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People often make interpretations when they believe they are providing factual descriptions. To demonstrate unintentional interpretation, the author showed a brief ambiguous video clip and asked students to write descriptions of what they saw and heard. When students evaluated their responses, they discovered that 96% of the class wrote interpretations rather than strictly factual descriptions. Furthermore, the content of students' interpretations varied widely. Analyses of a qualitative measure of three dimensions of student learning (subsequent behavior, success at articulating the purpose of the exercise, and self-reported personal impact) supported the effectiveness of this exercise in increasing students' understanding of unintentional interpretation.

This paper centers on doctoral-level education candidates in the United States and Australia and their realms of engagement with information. On the basis of in-depth interviews with American and Australian doctoral students and academic librarians, we pose a critical reflection upon the two doctoral pedagogies as they relate to experiences of doctoral candidates as intentional learners, doctoral students' engagement with information, and information literacy learning. Rather than viewing commencing doctoral students as information deficient, we prefer to value their experiences, their profiles, and the ways that existing understandings about information shape their information engagements. (Contains 69 notes.)

This article describes a case study of an educational organization, the Big Picture Company, trying to implement a highly unusual school design. It offers a close look at its professional development strategies and how its comprehensive program helps create a culture where teachers can, and do, learn. I detail five professional development strategies Big Picture employs to build communities of practice: Mentoring: The buddy system; Networking: Extending the community; Observation days: Two-way feedback in action; Case studies: Group learning to tap into the collective knowledge base; and Workshops: Learning from experienced teachers and honing individual skills. (Contains 2 footnotes, 2 tables, and 1 figure.)

The goal of this study was to examine incidental and intentional spatial sequence learning during middle childhood and adolescence. We tested four age groups (8-10 years, 11-13 years, 14-17 years, and young adults [18+ years]) on a serial reaction time task and used manual and oculomotor measures to examine incidental sequence learning. Participants were also administered a trial block in which they were explicitly instructed to learn a sequence. Replicating our previous study with adults, oculomotor anticipations and response times showed learning effects similar to those in the manual modality. There were few age-related differences in the sequence learning indexes during incidental learning, but intentional learning yielded differences on all indexes. Results indicate that the search for regularities and the ability to learn a sequence rapidly under incidental conditions are mature by 8 to 10 years of age. In contrast, the ability to learn a sequence intentionally, which requires cognitive resources and strategies, continues to develop through adolescence.

The authors have been engaged in research focused on students' depth of learning as well as teachers' efforts to foster deep learning. Findings from a study examining the teaching practices and student learning outcomes of sixty-four teachers in seventeen different states (Smith et al. 2005) indicated that most of the learning in these classrooms was characterized by reproduction, categorizing of information, or replication of a simple procedure. In addition to these and other findings, in this article, the authors provide a definition of surface and deep learning and describe the structure of the observed learning outcome taxonomy, which was used to evaluate depth of learning. The authors also provide implications for practitioners interested in fostering deep student learning. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

In this article we argue that both the cognitive and situative perspectives need to be modified to account for the empirical evidence on learning, taking as a central example the problem of knowledge transfer. Our proposal is that we need an approach that takes as a unit of analysis the individual in a constructive interaction with the world through a variety of mediated symbolic structures, some internal and some external, in rich sociocultural settings. This should be done without denying that knowledge can be represented in some form in the memory system. While internal mental structures are acceptable in this framework, concepts should not be seen as stable and unchanging but, rather, as flexible, malleable, and distributed. To explain conceptual change, we should allow for the possibility that what is already known can be radically restructured and that new, qualitative different structures emerge. Teaching for conceptual change, we argue, should utilize but cannot solely rely on cognitive apprenticeship types of methods. Attention must be paid to the appropriate design of curricula and to the acquisition of subject matter knowledge, together with the development of instructional methods that utilize sociocultural processes, like classroom discussion, to develop students' metaconceptual awareness and the ability to engage in intentional learning.

Narrating stories of life experience has helped educators motivate adult learners with diverse goals. Working with culturally diverse learners in their community contexts, including adults who have been unable to advance their development and learning, educators have observed them become more able to learn and succeed in their varied pursuits as they interpret the meaning of their lived experience through storytelling. This article advocates that adult educators become more intentional in drawing upon human capacity for storytelling as an integral teaching and learning strategy. Amid renewing social awareness and growing attention to more equitable learning circumstances, storytelling is a particularly relevant innate capacity. This article (a) introduces why and how to use storytelling as a strategy that may lead to life changes for learners and (b) discusses implications of using storytelling in adult education settings.

