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In this paper the relationship among high school students' mathematics achievement, use of self-regulated learning strategies and cognitive style in the field dependence-independence dimension is examined. Subjects were 128 tenth graders of a public school at Bogotá, Colombia. The MSLQ Questionnaire was used to assess students' level of self-regulation and the EFT test was used to measure students' field dependence-independence cognitive style. Mathematics achievement was indicated by the grades obtained by the students during the academic year. Results show that self-regulated learning and cognitive style are related to Math achievement, each one separately. Additionally, complex relations between self-regulation and field dependence-independence were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional development is deemed necessary for university teachers at all levels, as it helps to enhance teaching quality. However, the extent of English language university teachers’ professional development might depend on a number of factors. This paper reports on a study investigating English language university teachers’ professional development in Thailand, the factors related to their development, the activities they used and the obstacles they encountered. The study was conducted through the use of a questionnaire to collect data from 217 full-time English language university teachers at 14 universities in Bangkok metropolis, selected through the multi-stage sampling technique. The results indicate that the overall mean score of Thai university teachers’ professional development was at a moderate level, and the factors of gender, academic title, degree and job responsibility were not related to professional development. Only one factor, university type, was found to be related to their development. This means that private university teachers had more professional development than those in Rajabhat and government universities. Discussing or sharing knowledge with colleagues was the activity they used to develop themselves most, with heavy teaching loads being the main obstacle. In addition, students’ background knowledge was the main obstacle to implementation of the received knowledge in teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on a self-study undertaken by the author to better understand the educational practices of scaffolding in pre-service teachers' collaborative group work. The method included student interviews, conversations with a critical friend, and the researcher's diary. The self-study allowed for fine-tuning theoretical understanding and practical implementation of scaffolding in students' small group work. While the study confirmed my expectations that facilitation of the students' group work was useful for them to understand content and develop collaborative skills, the students' emphasis on the emotional side of scaffolding was a surprising find. It was also interesting to note that the needs of emotional scaffolding in mature age students were different to those of high school graduates, which related to their self-confidence and their understanding of the role of the lecturer in assisting with their academic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Reflection on personal experience is described as a means to learn from experience, enable self-development and improve professional practice amongst other things. Recently there has been a move in HCI to explore new ways technology may support us in doing this. However, within this community there is little use made of existing literature to evaluate how well such tools support this reflection. In this paper we present a case study of the development of a ‘levels of reflection’ framework for the purposes of evaluating a wearable digital camera (SenseCam) to support teachers’ and tutors’ reflective practice. The framework enabled us to rate and compare reflection achieved by participants in different situations, and to explore the relationship between the ways images were used by participants and the level of reflection this led to, with implications for designing future SenseCam use to better support teachers’ and tutors’ reflection on experience. Beyond our particular case study, we suggest that the framework and associated methodological approach for rating reflection is of value to those within the HCI community interested in designing for reflection on experience. Rating reflection in this way can enable new tools or techniques for supporting reflection to be explored over time, across similar situations or with adaptations, and to build understandings of how reflection is being most effectively supported – ultimately inspiring the design of future technologies by building up an understanding of the most effective ways of supporting reflection on experience. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Self-regulated learning processes have a potential to enhance the motivation of knowledge workers to take part in learning and reflection about learning, and thus contribute to the resolution of an important research challenge in workplace learning. An equally important research challenge for the successful completion of each step of a self-regulatory process is to enable learners to be aware of the characteristics of their organizationally-embedded learning context. In this paper, we describe how a combination of pedagogy and Semantic Web-based technologies can be utilized to address the above two challenges. Specifically, we demonstrate the proposed solution through the Learn-B tool that leverages ontologies to support self-regulation in organizational learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a case study in the histories of autodidacticism, education and religion in East Cumberland in the first half of the nineteenth century. It concerns an artisan poet, Thomas Watson (1771–1860) — a dry-stone-waller and mason — examining his life and times through a focused study of his verse. Though scholarship has produced labouring-class autobiographers and well-known autodidact poets who moved far from their geographical and literary roots, true artisan poets are rarely found. Thomas Watson lived and died in the village of his birth, an active participant in the local economy. Unable even to write his name at twenty-four, he was inspired to produce verse orally through his association with Wesleyan Methodism, a friend committing his poems to paper just before his death. The article examines Watson’s literary influences and reading choices. It uses his own stone-walling vocabulary to explore his view of East Cumberland and Cumbrians, noting that though Watson’s poetry may be used as an index of social attitudes at a time of social transition, Watson was not merely a passive observer. As a poet seeking to mould his experience within accepted verse forms for the benefit of himself and his audience, Watson was an active agent attempting to mediate between his local culture and one brought about by nineteenth century change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of a group of Chinese ESL learners in China, who study English by immersing themselves regularly and rigorously in English television drama. A self-directed learning pedagogy has been developed and discussed, which seems to have signposted an effective and economic