Supporting Self-Regulated Learning for College Students with Asperger Syndrome: Exploring the “Strategies for College Learning” Model

In this study, I piloted the feasibility, effects, and perceived acceptability of a peer mentoring intervention targeting academic achievement and self-regulated learning (SRL) for three college students with Asperger syndrome. The approach, dubbed Strategies for College Learning (SCL), features individualized assessment of academic performance in target courses and direct instruction of learning and self-regulation strategies under the provision of a peer mentor. The pilot study resulted in successful implementation of SCL and the acquisition of numerous learning strategies among participants. Qualitative data indicated participants felt SCL was both useful and acceptable. As the incidence of autism spectrum disorders increases, so has the need to accommodate students with highly individualized learning needs. The pilot is among the first to explore peer mentoring as an approach at bolstering SRL and academic achievement for college students with Asperger syndrome. The limitations of the study are discussed as well as implications for future research and practice.     

Problem-Based Learning教学法在大学英语综合教程教学中的运用

PBL教学法是在当前教学改革环境下的一种新型的教学方法,它是以问题为导向指导学生自主进行学习．本文作者根据自己在大学英语综合教程中的心得体会总结了PBL教学理论在大学英语教学中的运用．以及此方法对于教师的要求,目的在于进一步提高自身水平,更好地为高校教学工作服务。     

“What’s So Terrible About Swallowing an Apple Seed?” Problem-Based Learning in Kindergarten

Problem-Based Learning (PBL), an instructional approach originated in medical education, has gained increasing attention in K-12 science education because of its emphasis on self-directed learning and real-world problem-solving. Yet few studies have examined how PBL can be adapted for kindergarten. In this study, we examined how a veteran kindergarten teacher, who was experienced with PBL in her own learning, adapted PBL to teach students earth materials, a topic emphasized in the new state curriculum standards but students had difficulty understanding. The pre-post tests showed that students improved their content understanding. Analysis of the classroom discourse showed that PBL and the teacher’s facilitation strategies provided opportunities for students to develop their questioning skills. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of this study for using PBL in kindergarten classrooms.     

Development of an Instrument for Assessing Undergraduate Science Students’ Perceptions: The Problem-Based Learning Environment Inventory

This study aimed to develop and validate a problem-based learning environment inventory which would help teachers and researchers to better understand student views on problem-based learning environments. The development of the inventory included the following four steps: Item Formulation; Content Validation; Construct Validation; Reliability Calculation. It has 23 items allocated to four scales: (1) Student Interaction and Collaboration; (2) Teacher Support; (3) Student Responsibility; (4) Quality of Problem. Each learning environment item had a factor loading of at least 0.40 with its own scale, and less than 0.40 with all other scales. The results of the factor analysis revealed that the four scales accounted for the 53.72% of the total variance. The alpha reliability coefficient for the four scales ranged from 0.80 to 0.92. According to these findings, the Problem-based Learning Environment Inventory is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used in the field of education.     

A Teaching–Learning Sequence for the Special Relativity Theory at High School Level Historically and Epistemologically Contextualized

This paper discusses some topics that stem from recent contributions made by the History, the Philosophy, and the Didactics of Science. We consider these topics relevant to the introduction of the Special Relativity Theory (SRT) in high school within a contextualized approach. We offer an outline of a teaching?Clearning sequence dealing with the SRT within this frame of reference. Such a sequence was tried out on a group of high school students in Argentina. The results obtained seem to indicate that the proposal has been effective as regards the motivational aspects and the understanding students gained of some of its concepts.     

Using the Internet for Communicative Learning Activities in Kindergarten: The Case of the “Shapes Planet”

With the widespread use of the internet, more and more children get acquainted with its various uses at a young age while an increasing number of teachers are designing learning activities that utilize various internet services. Toward this direction, teachers need practical examples of pedagogically verified learning activities. This paper presents an experimental case study of a learning activity meant for teaching preschoolers geometric concepts, which uses communication tools from the internet. The activity constitutes a developmentally appropriate adaptation of a successful model, known as “Monster Exchange”, to kindergarten. The paper presents the proposed adaptation, the experimental findings regarding the errors children mad, the difficulties they encountered, and finally, the drawings that children produced, with the aim of evaluating the appropriateness and the learning value of the activity.     

A Critical Survey of the Theory,Classification and Measurement of Adult Learning Method

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Is Inquiry Learning Unjust? Cognitive Load Theory and the Democratic Ends of Education

Cognitive load theorists Paul Kirschner, John Sweller and Richard Clark argue that an array of inquiry-based pedagogies widely promoted in teacher preparation programmes are out of step with current cognitive science and should be eliminated for novice learners. According to these cognitive load theorists, inquiry-based pedagogies are likely to increase achievement gaps between the lowest and highest achieving students while reducing total learning. On almost any theory of justice in educational provision, an educational practice that results in the acquisition of fewer total educational goods by students and greater inequality in the distribution of goods will be considered unjust. I argue that inquiry-based pedagogies can be defended, even for novice learners, not as means to other goods but as embodiments of the least controversial liberal-democratic educational ends. I claim that once understood as part of the ends of liberal democratic education, inquiry-based pedagogies cannot be rightly eliminated from educational pathways. In addition, I argue that by interpreting cognitive load theory in light of uncontroversial liberal democratic educational ends, central claims about instructional design that are advanced by both cognitive load theorists and their opponents are either moderated or overturned. Most notably, the claim that there are no domain-general inquiry skills which need to be taught, which is advanced by cognitive load theorists against inquiry theorists, is revealed to be self-refuting. Integrating cognitive load theory into processes of liberal democratic problem-solving turns out to be a biologically secondary domain-general inquiry skill of just the sort cognitive load theorists deny exists.     