Playing games, particularly pretense games, is one of the areas where young children first enter into collective, conventional practices. This chapter reviews recent empirical data in support of this claim and explores the idea that games present a cradle for children's growing into societal and institutional life more generally. (Contains 2 notes.)

In order to understand the advanced, scientific concepts of the various disciplines, students cannot rely on the simple memorization of facts. They must learn how to restructure their naive, intuitive theories based on everyday experience and lay culture. In other words, they must undergo profound conceptual change. This type of conceptual change cannot be achieved without systematic instruction that takes into consideration both individual, constructivist and sociocultural factors. Teachers must find ways to enhance individual students' motivation by creating a social classroom environment that supports the creation of intentional learners who can engage in the deep and enduring comprehension activities required for the revision of conceptual knowledge.

Novel ways of thinking often come from the cross-pollination of language from other professions. The term "satisficing" is one such term and is a powerful construct that fuses two concepts, satisfy and suffice, together to explain something new. Satisficing describes the often-paradoxical results that plague decision making. Depending on context, a particular option may be adequate or satisfactory in the moment, while later it is insufficient for full success. While satisficing is an expedient strategy for everyday decisions such as what to cook for dinner in a given amount of time, it is detrimental to human activities, such as learning, that require sufficient investments of mental energy. The author can think of many times in her role as a professional developer when she observed satisficing but had no label for it. Her vague descriptions were either that the participants were going through the motions or that they worked just enough to get by with the minimal requirements. Both stances were counterproductive to deep learning. The author shares examples in this article.

From the cognitive model of multimedia learning proposed by [Schnotz, W., & Barnett, M. (2003). Construction and interference in learning from multiple representation. "Learning and Instruction, 13", 141-156], two hypotheses regarding the learning of spatial arrangements of objects were derived: the integration hypothesis and the multiple source hypothesis. In the experiment, ninety-six participants first studied spatial arrangements of five objects each. The complete arrangements had to be inferred from pairs of objects, because participants were shown either word pairs or picture pairs depicting adjacent objects. Afterwards, they were tested using either object pairs or complete arrangements, and the test items consisted either of words or of pictures. In addition, the participants were divided into four groups according to their verbal and visuospatial working memory capacity. The results showed (a) that integrating pairs of objects into complete spatial arrangements required more working memory resources than evaluating the pairs, irrespective of the objects represented by words or pictures, (b) that integration of elements from different sources (verbal descriptions and pictorial depictions) required more working memory resources than integrating only depictive elements. The results yield evidence for the proposed internal structure of Schnotz and Bannert's model. The results are discussed with regard to individual differences in working memory capacity, cognitive load and the design of multimedia-supported learning tasks.

Many education critics, teachers, and parents have lamented the recent poor achievement scores of Japanese school-age children, and have sought the reasons for the decline. Some critics, including the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, and Science and Technology, blame the practice known as yutori-kyoiku (literally translated as "relaxed-education"), initiated in 2002, which cut the school week from six days to five days and slashed curriculum content by 30 percent. At first glance, this debate does not seem to affect kindergarten or preschool education directly. However, some critics make kindergarten the scapegoat for poor school performance, saying that kindergarten education overemphasizes free play. Thus, this article provides an overview of the history of kindergarten education in Japan, focusing on the development of curriculum content and practice. The authors illustrate the current Japanese kindergarten curriculum and prospects for the future.

During the last decade there has been an awakening interest in considering not only formalised learning situations within institutional settings, but also all the various forms of informal musical learning practices outside schools. Informal musical learning outside institutional settings has been shown to contribute to important knowledge and aspects of music education. In this article, I will examine research studies which in different ways focus on formal and informal learning situations and practices or formal and informal ways of learning. I will consider the relationship between music education as praxis (music pedagogy) and as research, and the relationship between these two facets of music education and the surrounding society. I will identify four different ways of using and defining formal and informal learning, respectively, either explicitly or implicitly, each one focusing on different aspects of learning: (i) the situation, (ii) learning style, (iii) ownership, and (iv) intentionality. Formal-informal should not be regarded as a dichotomy, but rather as the two poles of a continuum; in most learning situations, both these aspects of learning are in various degrees present and interacting. Music education researchers, in order to contribute to the attainment of a multiplicity of learning styles and a cultural diversity in music education, need to focus not only on the formal and informal musical learning in Western societies and cultures, but also to include the full global range of musical learning in popular, world and indigenous music in their studies.