way for ESL learners to improve linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence beyond the language classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a self-study research project that focused on our experiences when planning, teaching, and evaluating a course in initial teacher education. The theoretical framework of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) was used as a conceptual structure for the self-study. Our understanding of the framework in relation to our teaching practice was in focus. The principal educational goal of the course was to develop the pedagogical use of web 2.0 resources to support learning in the preschool/school context. As a result, the focus, content, form of distribution, teaching, and assessment of the course went beyond what is common in initial teacher training in Sweden. The potential of the different digital tools was explored by situated use in the design and teaching of the course. Analysis highlights the challenges and opportunities that teacher educators and student teachers may encounter while working with, and learning about, information and communication technologies to support learning. Some of the findings discussed are related to the identified challenges and opportunities for both teachers and students to integrate content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technological knowledge into a TPACK. Taken-for-granted organizational and institutional assumptions about teaching, learning, and assessment in teacher education were identified in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose |!|#8211; The author redesigned a course titled |!|#34;Applied Information Technology: Networking|!|#34; and applied online collaborative learning (CL) with initiation and self-regulated learning (SRL) to improve students|!|#39; involvement in this course in an environment that is full of free online games, shopping websites, and social networking websites. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential effects of online CL with initiation and SRL on students|!|#39; involvement. Design/methodology/approach |!|#8211; This study designed an intervention of online CL with initiation and SRL to improve students|!|#39; involvement and their learning in a blended course. It is believed that this article is important to the computing field and could provide insight for teachers to design their online courses and teaching methods. Findings |!|#8211; The author in this study adopted SRL in the implementation of online CL with initiation, and explored their effects on improving students|!|#39; involvement. The results of this empirical study report that the effects of online CL with initiation and SRL were positive, and led to the best involvement in the blended course among the three classes. Research limitations/implications |!|#8211; The effects of online CL with initiation and SRL in this study were positive; however, problems of experimental validity may result from students in the comparison group being incidentally exposed to the treatment condition, having more enthusiastic teaching, being more motivated than students in the control group, etc. (Gribbons and Herman). Besides, some other contextual factors and individual behaviours might influence students|!|#39; online learning effects. For example, students|!|#39; adaptability to the online learning environments and their readiness for self-directed learning may result in the differences of the effects among the three groups (Shen, Lee and Tsai). Practical implications |!|#8211; The internet has enabled a shift from contiguous learning groups to asynchronous distributed learning groups utilizing computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments (Kreijns, Kirschner and Jochems). It is expected that the interventions of online teaching methods, course design, and learning activities in this study may provide a reference for teachers, particularly for blended learning computing courses. Social implications |!|#8211; The results of this study report that the effects of online CL with initiation and SRL were positive, and contributed to the best involvement in the blended course among the three classes. The author further discusses the implications for schools and teachers who plan to provide online or blended learning for their students. Originality/value |!|#8211; First, this study provides a scenario about how to help students collaborate and learn regularly, and improve their involvement in a blended course through online CL and SRL, particularly for computing courses. Second, this study specifies how teachers can provide initiation to help students climb the learning curve and overcome the bottlenecks typically encountered in the implementation of online CL. Third, this study is one of the first attempts to explore and demonstrate the effects of online CL with initiation and SRL in a blended course simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I interpret Montaigne's essay, 'On Educating Children', as a pedagogical text through its performance of a distinct epistolary function, one that addresses the letter-recipient for the purpose of shaping the ideas, actions, and beliefs of that individual. At the same time, I also read 'On Educating Children' within the context of the wider project of Montaigne's Essays, which, as I suggest, is an ethical-aesthetic project of self-fashioning and self-cultivation. The net result is an interpretation of teaching as an ethical-aesthetic practice of the self, one that is in concert with the interpretation of Montaigne's writing of the Essays as a similar practice of the self. In order to build this case, I employ Michel Foucault's fourfold schema of ethical subjectivity, mapping that schema onto 'On Educating Children', so as to reveal a unique pedagogy of self-formation-a pedagogy that works as much upon the self of the teacher as it does the self of the student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a project in which researchers at universities in Japan explored the use of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) practices by developing a learning module intended to help improve students’ scores on the TOEIC Listening and Reading Tests. MALL practices are currently being developed at universities in Japan because almost all students have mobile phones, many of them have had informal learning experiences with mobile devices, and students are integrating the communication and information gathering capabilities of mobile technology into their own lifestyles. The private nature of mobile phone communication may create barriers when students are asked to use personal mobile phones for school-centered learning activities. In this study a Nintendo DS mobile was used because it was affordable and students were familiar with this device for game playing and learning activities. In addition, because this device does not have the same telephone, messaging, and Internet functions that have made mobile phones an integral part of students’ private lives, a device such as the Nintendo DS may be a neutral mobile platform for the development of MALL activities which could later be adapted and transferred for use on private mobile phones. The primary aim of this study was to discover whether certain MALL practices would foster an advanced form of self-study, self-regulated