Learning for the natural environment： The case against anthropocentrism

The world （Africa in particular） is in a progressive state of environmental crisis, caused by global warming, loss of biodiversity, human overpopulation, pollution, massive deforestation and desertification, urbanization and many other environmental problems and risk factors. For several commentators and theorists, part of the solution resides in the provision of pertinent and adequate education, including environmental education. The present paper briefly examines the history of environmental education, internationally and in South Africa, and some of its most prominent current trends and issues, before critiquing its general orientation. Arguing against what appears to lie at the heart of environmental education and literacy, namely anthropocentrism （ideas like ＂education for sustainable development＂）, the paper urges a radical rethinking of its central concerns and modus operandi, in terms of facilitating learning for the natural environment. In other words, in order to live up to its promise of contributing towards life beyond the twenty-first century, such learning must include the realization that nature matters in and for itself.     

Modeling Secondary Students’ Genetics Learning in a Game-Based Environment: Integrating the Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation and Flow Theory

Journal of Science Education and Technology - This study examined students’ genetics learning in a game-based environment by exploring the connections between the expectancy-value theory of...     

Learning ‘about’ and ‘from’ religion: phenomenography,the Variation Theory of Learning and religious education in Finland and the UK

The paper addresses the relationship between the twin tasks of enabling pupils both to learn about and learn from religion in the state education systems of Finland and the UK. Recognising that the relationship between these two tasks is the subject of considerable confusion, it is argued that the most appropriate way to view the connection is fundamentally ontological. In a plural society in which there is no basic agreement about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, there nevertheless remains a common concern to enable pupils to live flourishing lives in harmony with the ultimate order‐of‐things. The paper draws on phenomenography and the Variation Theory of Learning to unpack the pedagogic implications of this argument.     

“Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition” under the Influence of the “Cross-Cultural Communicative Competence” Theory

The ultimate goal of second language vocabulary acquisition(SLVA) is to improve cross-cultural competence(CCC).From the perspective of CCC,this writing is to investigate the influence of the CCC on SLVA.Acquired vocabulary should be converted into lexical competence first and then in turn into communicative competence.Remembering a word needs to be changed into understanding a word,taking into account the semantic sense relations,and then SLVA will be more beneficial and effective.     

5 Tips for English Learning

1. How do you memorize new words? New words should be mastered in several ways. First, pronunciation, if you want to pronounce the word correctly, you‘d better listen to it first and practice it again and again by imitation. Second, spelling if you want to metmorize the word,you‘d better learn some knowledge for word building and pronmctation rules,Third,meaning and use,     

An Analysis of the Novel “Awakening” Using Appraisal Theory

The paper mainly uses the attitude sub-system of the appraisal theory combining with rank scale to analyze the a wakening process of Edna,the heroinein the novel"Awakening".The article uses the emotion system to analyze Edna’s different love views before and after her awakening,resorts to the judgment system to show Edna’s deep loneliness accompanying her during her whole awakening process,and employs the appreciation system to explore the awakening of Edna’s sexuality.     

Is There a Role for Mathematical Disciplinarity in Productive Learning for the Workplace?

This paper situates mathematical content and process knowledge within the construct of broad occupational competence. It is critical of many developments in vocational mathematics curriculum and pedagogical practice in Australia over the last decade or so, especially the trend towards the de-institutionalisation of disciplinary knowledge. This has been accompanied by a chronic lack of professional development for many involved in vocational education to enable development of this mathematical knowledge. Meanwhile, workers' actual and potential mathematical knowledges remain largely unrecognised, whilst irrelevant, often infantile, pedagogic texts form their subjectivities as doers rather than knowers, always in need of more training to adapt to ever-changing technologies of workplace plant and management. It argues that to attempt to satisfy government and industry demands for a creative, problem-solving workforce?to say nothing of workers' entitlement to democratic participation?there is a need for mathematical disciplinarity beyond current practice.     

A Problem for Cognitive Load Theory—the Distinctively Human Life-form

Cognitive load theory has challenged contemporary approaches to teaching by arguing that they are ineffective because of a neglect of the psychology underpinning learning and, specifically, the high demand placed on working memory. This paper challenges the presuppositions involved not only in arguments for guided instruction by those supporting cognitive load theory, but also in opposed pedagogic approaches involving discovery and inquiry learning. Both approaches are in danger of presupposing what C.B. Macpherson criticised as ‘possessive individualism’—i.e. capacities, beliefs and desires viewed as possessions of an individual. As a result, they fail to pay attention to mediation and normativity, both of which are distinctive aspects of human action. Examining this in more detail entails consideration of fundamental issues concerning human knowledge and understanding. An appreciation of the significance of normativity and mediation leads us to the philosophic works of Marx, Vygotsky and Wittgenstein, and in particular to Brandom's Inferentialism. The philosophical ideas here have direct implications for pedagogy.