The purpose of this study was to describe selected content knowledge held by 52 preservice elementary teachers about the observable phases of the moon and the monthly pattern of change in observable phases. Data were obtained from participants in a physics course before and after they received inquiry-based instruction designed to promote intentional learning of the cause of moon phases and the observable pattern of change in moon phases. Results indicated that, prior to instruction, most preservice teachers had major deficiencies in knowledge of observable moon phases and the pattern of monthly change in the phases. Fortunately, participants who completed the instruction were likely to show evidence of having addressed the deficiencies.

This paper stems from the ESRC TLRP Learning How to Learn--in Classrooms, Schools and Networks Project, and explores how Assessment for Learning (AfL) relates, conceptually, to learning how to learn (LHTL). The term LHTL was intended to draw attention to a primary focus on learning practices, and we have related the processes of AfL to LHTL. A third and more common term "learning to learn" (L2L) has recently come to the fore in the teaching and learning practices of schools. This paper explores the relationships between all three, in three main sections. First, the meaning of the concept LHTL is explored. This is approached initially using the analysis of Dearden, followed by an exploration of the links with other research in the literature on learning. This exploration examines the construct L2L and argues against its implication that there is a distinct capacity with generality of application across all forms of learning. The second section considers the ways in which teachers and schools might give more priority to pupils' capacity to LHTL, drawing on some research projects that demonstrate improved pupil outcomes, and hence support the rationale for the emphasis on learning "practices". The third section examines the problem of assessing LHTL. An attempt to construct an instrument to assess LHTL did not succeed, but did serve to expose both the practical and the theoretical problems in characterizing pupils as having "learned how to learn". The overall conclusion is that emphasis should be placed on practices that have potential to promote autonomy in learning, a common theme in the literature at all levels, and one reflected in our empirical work on teachers' attitudes and practices. (Contains 10 notes.)

Educational professional development is a global concern. It is often characterised by event-delivery methods, though there are signs that other approaches are gaining favour. The authors stress the significance of non-formal learning, and the ways in which it can be promoted and enhanced within the activity systems within which teachers in higher education work. Their argument is complemented by findings from a study of 2401 part-time teachers, and online responses from 248 full-time staff, in the UK Open University. Twelve implications for international practice are identified. (Contains 3 figures and 4 tables.)

Three experiments were conducted to determine if the intention to perform motor sequences in the future results in similar patterns of activation and inhibition as observed for verbal scripts. In Experiments 1 and 2, intention was induced by informing one group that they would be tested on the tasks following acquisition; the other group was not informed of the retention test. Recognition tests administered prior to and after the retention test indicated a strong intention superiority effect. However, intention instructions provided either at the end of acquisition (Experiment 1) or before acquisition (Experiment 2) failed to impact acquisition or retention performance of the motor sequences, but did influence the latency of responding on the retention test. Experiment 3 was designed to replicate the results of Experiments 1 and 2 using a within-subjects design and extend these findings to observation. The results indicated that intention instructions resulted in a strong intention superiority effect for both the physical and observational practice participants, but the performance on the intentional tasks was enhanced only for the observational practice group.

Learning outcomes are statements of intended learning within a module. In practice, students may consider various options when undertaking assessments. They may feel they can meet the stated learning outcomes by demonstrating other aspects of study which are termed "distractions." Thirty-three undergraduate students' constructed scientific posters and completed questionnaires prior to and on the day of poster submission. Additionally, ten of these students were interviewed. Analysis of questionnaire data using principle components analysis and interview data by clustering units of relevant meaning revealed that students did not differentiate between learning outcomes and distractions, both of which steered their learning during the assessment. These results are discussed within the context of assessment tasks and implications for practice.