learning (SRL). In SRL students take responsibility for arousing and sustaining their own motivation in order to make, carry out, and evaluate strategic learning plans. It was concluded that the use of the MALL learning module encouraged study without teacher intervention, i.e., self study, in terms of time spent on learning tasks, levels of satisfaction derived from the tasks, and self-measured achievement. Furthermore, SRL was observed in terms of the specificity of the goals, the customized creation of learning tasks and their in-class applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the interplay between identity reconstruction of indigenous college students and the effects of transformative learning on their self-development and collective action. Seventeen indigenous college students were interviewed for this study. The findings showed that most indigenous college students developed stigmatized identity and low self-esteem before entering college. Participating in native student clubs and a non-formal tribal service program empowered students to raise their ethnic consciousness. The study also found that transformative learning of college students affected development of their positive self-concepts, interpersonal relationships, and ethnic and cultural identities. The effects of perceptive transformation also empowered meaningful connections in these students to personal career choices and sustainability of ethnic groups and cultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon the self-regulated learning theoretical framework this study examined to what extent students' Math school achievement (fifth to ninth graders from compulsory education) can be explained by different cognitive-motivational, social, educational, and contextual variables. A sample of 571 students (10 to 15 year old) enrolled in the study. Findings suggest that Math achievement can be predicted by self-efficacy in Math, school success and self-regulated learning and that these same variables can be explained by other motivational (ej., achievement goals) and contextual variables (school disruption) stressing this way the main importance of self-regulated learning processes and the role context can play in the promotion of school success. The educational implications of the results to the school levels taken are also discussed in the present paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study concerns the development of autonomy in adult learners working on an online learning platform as part of a professional master's degree programme in “French as a Foreign Language”. Our goal was to identify the influence of reflective and collaborative dimensions on the construction of autonomy for online learners in this programme. The material used was 27 self-analysis papers in response to an assignment which asked students to review their distance learning experience (reflective dimension) and to highlight the role of others, if any, in their learning (collaborative dimension). In addition to these two major points, the analysis by category of the body of results shows principally that in qualitative terms, the factors of autonomisation for online learning are interconnected and include: the difficulties related to distance learning and the strategies that learners develop to face those difficulties, the importance of interpersonal relationships in social and emotional terms in overcoming those difficulties, the specific modes of sociability developed for distance learning and the related development of a new type of autonomy that is both individual and collective. The discussion examines the creation, over the course of time, of a new “distance learning culture” that is nonetheless never easy to create and share. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Throughout this five-year treatment, my experience with Gazi, a first-year university student, who began treatment at age 17, helped me better understand the cumulative effect of culture on the development of the self. This period corresponded closely to the initial years of my journey in self psychology when I was working in the counseling center of a private university. This paper describes the self-psychological journey of a young Turkish man who has found no one in his family to idealize, and yet fully absorbs his family's idealization of the Turkish hero, Ataturk, and their desire to have their son become like him. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central focus of this paper is to explore and extend Kohut's theory of maternal mirroring and to place it within the current context of psychoanalytic thinking. Kohut believed a child must experience 'positive' mirroring from his or her mother in infancy and beyond to ensure development of a healthy self. Kohut alludes, however, to a possible situation in which the mother's face, metaphorically a mirror, can appear 'faceless' to her child. From this I have inferred the concept of what I shall call 'shadowed mirroring.' Clinical and literary examples show that distorted, 'shadowed' mirroring appears on a spectrum, with passive mirroring at one end and hostile (either verbal or nonverbal) mirroring on the other; some individuals experience both. I then consider how 'shadowed mirroring,' especially hostile mirroring, can be understood within the twin contexts of the overall mother-child relationship and present-day Intersubjective/Relational thinking that is both bidirectional and co-constructed. Shadowed mirroring can lead to severe personality dysfunction along the borderline-narcissistic range, as well as to difficulties in the areas of identity formation, failure of self-cohesiveness, and the blunting of certain humane qualities like empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project-based learning is undoubtedly one of the best instructional methods for developing students’ broad learning capabilities, beyond teaching specific subject matter. However, experienced engineering teachers often tend to concentrate on merely teaching pupils the technical side of project work. This paper describes a programme aimed at fostering self-regulated learning among high schools pupils working on projects in electronics, control systems and robotics. The programme sought, for example, to promote pupils’ conceptual knowledge regarding the subjects they dealt with in their projects, enabling the learners to gain experience using simulation, laboratory testing and troubleshooting in a system that they were constructing. The change in project work also required pupils to document systematically all stages of system development and reflect on their learning by preparing a printed or web-based ePortfolio on the project. Outcomes of the in-service training course given to teachers countrywide and the first signs of change in project work in schools are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ADEQUA research project has gained empirical evidence on how the situationally adequate use of learning strategies can be facilitated during cooperative reading tasks in the EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom. Two video studies were conducted with ninth-grade EFL learners in German schools: the first (laboratory) study investigated the students’ use of strategies while working in dyads and without teacher support on a given task. The second study, a