…

Many people believe that educational games are effective because they motivate children to actively engage in a learning activity as part of playing the game. However, seminal work by Malone, exploring the motivational aspects of digital games, concluded that the educational effectiveness of a digital game depends on the way in which learning…

Gifted students are often described in the literature as being self-regulated, self-directed learners. Ten gifted primary students were interviewed in order to clarify the concept of self-directed learning in students of primary age. The students provided information on their knowledge of self-directed learning, explanations of the self-directed…

Recent research indicates that students learn best when they are actively engaged and they construct their own understanding. Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is a student-centered instructional philosophy based on these concepts in which students work in teams on specially prepared activities that follow a learning cycle paradigm.…

Statistical data can be represented in a number of qualitatively different ways, the choice depending on the following three conditions: the concepts to be investigated; the nature of the data; and the purpose for which they were collected. This paper begins by setting out frameworks that describe the nature of statistical thinking in schools, and…

Knowledge-based competition has magnified the importance of learning alliances as a fast and effective mechanism of capability development. This case presents a technology transfer project from a university's engineering research center to a private firm to illuminate learning and knowledge-based determinants of the outcomes of such projects. In…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of organizational factors such as leadership commitment, incentives and interaction on learning outcomes defined as performance improvement and organizational climate. Design/methodology/approach: Different aspects of knowledge acquisition, sharing and utilization were examined,…