Influenced by Freinet, Freire, and Sherover-Marcuse, the author describes the evolution of her pedagogy, including a demystifying and empowering approach to working with graduate students in the dissertation process. Alma Flor Ada's educational philosophy and praxis, grounded in critical pedagogy and transformative education, developed in the…

Background: Research has shown that motivation is a key factor in the learning process as well as in school achievement. In essence, a number of researchers have highlighted the close link between motivation and achievement-related behaviours such as effort. Aims: The present study aims to acquire more specific information concerning the relations…

In this article, we explore an interactive learning process in a digital forum that focused on personal cases drawn from student teachers' classroom experience. To this end, we combined theoretical and methodological frameworks of knowledge-based and discourse-analytic perspectives that enabled us to uncover evidence showing what the students may…

Across the U.S., teachers are encountering students who are in the process of learning English as a second language. In the past two decades, this student population, known as English-language learners (ELLs), has more than doubled. Because of the linguistic demands of social studies content, ELLs may have particular difficulty understanding this…

This paper points out that globalization has raised fundamental questions about knowing and learning and that it is essential for educators to engage in collective knowledge generation by crossing community boundaries. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Activity Theory, this paper reports on a study on the expansive learning that was afforded…

This study focused on examining the roles that leaders, in particular college presidents, may play in creating organizational learning that helps move diversity agendas forward. This study highlights under-examined information sources (students own stories and experiences) for creating organizational learning that can advance a diversity agenda.…

This paper explores whether the principles of cognitive load and multimedia theory are mediated by cognitive style, gender, and prior knowledge. Participants were 91 children aged 10-11 years (54 boys, 37 girls), each assigned to one of two presentation modes. In Condition 1 children were presented with diagrams supported by printed textual…

This study explores how teachers experience an online course designed to provide a situated approach to developing understanding of online learning. It describes how the course designer aimed to exploit the potentials of online tasks and interactions in relation to a rationale for situated teacher development, and then explores evidence of how…

This paper outlines Explanation Construction Theory, a psychological theory of how people come to comprehend scientific explanations. Explanation Construction Theory has three components: (1) a theory of how scientific knowledge is represented in memory; (2) a taxonomy of different representations that can be formed in response to an encounter…

This paper investigates metaphor in the language of economics, in particular, the way the vicissitudes of the Hong Kong financial markets are reported in the press. It analyzes the content from an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) perspective, probing for the significance in the negotiation of meaning in the subject area. Text samples were…

This paper explores a form of classroom discourse, organized around student argumentation, that brings into focus an alternative view of science and science education as socially and culturally constituted, meaning-making activities. To elaborate the differences between this emerging discourse practice and conventional practice, two examples are…

Sometimes multimedia presentations can provide an abundance of glamour without a clear vision of communicative content and direction. These may be called "show and show" displays. A presentation with a more apparent message or purpose could fall into either the "show and tell" or the "show and sell" category. Used…

A study examined the effects on early literacy learning of two dimensions of learning contexts: formality (peer writing and pretend play) and social relationships (friends and acquaintances). Same gender dyads of kindergarten friends were observed in peer writing and pretend play settings across the school year. A total of 33 males and 23 females…

Noting that understanding a child's brain and the way it develops is the key to understanding learning, this book explores the relationship between brain physiology and children's learning processes. The book first translates the most current scientific theories on nervous-system development into practical information for parents. It then details…

Piagetian and Vygotskian theories may be used as starting points to examine the role of play in development and learning from a constructivist perspective, including how children use play to deepen their understanding and skills, encounter new problems, and incorporate newly mastered skills into their play. Contemporary factors such as an emphasis…