field study, focused on teachers’ actions to support their students while working on a series of tasks in their regular classrooms. In this paper, we present the findings from a specific subsample of students (n = 30 from the first study and n = 228 from the second one), focusing on (1) the extent to which the students employed specific strategies adequately and successfully, and (2) the types of support actions taken by the teachers and to what extent these actions facilitated the students’ strategy use. The microanalytic approach adopted here allows us to identify those strategies which especially appear to require a teacher's support in order to be employed more adequately and successfully. Furthermore, by distinguishing between teachers’ support actions which are more versus less conducive to self-regulation and facilitating students’ strategy use, we are able to provide recommendations on how to fine-tune teachers’ assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive scientists have studied internal cognitive structures, processes, and systems for decades in order to understand how they function in human learning. In order to solve challenging tasks in problem situations, learners not only have to perform cognitive activities, e.g., activating existing cognitive structures or organizing new information, they also have to set specific goals, plan their activities, monitor their performance during the problem-solving process, and evaluate the efficiency of their actions. This paper reports an experimental study with 98 participants where effective instructional interventions for self-regulated learning within problem-solving processes are investigated. Furthermore, an automated assessment and analysis methodology for determining the quality of learning outcomes is introduced. The results indicate that generic prompts are an important aid for developing cognitive structures while solving problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the application of the observational method in the context of a nursery. It illustrates the value of the detailed observation of the baby's ways of relating to her carers and in so doing it highlights the unrivalled opportunity that psychoanalytic understanding brings to meet the carer's need to understand the emotional needs of the baby. This process is illustrated with the description of feeding and play situations of baby Iara and her ways of relating to members of staff during the morning and afternoon shifts. The discussion of this observation looks at projective identification as a form of relating and its consequences for the development of the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the basic knowledge needed by the sports practitioner who wishes to have a healthy physical education. To determine the necessary basic knowledge, we used a methodology of standard expertise, delving further into the subject by means of a semistructured interview. The interview was taped, transcribed and analyzed through the program Nudist NVivo. We have grouped the common responses emerging from the analysis into different categories, thus obtaining a total of 9 basic considerations which should be habitually transmitted to Physical Education students, so that they may achieve adequate self-management in the practice of physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the issue of personal factors that impinge upon education. More specifically, it addresses professional jealousy among teachers and how it affects the moral practice of teaching. Our focus is teachers' emotions in general and teachers' jealousies in particular, in the context of the ideal of the moral teacher. We identify and criticise three common dichotomies that tend to mar explorations of teachers' emotions. We illustrate issues of professional jealousy as revealed in an interview with a headteacher in Taiwan, explaining the societal context and eliciting the emotional issues. We argue that too little attention is given to the moral practice of teaching qua emotional labour: labour that places moral burdens on teachers as individual human beings. We maintain that teacher training must focus more on the moral and emotional self-education of teacher trainees and professional teachers, helping them to lead well-rounded lives as integrated personal and professional beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Employing the principles of a contextual approach to learner belief research and applying it to a self-directed learning context at a Japanese university, this longitudinal study investigates the complex interplay between beliefs and actions and its contribution to the development of language learning skills. Through the triangulation of various qualitative data sources, including language learning histories and reflective accounts of students’ self-directed learning actions, with detailed documentation of these actions, we demonstrate the differing belief trajectories of two learners, and the role interaction played in the emergence, appropriation and refinement of their beliefs. In illuminating the important role that action plays in this belief development, this paper further problematises the validity of research which depends primarily on learner belief statements and suggests that future research on beliefs would benefit from in-depth examination of behaviour. It is argued that only through centralising the role of action that researchers will be able to gain a more precise understanding of the true nature of a learner’s beliefs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Service-Based Learning (SBL) has become an emerging pedagogical tool for engineering education. Although there is a large body of literature reporting the benefits of SBL activities, most studies have relied on self-report measures and generalized learning contributions. Our evaluation went beyond self-perceptions by investigating what effects, if any, SBL activities had on the metacognitive processes of students during an engineering design task. Verbal protocols were collected from ten engineering students during an open-ended, model-building design task. The five SBL students and five non-SBL students also completed post-task interviews and reflection papers. The students in our sample who had participated in SBL activities voiced more metacognitive phrases, demonstrated more accurate task analysis and clearer strategic planning skills, were more skilled at discriminating useful from superfluous information, and had a better understanding of clients' needs and constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the professional development of pre-tenure teacher educators through the establishment of a self-study group. Through reflecting on three significant events, a discussion is offered as to how members contributed to the self-study of teacher education practices and experienced enhancement as a community of scholars. Evidence is presented as to how pre-tenure faculty can work together to build a culture that links teaching practice to scholarship within an organizational framework for group interactions. This work contributes to research on the induction of new professors by providing a model of professional development that is self-directed, collaborative, and empowering. