Rememberers play an active role in learning, not only by committing material more or less faithfully to memory, but also by selecting judicious study strategies (or not). In three experiments, subjects chose whether to mass or space the second presentation of to-be-learned paired-associate terms that were either normatively difficult or easy to…

This article assesses whether there are methodological problems with child outcome measures that may contribute to the small associations between child care quality and child outcomes found in the literature. Outcome measures used in 65 studies of child care quality published between 1979 and December 2005 were examined, taking the previous review…

One of the most difficult concepts for statistics students is the standard error of the mean. To improve understanding of this concept, 1 group of students used a hands-on procedure to sample from small populations representing either a true or false null hypothesis. The distribution of 120 sample means (n = 3) from each population had standard…

In this article, we address four main questions, including: What is self-regulated learning for? What key strategies do students need to guide and direct their own learning process? What cues in the learning environment trigger self-regulation strategies? What can teachers do to help student to self-regulate their learning, motivation, and effort…

In our cognitive motivational process model (Vollmeyer & Rheinberg, "Zeitschrift fur Padagogische Psychologie," 12:11-23, 1998) we assume that initial motivation affects performance via motivation during learning and learning strategies. These variables are also central for self-regulation theories (e.g., M. Boekaerts, "European Psychologist,"…

A high school teacher gets an opportunity to connect students with the local community and help them understand economic, class and geographical diversity, as she teaches a unit on Ethan Frome. Specific descriptions in and beyond the classroom are highlighted.

This paper examines young workers' beginning engagement in learning through work, placing it in the context of Australian policy on entry-level training. Eleven young people were followed through their first year of full-time work and the significant adults involved in their working and learning lives were also interviewed. The study demonstrates…

This qualitative study investigates the ability of adult low-skilled readers to talk about the thought processes and phonetic strategies they use to make decisions about their spelling. Four adult learners, all exhibiting word knowledge at a second-grade level or below, participated in individual 45-minute audiotaped interviews. Selected portions…

Support for Learning is a feature of the learning and teaching strategy for first-year undergraduate students on the Applied Social Studies/Community and Social Studies programme in the Department of Applied Community Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University. The programme provides professional education and training in social work, youth…

There has been much interest in using software tools to scaffold learners in complex tasks, that is, to provide supports that enable students to deal with more complex content and skill demands than they could otherwise handle. Many different approaches to scaffolding techniques have been presented in a broad range of software tools. I argue that…

The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) offers 199 courses with online features to enhance the distance learning environment. The university has arranged these courses to provide students with greater flexibility in interacting with tutors, classmates, and the content itself. Integral to learner flexibility online is access, valuing computers and…

This article describes how preservice teachers are afforded opportunities for developing self-regulation as they learn to transition to the other side of the desk in their teacher education program. The article focuses on self-regulated learning as it applies to teachers' work in the classroom and distinguishes volitional work styles and student…

This article reports on the findings of a Delphi study conducted to determine research needs in educational technology over the next five years. The Delphi panel consisted of 30 educational technology experts from throughout the United States who participated in a three-round consensus building process via the Internet. The results of this…

An important touchstone of distance education has been to contribute to the development of individual learners whatever their life circumstances. The first half of the article provides an overview of this contribution and of the understanding and awareness that has been developed about distance learners in their individual learning contexts. The…

Interviews university students in modern physics about their understanding of three fundamental experiments. Explores their development of models of microscopic processes. Uses interactive demonstrations to probe student understanding of modern physics experiments in two high school physics classes. Analyzes the nature of students' models and the…