Students learned about electric motors by asking questions and receiving answers from an on-screen pedagogical agent named Dr. Phyz who stood next to an on-screen drawing of an electric motor. Results are consistent with a cognitive theory of multimedia learning and yield principles for the design of interactive multimedia learning environments.…

Exploration of a coincidental similarity between the work of Rene Descartes and Jean Piaget relating to the contemporary pedagogical conception of understanding as an active construction of reality points out some of the images that coalesce around this conception and reflects upon alternatives to the conception. (CB)

This article discusses the epistemic significance of technology as a form of knowledge using the Green Revolution in Indian agriculture as an empirical basis. The transformation of an existing traditionally based knowledge system through the transfer, creation, and local adaptation of new technological knowledge is described. (30 references) (LRW)

Argues that educational theory and practice are dominated by a language frame that structures thought and practice into an input-output form. Outlines an alternative view of reflection and recursion based on the conversation postulate. A conversation is a system of mutually interacting components. Each component "perturbs" other…

Identifies a number of possible epistemological perspectives that can be taken on the changing nature of curricular knowledge in science and considers some of the normative characteristics of each. The varieties of knowledge and value perspectives associated with each inform teachers and students how they are expected to think about the subject.…

Examines attempts to extend Ferdinand de Saussure's structuralist linguistic theory, particularly those by integrational linguists. Discusses the place of integrational linguistics with regard to Saussurean work. (MSE)

Explores the evolution of language policy and planning (LPP) as an area of research from the end of World War II to the present. Based on analysis of the LPP literature, three types of factors are identified as having been instrumental in shaping the field: macro sociopolitical, epistemological, and strategic. (Author/VWL)

Article discusses what receiving knowledge (as opposed to sharing in producing or generating it) means for the practice of social work, which is supposedly committed to the social work values of human dignity and social justice. Presents and discusses the experiences that led to the author's work on empowerment-based practice. (Author/GCP)

Examines relevant research from the educational technology and educational psychology literature that supports the need for more research into the relationship between learner characteristics (e.g., epistemological beliefs and self-regulatory skills) and performance in new learning environments, examining their implications for the use of…

This paper reviews the literature on social inclusion and social capital to develop a framework to guide the selection of items and measures for the forthcoming SA Department of Human Services Survey of Social Inclusion to be held in the region of Northern Adelaide in South Australia. Northern Adelaide is a region with areas of high socio-economic…

This paper examines the possibility of a Kuhnian paradigm in research on educational communications and technology. It discusses Kuhnian metaphor and its attraction as a viewfinder. It turns to anthropology for explanation of how beliefs and behaviors become social fact, then takes a critical look at usage of this metaphor in the field as a social…

English, and presumably any natural language, contains a small group of expressions referring to species of things found in nature. These species are defined by their internal structure, determined by genetics in the case of living things and by chemical or physical properties in the case of others. The reference of these terms is determined by…

Several epistemic formulations have been advanced to explain cognitive development. Many writers have divided the field of psychology into three basic underlying models: the mechanistic, organismic, and dialectic models. An examination of epistemic positions reveals five broadly defined positions on how behavior develops within a given organism.…

Walter Carlton (1978) has suggested that the most prominent characteristic of contemporary rhetorical theory is its attempt to bring into focus the relationship between knowledge and discourse. The concern with establishing the epistemic status of discourse is not, however, limited to rhetoric. Similar questions dominate much contemporary…

The history of lexicography in Vietnam is chronicled from early Chinese and missionary scholarship through the colonial period (1884-1946), the war years (1946-1954), the partition period (1954-1975), and the post-1975 period. The evolution of romanization, political-linguistic influences, native scholarship in lexicography, and dictionary types…