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The following paper explores the concepts of reflective functioning, metacognition (Main et al. in Adult attachment scoring and classification systems. Regents of the University of California, Berkeley, ), and mentalization (Fonagy and Target in Mind to mind: Infant research, neuroscience and psychoanalysis. Other Press, New York, ; Fonagy et al. in Affect regulation, mentalization and the development of the self. Other Press, New York, ). Using an extended case illustration, the author demonstrates how she uses the clinical process to develop more mature reflective and mentalization capacities with a client through dream analysis, identification of affect states, therapeutic ruptures and mutual play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate desired leadership characteristics of South African managers, and link differences in desired traits to contextually crucial demographic group differences and managerial advancement. Design/methodology/approach – South African managers (n=205) ranked ten items of the characteristics of admired leadership scale. Aggregate rank analysis and nonparametric ANOVAs reveal significant preference differences in the sample and demographic sub-groups. The research compares traits across managerial advancement and age, providing an implicit success test. Findings – Managers most highly ranked the three "credibility" characteristics (competence, honesty and inspiration) prevalent in comparative worldwide studies. Key differences exist between managers and employees, many contextually crucial demographic sub-groups, and higher and lower-level managers of younger and older ages. Practical implications – This research provides potentially important information for leadership identification, selection and development, in that it may identify characteristics that current leaders associate with contextual success. The research also identifies discrepancies between employees and managers and demographic groups, which may be sources of dissatisfaction or misunderstanding, and which organizations should address to better align expectations of subordinates and actions of leaders. Individuals might also use the information in self-development, comparing their own views to successful leaders. Originality/value – Significant informational and statistical advantages exist over prior studies. This research provides individual-level analyses, and an explicit test of association with objective success that previous studies have not provided. It includes top management, whereas prior studies have limited samples to subordinates or middle managers. Greater demographic differentiation is provided, allowing for more contextually relevant understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper captures a national curriculum maker's experiences of revising the physical education curriculum in South Korea. A self-study was conducted in order to make known the chairperson's experiences concerning the various obstacles encountered in revising the national curriculum and to offer previously unseen insights afforded by the curriculum maker's personal reflections. This study specifically offers a detailed analysis of four challenges the national curriculum maker encountered: (1) personal obstacles encountered as a young female chairperson, (2) environmental obstacles encountered as a marginally positioned chairperson, (3) professional obstacles faced as an innovative chairperson, and (4) institutionalized obstacles related to being named the official chairperson. In this self-study conducted in the narrative inquiry tradition, several important findings emerge about the nature of curriculum making and how curriculum making transpires at a national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that material from dreams offers a resource within the social sphere that has potential for the practice of action research. The modern approach to dream interpretation, following Freud, has almost exclusively been situated at the level of the therapeutic dyad where the significance of dream material is circumscribed within individual and private space. The author presents a reflexive self-study drawing on some of her own experiences of interpreting her dreams and following a social constructivist approach drawing on feminist and Jungian perspectives. The study attempts to show how bringing dream material into the social realm of the group can enable the exploration of deep emotions and co-construction of meanings while neutralising much of their (sometimes) frightening and (within the dominant discourse) disturbingly personal nature, and celebrating the complex intelligence that arises from the processing of layers of unconscious material. An account of successive stages and depth in the analysis of one fragment of a dream demonstrates dream interpretation as having strongly socially situated features. Multiple possibilities for analysis of this dream become apparent, when interpreted within different paradigms and contexts. Therefore, it is argued, different kinds of social space may call forth different patterns of dream interpretation, opening up potential for 'social dreaming' as practised by W.G. Lawrence, and in the Institute of Group Analysis where the focus shifts from the dreamer to the dream, with the potential to illuminate issues and concerns that we experience in specific social contexts and for specific social purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive education is based on the principle that local schools should provide for all children and young people regardless of any perceived social, emotional, cultural intellectual or linguistic difference or disability. This paper identifies key concepts associated with inclusive education and discusses them in relation to issues in the reform of teacher education. It argues that the reform of teacher education for inclusive education is an important activity in improving educational equity. It presents the study design and some early findings of an innovative research and development project, the Inclusive Practice Project, based in the School of Education at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper sheds some light on difficulties experienced by Asian immigrant adolescents in North America while undergoing self-development and social relationships within the larger stream of acculturation processes. Given the strong emphasis placed by their original culture on collectivity and hierarchical harmony within the family, and given the family's evolving lifestyle as new immigrants in the new society, immigrant parents do not sufficiently promote the adolescent's sense of self to grow toward full independence. Faced with the different cultural practices of the broader society, both the parents and the adolescents in immigrant families need to shape new cultural rules to negotiate their social interactions in order for their relationships to develop continuously. Immigrant parents need not fear the apparently widening intergenerational distance following migration, since their children retain their core values of family loyalty and respect for parents. Instead, it is recommended that they allow their children to experience certain freedom to maneuver in their own self-construction and to learn responsibility from own socialization attempts through the acculturative contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personalisation