Do children consider how others learned when seeking help? Across three experiments, German children (N = 536 3-to-8 year olds, 49% female, majority White, tested 2017-2019) preferred to learn from successful active learners selectively by context: They sought help solving a problem from a learner who had independently discovered the solution to a…

Autonomous motivation for self-set goals (pursuing goals for more intrinsic and less extrinsic reasons) has been linked to affective well-being. Using intensive longitudinal data, the present article examines the link between university students' autonomous study motivation with affective well-being and targets fulfillment of the basic…

This article explores the normative representations of higher education students in seven films and television series from four European countries. Drawing on the concept of the 'independent learner' as an 'ideal construction', I demonstrate how these texts offer complex and at times paradoxical representations of who gets positioned as the…

Research and practice have recognized the importance of informal learning--a specific type of active learning--for higher education contexts. University students learn not only in formally organized courses, but also in a self-directed and intentional way from fellow students, through trial and error, and by reflection. However, there has been a…

Purpose: Today's unpredictable and fast-changing work environment challenges researchers and organizations to rethink learning. In contrast to traditional learning designs, new learning frameworks such as agile learning are more learner centered, integrated into the workplace and socially shaped. The purpose of this study is to examine Working Out…

Purpose: To continue to stay relevant in the era of Industry Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) alongside the unprecedented disruption of COVID-19, the importance of lifelong learning is indisputable though this concept has existed for decades. In this context, open and distance learning (ODL) institutions are urged to re-think and re-design their online…

Non-formal learning settings like out-of-school labs provide students with insights into authentic learning situations. For example, in physics, students are engaged in experimenting as an authentic method. However, increasing the authenticity in experimentation can lead to overwhelming demands and hinder concept development and does not even need…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of online higher education programs and tools has grown rapidly. One example is an individual digital study assistant (IDSA) for students, which provides functionalities to train self-regulation skills, to engage with own educational goals and to offer automated, first-level support to higher…

The flipped classroom concept is the reversal of the traditional teaching activities so that new content is first worked through by the learners independently and then the joint lesson time is used to practise and consolidate this content. This concept can result in didactic advantages. However, it is assumed that the concept also places increased…

Stage-Environment Fit Theory underlines the role of learning environments and their match with students' needs as crucial for students' motivation and learning. This study explores the mediation role of goal orientations in the interplay of academic self-concept and achievement in mathematics and verbal domains in student-directed and…

Digital Study Assistants (DSA) aim to support individual learning processes by designing them appropriately and efficiently based on recommendations. In this paper we present a prototype of a DSA for students in higher education of three German universities. The digital data driven DSA is integrated into the local learning management system and…

Self-regulated learning can be conceptualized as the pursuit of learning goals by means of self-initiated control processes. Models of self-regulated learning postulate that goal-directed processes unfold within individuals from motivational states through volitional-control processes to goal achievement. Thus far, this hypothesis has mostly been…

An increasing number of German schools have suspended teacher-directed learning (TL) in favor of self-directed learning (SL) modules. We used the broaden-and-build theory and self-determination theory as a theoretical framework to determine whether students in self-directed and teacher-directed learning environments differ in the interplay of…

The present study explores the self-regulated learning (SRL) research published in English or Turkish language journals included in the Web of Science database from the beginning to 2021 via bibliometric analysis. The 2197 articles that met the eligibility criteria were included in the study. The results reveal that the research on SRL has been…

Intuitive conceptions based on cognitive biases (teleology, anthropomorphism, and essentialism) often prove helpful in everyday life while simultaneously being problematic in scientific contexts. Nonetheless, students often have intuitive conceptions of scientific topics such as evolution. As potential approaches to enable students to…