Studies on sociology and music education are important because they can enlighten how music education relates to social change. By studying how music education changes and is changed by society we enable ourselves to describe how it can contribute to the understanding of social change generally. This may lay the ground for us in contributing to…

In this article the authors share advice from the viewpoints of both a formal and informal educator that will help teachers identify the right Informal Science Institutions (ISIs)--institutions that specialize in learning that occurs outside of the school setting--to maximize their students' learning and use informal education to their…

Science museums, science centers, zoos, and aquariums (MCZAs) constitute major settings of science learning with unique characteristics of informal science education. Emphasis will be given to the analysis of four specific characteristics of MCZAs that seem relevant for educational research and practice, namely, conditions of mixed motives and…

During a study abroad experience on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, participants found themselves in an "impromptu learning experience" that extended their learning beyond Puerto Rican culture to real-world debates of tourist development, environmental issues, and the struggles of the native population. In this paper, we introduce…

Our purpose in this paper is to review studies that explored the impact of the use of mobile games in both formal and informal learning environments. Through a review of studies on mobile learning that have been published between 2000 and 2013, we aim to identify the ways in which researchers used mobile games in a variety of learning…

This article reports on a study of one recently qualified teacher's employment of the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) model in a UK secondary school. The study sought to examine how the teacher, not formally educated in its use, delivered TGfU and to identify those factors that led to this interpretation of the model. Occupational…

There has been an ongoing tendency, taking place in the Scandinavian countries from the late 1970s onwards, to expand the repertoires and resources of music as an educational matter, an academic field, as well as an area for support and funding from cultural authorities, organisations and institutions. Here, popular music, jazz, folk music and…

Participation in service-learning courses has always been considered a part of the informal education in tertiary education worldwide. Originating from the assumption that service-learning courses increase students' civic engagement and bridge the gap between knowledge and practice, service-learning courses have gradually acquired the status of…

This paper draws on Jean-François Lyotard's (1984) seminal study "The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge" to reflect on two macro-level catastrophes: the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2009 (and its continuing effects throughout the Eurozone and elsewhere) and Fukushima. These two case studies probe aspects of these grand…

Learning-practices of popular musicians are a prominent theme in Western music education literature; however, there appears to be a shortage of such literature in Asian countries. With the aim of comparing East and West, a qualitative study was conducted to investigate the learning-practices and involvement in music of Hong Kong popular musicians.…

The aim of the current study is to determine what language activities Norwegian preschool children took part in, and to examine whether these language activities predict children's language comprehension. We tested children (n = 134) with language measures at age 4/5 and age 5/6 and interviewed their teachers (n = 71) about the kinds of language…

How can young women in developing countries best be prepared for success in their lives and livelihoods? Life preparation requires learning different types of knowledge and skills in formal, non-formal, and informal learning contexts. Since the advent of the Education for All initiative in 1990, the international community has recognized that in…

This paper presents the findings from a multiple-case study which has investigated the impact of mobile Web 2.0 technologies on self-directed learning (SDL) of workplace learners by exploring participants' learning experiences with a mobile App. Drawing on existing literatures, we examined learners' SDL personal attributes and process in the…

Despite evidence of the benefits of learning for well-being across diverse groups, little is known about older men's experiences of learning, the factors that influence whether they choose to engage in learning activities and what role learning plays in their lives as they grow older. The present study examines the attitudes and learning…

This article explores the outcomes of a school leadership study visit to India. The research critiques the competency-based frameworks common in English leadership development programmes, and argues instead for an approach that challenges assumptions in a fresh context for learning and considers leadership as a process of humanisation. Using…