is a new term that is being used in different ways. Often it is used as a shorthand for a range of new forms of practice, or technologies. These new technologies include direct payments, self-directed support, individual budgets and person-centred planning. The values which underpin these technologies have developed from the experiences of disabled people, but these values are not well represented in theories of social justice. This paper describes a new theory, a Citizenship Theory of social justice, that is based on two fundamental moral beliefs: (a) the equal dignity of all human beings; and (b) the positive value of human diversity and difference. Developing this theory of social justice leads to an inclusive model of citizenship and an imperative to organise society so that everyone can become a citizen. Social workers could see personalisation as an externally imposed dogma, but this will lead to defensiveness, resistance and cynicism. However the profession could instead embrace the technologies of personalisation, and the Citizenship Theory that should underpin it. It is this second path that will lead to critical engagement and the practical use and improvement of the tools of personalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on previous research identifying how teachers' capacities to sustain their effectiveness in different phases of their professional lives are affected positively and/or negatively by their sense of identity, this paper illuminates three early-mid career teachers' self-study inquiries, centring on mask work. The creative development of individual masks discloses teachers' complex, occasionally dislocated narratives of personal/professional identity. Subsequent improvisation with their masks is shown to engage teachers emotionally with tensions and dissonances within and between their various personae and personal, professional and political contexts at each of their respective career life phases. Storylines ultimately become reframed and, in a number of instances, lay claim to reinvigorated commitment, self-determination and initiatives for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of Tihomil Vidošić (Boljun, Istria, 1 July 1902 - Zagreb, 24 January 1973) can be completely understood only by viewing all aspects of his activity: he was a composer, conductor, educator, and arranger. An autodidact at first, he took lessons from Ivan Matetić-Ronjgov (1880-1960) and started composition and conductor studies at the Music Academy in Zagreb in 1923, although he did not finally complete his courses until 1961. In the meantime, he finished organ studies (1929) and took a job as a military bandmaster, which brought him to Tuzla (Bosnia-Hercegovina) in 1930 and then to Mostar three years later. He was mobilised in 1941 and came back to Zagreb, where he was director of the military Music School (1942-1945). After the war, he worked as a teacher of harmony, solfeggio and as conductor at the new school of music (Gradska glazbena škola, later Glazbena škola Pavla Markovca in Zagreb) until his death in 1973. Throughout all that time, he composed and developed his compositional style, very often dedicating his works to the ensembles he was conducting and, later, to his pupils, who gladly played his music that suited them technically and stylistically. A major part of his legacy was found in 2004, almost by accident. The author of this text sorted and catalogued the material (the basis of her graduation thesis) as a precondition for later studies of Vidošić's work. Alojzije Seder, who bought the legacy, donated it to the Croatian Institute of Music (Hrvatski glazbeni zavod) in Zagreb, where it was archived under Inventory Number 38. The legacy consists of: books (mostly on music), printed music material, hand-written music material and various types of documents (letters, annotations, lists [of works], and 4 versions of the composer's autobiographies). The books and documents were catalogued using a standard word processor program (Microsoft Word) while RISM standards (ISIS software) were used for all the music material. The most interesting and most valuable parts of the legacy are Vidošić's manuscripts that are unique examples - such as the long sought after score of Vidošić's most popular work, the comic opera Stari mladić / An Old Lad - but this is definitely not the complete legacy that was in the possession of either Vidošić or his widow Štefica. It was partly destroyed (mostly by damp) and partly sold before it came into the possession of Alojzije Seder. That is why it is difficult to draw a relevant conclusion (about the composer's treatment of his own work, for example). One can find Vidošić's original scores, arrangements (including many folk songs and dance arrangements), and transcriptions of other composers' works. Amongst Vidošić's original compositions, some are well-preserved and in complete form, but there are many piano scores (without instrumentation/orchestration) and sketches bearing the annotation «finished». The aim of this paper has been to systematize the material found in the legacy of Tihomil Vidošić and to show at least a part of his interests, which might encourage further studies and performance of the works of this almost forgotten Croatian composer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mnemonic verses were one of the most popular tools for medieval teaching. These verses are attested in all genres of medieval literature, but strangely enough they are rare in medieval bestiaries, which are primarily a didactic genre. My paper will discuss a previously neglected case of one Second Family late thirteenth-century bestiary of English origin, namely Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Bodley 533. Surprisingly, in this manuscript there are eleven sets of verses, mostly quatrains of so-called Leonine hexameters, which represent sui generic summaries for the chapters on various bestiary creatures. The present article discusses for the first time these previously unpublished verses and analyzes their function in the manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-regulation, defined as the conscious process of observation and control of our own thinking processes, determines to a large extent whether a specific learning task is successful or not. A major aspect in self-regulated learning is the ability to develop and apply suitable strategies for each specific learning purpose. This, in turn, is directly influenced by motivational factors. The aim of this paper is to examine the theoretical concepts that underlying self-regulation, strategies and motivation so as to describe how they are interrelated and in what ways they influence the learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent development studies literature has begun to consider the developer's self. This welcome enlargement of the field deserves to be deepened and extended by moving beyond opposition to post-development critics, and by articulating an explicit theoretical frame for examining developers' selves. By exploring Foucault's suggestion that modern approaches to knowledge and selfhood may be entwined through developmentalism, this paper proposes a flexible and non-deterministic cultural-historical framework for considering developers' selves. Foucault's analyses of relations of power and subjectivity