This brief article uses a weaving metaphor to address the relationship between braille and reading, with prior knowledge (the warp threads) interacting with reading content (the weft threads) by means of braille (the shuttle). Reading is seen to be an interactive process between reader, text, and the context of the reading situation. (DB)

Offers suggestions for spreading ownership of a prior learning program: sharing the program's philosophy; conducting workshops; arranging informal gatherings; assigning tutors; establishing a faculty committee; soliciting ideas; recruiting faculty; acting as liaison; publishing guidelines; convincing others of the program's value; and revealing…

Explains how five experiments were conducted to examine readers' access to backgrounded causal information in the absence of a local coherence break. States that participants read surprise-ending stories in which some story actions were explained by information in the preceding context and others were not. Finds that participants receiving prior…

Five experiments tested hypothesis that the A-not-B error results from general processes that make goal-directed actions to remembered locations. Findings showed that 2-year-olds' performance on the A trial was accurate. When the object was hidden at Location B, searches after 10-second delay were biased in the direction of Location A. This bias…

A nursing portfolio is a means of documenting skills, professional development, and goal achievement. A portfolio enables registered nurses returning to school to describe their achievements and earn credit for experience. (SK)

Describes "character maps," an activity that draws upon the reader's prior knowledge of people to understand a book's characters. Includes a brief list of additional activities and extensions to reinforce comprehension through characterization. (RS)

How do groups of 3 people establish common ground in problem-solving interactions differently from groups of 2? Do they do this differently when they are supported by videoconferencing technologies? The laboratory experiment reported here manipulated group size and video mediation for participants carrying out a laboratory map task that allowed…

"Recognition of Prior Learning" (RPL) is usually associated with assessment processes prior to entry into an educational programme. This paper considers the recognition of prior learning in post-entry pedagogy (referred to here as "rpl" lower case). The focus is on informal learning or experience in courses in Labour Law at two…

It has been suggested that computer simulations may be used for intelligence assessment. This study investigates what relationships exist between intelligence and computer-simulated tasks that mimic real-world problem-solving behavior, and discusses design requirements that simulations have to meet in order to be suitable for intelligence…

This study investigates how, and to what extent, young readers (7-8 year-olds) use text information or their prior knowledge when answering comprehension questions about narrative texts. The children were asked to explain how they found out their responses by answering the following question: "how do you know this answer?" Their answers and…

Category-based inference is crucial for using past experiences to make sense of new ones. One challenge to inference of this kind is that most entities in the world belong to multiple categories (e.g., a jogger, a professor, and a vegetarian). We tested the hypothesis that the "degree of coherence" of a category-the degree to which category…

Experiential learning is a time-honored approach that can help to "...seal the bond between the learner and the learned." Such learning encourages the making of meaning from individual and shared experiences and helps abstract concepts to become relevant to the learner. The 20th century educational theorist, John Dewey, articulated a…

This article describes two consecutive enactments of technology-oriented teacher professional development designs, aimed at helping teachers find high-quality online learning resources and use them in designing effective problem-based learning (PBL) activities for their students. To align with current professional development prescriptions, in the…

This paper is a qualitative case study of a Korean first grade child. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of a first grade Korean child's oral language interactions with teachers, parents, peers, and community members and to examine how a child's oral language impacts his literacy learning in English. The data were…

Many studies report information overload as one of the main problems that students encounter in online learning via computer-mediated communication. This study aimed to explore the sources of online students' information overload and offer suggestions for increasing students' cognitive resources for learning. Participants were 12 graduate students…