"Science for all" is a global educational pursuit; however, the realities in formal science education show that it is a goal still challenged by inequitable outcomes that are marked by gender, race/ethnicity, language, culture, and socioeconomic status. Whether these inequities persist in the informal settings still remained a question…

For musicians, learning to improvise requires individual and collaborative skill and knowledge that in experts is acquired over years of immersion and enculturation. Learning formally, informally or a combination of both, improvisers 'learn to learn' by evolving meta-cognitive capabilities necessary to develop and refine improvisational expertise.…

This study investigates the impact of an informal science outreach programme built around theories of identity formation and self-efficacy on middle school girls' science affinities. A lottery-based, randomised control trial was used to identify programme effects on four science affinity outcomes: science interests, efficacy with science, science…

Learning progression research has the capability to connect thinking in the education sciences and geography. Learning progressions provide a map of the various pathways that students take to master a topic. The aim of this paper is to illustrate significant conceptual ties between learning progressions and disciplinary geography. Two construct…

This paper explores experiences at the interface of research and policy through the lens of informal learning. The paper contends that in order to further social justice it is essential to value the informal learning that takes place outside the confines of educational institutions. However, it also demonstrates the difficulties in getting…

A study of migrants' homeland family members in Latvia, a country undergoing drastic political change, this article examines migration-driven literacy-learning in shifting transnational contexts. Building from critiques of place-based literacy ethnographies, it documents three kinds of informal literacy learning--print literacy learning, digital…

The nature and significance of students' informal peer feedback networks is an under-explored area. This paper offers the findings of a longitudinal investigation of the informal peer feedback networks of a cohort of student teachers [n = 105] across the three years of a UK primary education degree programme. It tracked the dynamic nature of these…

To better understand the components that create an equitable learning environment, we have analyzed a number of highly successful programs that we developed and conducted targeting K-12 students, their teachers, and university students. We identified four criteria experienced by the student that are essential for his or her recruitment,…

While the academic literature is replete with affirming that 'values-explicit' citizenship education programs are biased and indoctrinatory, there is scant attention to substantiate this claim. The present paper fills this gap; it investigates the values education notion informing "Itorero," a non-formal citizenship education platform…

Principal preparation and training is generally viewed as an important contributor to school and system improvement. While the international evidence based on leadership and leadership development is extensive, contemporary accounts of principal preparation in a number of Asian countries are not widespread. This article outlines the findings from…

Learning on and through social media is becoming a cornerstone of lifelong learning, creating places not only for accessing information, but also for finding other self-motivated learners. Such is the case for Reddit, the online news sharing site that is also a forum for asking and answering questions. We studied learning practices found in 'Ask'…

We can support students' deep engagement with content through innovative delivery. The techniques developed at the Field Museum in Chicago to share science knowledge through storytelling can provide inspiration for both formal and informal educators.

This study aims to explore the differences between male and female users' behaviour with regard to acceptance of social media for learning in higher educational institutions. For this purpose, a survey was conducted and the least square regression analysis approach was utilised to investigate the relationships among the constructs in the research…

Informal language learning in online communities represents a growing area of interest. In part, this interest is due to the potential for meaningful second language (L2) communication, rather than the "learning about language" argued to be prevalent in L2 classrooms (Thorne, Black, & Sykes, 2009, p. 804). This study reports on a…

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of out-of-school science learning environments on the understanding of the science nature of seventh-grade students in secondary school. In this study, pre-test post-test group pattern model was used. The participants of the survey consisted of 22 students who attended the 7th grade in the…