This article details the learning experiences emerging from a research collaboration between a university-based research team and an informal education provider (the STEM Academy). The aim was to enhance the community responsiveness of a series of science clubs for children living in low-income communities in a metropolitan area of Canada. The…

This study analyses the valued school experiences of 15 five- and six-year-old Canadian children, through their creation of multimodal texts. Throughout the school year, the students spent a large portion of each school day in the expansive forest on the school grounds, and their texts revealed their significant interest in this natural outdoor…

This study examines the strategies used by teachers during a series of self-directed online learning (SDOL) experiences. Over a period of four months, the authors met with 12 practicing elementary teachers three separate times. During the meetings, the teacher participants informally used the internet for their professional learning in literacy.…

This paper reports on a small-scale study in an elementary school in Southern Ontario, Canada. The study investigated relationships between students' perceptions and practices of gender in popular music education with particular attention given to communication, instruments and technology and development of freedoms and constraints. The findings…

This article presents the results of a study that examined elementary teachers' use of online learning environments for their informal professional learning in literacy instruction. Forty-five elementary teachers from a metropolitan area in Ontario, Canada, completed an online survey and participated in a semistructured interview. Survey and…

Basic education is essential if societies and economies are to thrive and become sustainable in challenging times. However, many people have never had an opportunity to benefit from education and many others leave the initial phase of education without attaining the level of proficiency in literacy and numeracy needed to participate fully in…

The present studies test 2 hypotheses: (1) that pedagogical contexts especially convey generic information (Csibra & Gergely, 2009) and (2) that young children are sensitive to this aspect of pedagogy. We examined generic language (e.g., "'Elephants' live in Africa") in 3 studies, focusing on informational versus narrative children's…

This article reports on a mixed methods study that investigated aspects of formal, non-formal and informal learning for workers and adult high school learners seeking literacy and essential skills. Three key themes emerged from the qualitative data: motivations for participation in various forms of learning; seeking out informal learning…