provide strategies for examining developers' selves, but this does not suggest that such selves can be read off the proposed framework. Examining developers' selves is necessarily a reflective ethical task, and one which requires engaging the external relations that constitute the self. Foucault provides valuable resources for this task, but there is also a need to extend upon and complement a Foucauldian approach. Pursuing our new-found interest in developers' selves by working through and beyond Foucault promises to open new professional futures and possibilities for development practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We were seeking to disrupt the practice of fostering theoretical understandings about teaching and learning in our graduate courses that had little connection to students' teaching practices. We also desired a mentoring approach for graduate students in education that would foster an understanding and practice of teaching as a relational process. This paper provides a practitioner account of an action research study focused on the development of such an approach. In a semester-long feminist participatory study, we utilized weekly dialogues, reflective journals, classroom observations and written documents to explore the mentoring experience of one graduate advisor, one graduate teaching assistant, and two critical friends. Through the action research process, a new mentoring approach grounded in the relational process of teaching was realized along with a new understanding of the place of authority and vulnerability in negotiations between mentor and student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the SEA-change model of reflection. It was developed to support the growing interest in reflective practice within the library domain. The model was developed from experience gained teaching and training reflective writing to students and practitioners within librarianship. The model was tested using data gathered from the reflective journals of 22 MA Librarianship students, who submitted 116 reflective journal entries from October 2007 to May 2008. The model has three core process elements: a consideration of the situation (S); consideration of the evidence used during the practice of reflection (E); and action (A) needed as a result of what has been learnt from the reflective process. An earlier study identified significant benefits that could be gained from engaging in reflective writing, particularly in relation to student learning outcomes, self-development and empowerment. These outcomes, identified as change or the need for change are integrated into the SEA-change model. Reflection is discussed in relation to teachers or mentors applying a progressive "de-scaffolding" approach to learning support in order to facilitate student autonomy. Further validation of the model is recommended in a range of different settings. The model provides a framework for the teaching, support and guidance of reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of curricular strategies is present in the perfection of Cuban Superior Education in the general aspects of each profession that are not possible to take shape from a discipline in particular, which have not been able to be formed within any particular discipline and require the presence of the remainder, in order to have a coherent integration with the study plan of each career, as part of its design and with a real balance between the whole and each one of its parts. In this case, the curricular strategy of computing contributes to the guarantee of an aspect of a professional profile, which responds to the demands of technical scientific development. In order to measure the results of this strategy obtained in the different careers under the Ministry of Superior Education, a diagnosis is made in each academic course of the computing skills acquired from a sample of students in advanced years of these careers. The results of this diagnosis show that the majority of the skills related to the use of the means provided for tools of the Office program package's have the highest results, as well as communication by e-mail. The required levels have not yet been obtained with database systems and bibliographic gestors. In the case of use of software for self-learning, the percent of students approved is not the best, due to the incident that the development of this skill has in the professional formation. For careers groups, Technical Sciences careers show the best results. The group of careers with best results was Social Sciences and Humanities. This paper also analyzed results obtained during the five academic courses in which the diagnosis of computing has been developed, and an increase in the percent of students approved for this skill has been achieved. Likewise, the percent of students who have achieved the superior level has increased during the last five academic courses, which demonstrates the validity of this strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As pre-service instructors, we turned to longitudinal study of our graduates as a primary means of finding out how our courses could better prepare student teachers for the challenging early years of teaching. In addition, we used other self-study methods, notably regular feedback from student teachers during the program. The study of 22 graduates over their first three years of teaching revealed that program planning and vision for teaching were two especially important areas that were not adequately addressed in pre-service. In this paper we discuss how we changed our courses to be more effective in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading materials written in English is the prime goal of many reading programs around the world. Extensive reading (ER) has for years aided new students at my institution to gradually acquire large vocabularies and other sub-skills that are needed to read fluently. To continue to do that effectively, a new scheme involving the use of internet - called w-ERP- was set in place in collaboration with the students. The main focus of this article is to describe the 3-phase, gradual process that led to the current design of the web-based ER scheme. The paper begins with a brief discussion of ER, reading on line (RO) and self-directed learning as part of the rationale for the new scheme. Participants' preliminary data on the benefits and potentials for learning to read and reading for learning other things are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even as the notion of continuing professional learning or development (CPL) in academic practice has become more established, the concept of curriculum and the nature of the learning involved remains problematic. We argue for a focus on transformation of self, and posit this as an expanded version of one established curriculum model. Through a case study of a participant in one graduate programme offered as CPL for clinical medical academics wanting to formalise their educational qualifications, this paper explores ways in which prevailing institutional management orthodoxies as well as historical institutional epistemologies influence possibilities for growth and development. We suggest that institutions need to find ways to strengthen their sense of identity and self-confidence if this situation is to improve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the