Purpose: This study's broad objective was to examine the effectiveness of surface electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback for motor learning in the voice production domain. The specific objective was to examine whether concurrent or terminal biofeedback would facilitate learning for a relaxed laryngeal musculature task during spoken reading. Method: Twenty-two healthy adult speakers were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups. One group received real-time EMG wave form displays of muscle activation from bilateral thyrohyoid sites during reading trials (concurrent feedback group). The other group received static terminal EMG waveform displays about activation levels for the same sites on completion of successive trials (terminal feedback group). All participants were instructed to minimize EMG amplitudes from the thyrohyoid sites during phonation in an oral reading task. Signals were also collected from control, orofacial sites, but participants received neither instructions nor feedback for those sites. Results: The pooled data (2 feedback groups x 2 electrode sites) showed that, overall, muscle activation levels did decrease across baseline, training, and no-feedback test phases. However, no clear evidence was seen of reliable changes in the targeted laryngeal muscle activation levels across the phases, for either the concurrent or the terminal feedback groups. Paradoxically, and entirely unanticipated, reliable decreases were seen in muscle activation for the orofacial, no-feedback control sites. Those decreases were equivalent across concurrent and terminal feedback groups. Conclusions: The unanticipated findings indicate that the provision of biofeedback for a target muscle group facilitated incidental learning in another, untargeted muscle group. Discussion focuses on the possible role of locus of attention in motor learning. Building on literature from other domains, the hypothesis is advanced that attention to muscular contractile force during training trials may suppress intentional learning for attended target sites but may benefit incidental learning for nearby, unattended sites. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)

Recent findings [Turcotte, Gagnon, & Poirier, 2005. The effect of old age on the learning of supra-span sequences. "Psychology and Aging," 20, 251-260.] indicate that incidental learning of visuo-spatial supra-span sequences through immediate serial recall declines with old age (Hebb's paradigm). In this study, we examined whether strategies induced by awareness of the repeated sequence might explain age differences. Young (18-35 years old) and older (65-80 years old) participants underwent either incidental or intentional learning instructions. Results indicated that older adults demonstrated reduced learning of the repeated sequence under both incidental and intentional instructions. In comparison, young adults showed superior learning of the repeated sequence in both conditions but intentional instructions triggered faster and greater learning in this age group. The results strongly indicated that knowledge of the repeated sequence enhanced learning only in the group of young adults. Older adults were unable to translate the knowledge of the repetition into elaborate strategies that would increase recall of the repeated sequence. Other findings suggest that incidental learning in young adults was mediated by both non-conscious and conscious recollection processes.

Instructing people to forget a list of items often leads to better recall of subsequently studied lists (known as the benefits of directed forgetting). The authors have proposed that changes in study strategy are a central cause of the benefits (L. Sahakyan & P. F. Delaney, 2003). The authors address 2 results from the literature that are inconsistent with their strategy-based explanation: (a) the presence of benefits under incidental learning conditions and (b) the absence of benefits in recognition testing. Experiment 1 showed that incidental learning attenuated the benefits compared with intentional learning, as expected if a change of study strategy causes the benefits. Experiment 2 demonstrated benefits using recognition testing, albeit only when longer lists were used. Memory for source in directed forgetting was also explored using multinomial modeling. Results are discussed in terms of a 2-factor account of directed forgetting.

The purpose of this case study was to examine a teacher's guidance of an inquiry learning project in an ordinary elementary-school classroom. The participants in the study were 21 Finnish, grade 4 students (10 years old), from which four students were selected for intensive observation. The technical infrastructure of the study was Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE). The project consisted of a series of 21 lessons. Each lesson was videotaped, and the contents of transcribed videotapes were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. The analysis revealed that although the teacher was able to straightforwardly guide the three, more advanced students through the progressive-inquiry cycle, she had a great deal of difficulty in the case of the less advanced student. Effective teacher guidance appears to be a mediated process, requiring an externalized record of students' inquiry, for example, their postings, or at least a verbalized account of it to help the teacher ground her efforts to guide the deepening inquiry. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

This article highlights instructional communication and distance education research with an emphasis on the social dynamics of the online learning experience and their impact on the learning experience. Literature related to the twin concepts of immediacy and group cohesiveness--central constructs related to building an effective classroom social dynamic--will be reviewed in an attempt to glean insights for the practical adaptation of these constructs from face-to-face to online learning environments. Such social dynamics are not presented as the pedagogical ends of the instructor's role, but as the foundation, or means through which more intentional learning activities may be more effectively constructed in the online classroom.