implementation of a self-directed learning process in a circuit theory course, incorporating dynamic training elements which were designed on the basis of a cybernetic model of cognitive process management. These elements are centrally linked in a dynamic learning frame, created on the monitor screen, which displays the properties of the object being designed. This design, based on a mathematical model of the object or its real properties, is carried out by means of software connected to the user's PC via the Internet. The student, considered in this case as the subject of his/her learning-cognitive activity management, has an opportunity to change object parameters at each iteration and thus to control the dynamics of the learning frame. The major feature of this model is the feedback between the subject of management (object of training) and the dynamic learning frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conceptualizes the theoretical framework of modeling learning spaces for self-directed learning at university courses. It binds together two ideas: a) self-directed learners' common learning spaces may be characterized as abstract niches, b) niche characteristics are collectively determined through individually perceived affordances. The implications of these ideas on the learning design are discussed. The empirical part demonstrates the learning niche formation at the master course „Self-directed learning with social media“ at two consequent years. The results of the affordance determination were used to characterize and develop the learning spaces that support self-directed learning with social media. The realization of the learning niche at two following years demonstrated that students used different social media tools for putting a similar types of affordances of the learning niche in action. This finding suggested that affordance-based niche descriptions would allow flexibility and learner-centeredness but simultaneously might enable to identify a common emergent learning space and make it reusable for modeling environments for self-directed learning courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to be able to cope with many authentic challenges in increasingly networked and technologically mediated life we need to construct opportunities for participants in higher educational settings to practice the advancement of self-directing intentional learning projects. In addition to teaching general strategies for carrying out these projects more emphasis should be put on acquiring some expertise regarding the selection and combination of a diverse set of technological means for own purposes. The various practices that are emerging around social media seem to be a promising field of experimentation in this regard. The knowledge and skills needed to select, use and connect different social media in a meaningful way form an important part of the dispositions in self-directing intentional learning projects. This paper argues for a course design in which participants are not simply engaged in developing knowledge, skills and orientations in regard to curricular subject matter and the use of technology but actively involved in self-directing intentional learning projects with the support of social media. The theoretical framework of this research is inspired by conceptual ideas developed within iCamp (http://www.icamp.eu) project. We will illustrate our line of argumentation with some empirical data collected from a pilot course taught at Tallinn University, Estonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper puts forward an alternative view on sustainable development, arguing that the separation between the economy, the environment and the social in the Brundtland model obscures the societal character of the economy, the economic bases of the social, and the fact that the environment is a societal product. We differentiate between strong and weak sustainability, arguing that the threat of environmental degradation can only be addressed at the level of the relations of production, consumption and political relations. Building on this perspective, we advocate a form of transformative environmental education which engages learners and teachers in a process of self-reflective transformation. We illustrate this through two examples: action competence and Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although solid decision-making skills are a key element of self-development and a prerequisite for good leadership, this is not an area in which there has been overt investment. Numerous types of cognitive biases and the twin perils of pattern recognition and emotional tagging outflank structured decision making on a routine basis, and these need to be vigilantly guarded against. This paper elaborates on the pitfalls of emotionally led decision making, and suggests ways to enhance the quality of decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-directed learning (SDL), is an essential concept in problem-based learning (PBL), and, in a broader sense, student-centred learning. Considering the complex nature of SDL, it has been taken for granted and given a shallow meaning, i.e. self-study. In order to develop a deeper understanding and make use of the potential in SDL, this paper discusses and puts forward a more profound meaning. The importance of regarding becoming a self-directed learner as a learning process, and the need for teachers to take part in the learning, is crucial. Two 'thinking models', one concerning the PBL tutorial work and one the relationship between tutorial work and self-study, are introduced. The unifying idea behind the reasoning is to emphasise the essence of providing opportunities for, as well as stimulating, the students' inquiring approach and responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the environmental learning of a group of senior geography students through a problem-based learning (PBL) field programme to see if the goals of education for the environment could be accomplished. In the PBL field programme, the students were given a problem statement concerning a real-life scenario of an old lady living in a remote village of Hong Kong. During the PBL field programme which also has adopted an action research framework, the students were observed to have identified the problem statement, set hypotheses, constructed the research methods and collected empirical data in an authentic environment all by themselves. This paper reports on the first cycle of this piece of action research. Data were collected both quantitatively and qualitatively via questionnaires, students' reflective journals, field observation notes and group interviews. The initial finding of this PBL field programme reveals that students had acquired more in-depth knowledge and extended their comfort zones in learning. They were able to develop and practice their critical thinking and problem-solving skills while they were working on the problem in the field. Although there was no evidence of sustained self-directed learning among the students, the PBL field programme offered them a framework for developing self-directed learning. An initial conclusion is that PBL in the field can provide a useful framework and direction for EE to accomplish the goals of education for the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]