Although training programs are an important component in most companies' diversity initiatives, little theoretical guidance is available for their implementation. This article proposes a model based on the theory of planned behavior, which addresses the roles of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control in motivation to learn from a diversity training program. The model suggests a number of hypotheses that could be tested to enhance our understanding of the motivation-to-learn construct. Additionally, the model provides practical advice for companies seeking to implement successful diversity training programs.

The problem addressed in the study was whether 10- and 11-year-old children, collaborating within a computer-supported classroom, could engage in progressive inquiry that exhibits an essential principal feature of mature scientific inquiry: namely, engagement in increasingly deep levels of explanation. Technical infrastructure for the study was provided by the Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE). The study was carried out by qualitatively analyzing written notes logged by 28 Grade 5/6 students to CSILE's database. Results of the study indicated that with teacher guidance, students were able to produce meaningful intuitive explanations about biological phenomena, guide this process by pursuing their own research questions, and engage in constructive peer interaction that helped them go beyond their intuitive explanations and toward theoretical scientific explanations. Expert evaluations by three widely recognized philosophers of science confirmed the progressive nature of students' inquiry. (Contains 2 tables.)

This qualitative case study evaluates the impact of international study experiences on college students. Three international study tours originating from a Mid-west state university are the focus of the study. Despite differing leadership styles, teaching and tour formats, academic orientations, and destinations, the outcome reveals that such tours have a powerful effect on participants. The study highlights intentional and incidental learning that occurs at both conscious and unconscious levels. The results emphasize the powerful opportunity that international study experiences present to educators who wish to transcend traditional teaching pedagogies. (Contains 1 table.)

Several instructional features facilitate the development of metacognitive and self-directed learning skills, and disposition to lifelong learning: student autonomy, responsibility, and intentionality; intrinsically motivating activities; enculturation; discourse and collaboration among learners; and reflection. Describes and presents examples of how three teaching methodologies-problem-based learning, intentional learning environments, and cognitive apprenticeship-employ these instructional features. (Contains 65 references.) (Author/AEF)

Comparison for memory for spatial location of 30 persons with and 30 persons without mental retardation found the control group recalled more intentionally learned than incidentally learned locations. The experimental group performed better after incidental learning than after intentional learning and scored as highly as controls on incidental spatial memory. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

Describes the integration of Web resources as instructional and learning tools in an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) class in Taiwan. Highlights include challenges and advantages of using the Web; learners' perceptions; intentional and incidental learning; disorientation and cognitive overload; and information seeking as problem-solving. A copy of the student questionnaire is appended. (Contains 59 references.) (Author/LRW)

Contrasts spontaneous and reflective knowledge integration instruction delivered using a computer learning environment to enhance understanding of displaced volume. Distinguishes the impact of instruction on students who believed scientific phenomena are governed by principles (cohesive beliefs) versus students who believed that science is a collection of unrelated facts (dissociated beliefs). (Contains 498 references.) (Author/YDS)

Analyzed self-regulatory strategies of goal setting and goal striving in 3 experiments involving 55 German middle school students, 20 German young adults, and 39 German college students. Results show that contrasting fantasy about a desired future with present reality and forming implementation intentions are effective self-regulatory strategies for goal setting and goal implementation. (SLD)

Tested the hypothesis that focusing on details of studying (a low-action identity) would enhance performance and persistence. Data for 35 Belgian college students supported this hypothesis for academic nonprocrastinators, but for procrastinators, a low identity was found to enhance only task persistence and performance on a creative response indicator but to decrease performance on recall questions. (SLD)

Discusses the volitional basis of Personality Systems Interaction Theory (PSI) and applies it to the improvement of conditions for learning and psychological treatment. The theory explains motivational and volitional phenomena, including concentration, coping with failure, identification and intrinsic commitment to personal goals, persistence, and implementation of intentions. (Author/SLD)

Introduces intentional learning theory and learning orientations, describes higher-order psychological attributes and learner-difference variables for successful learning, offers explanations for fundamental learning differences, and suggests strategies for matching and accommodating learning needs for audiences profiled by learning orientation. Considers the impact of affective and cognitive factors on thinking and learning. (LRW)