An exponential increase in the availability of information over the last two decades has asked for novel theoretical frameworks to examine how students optimally learn under these new learning conditions, given the limitations of human processing ability. In this special issue and in the current editorial introduction, we argue that such a novel…

This paper claims that the current theories of Self-regulated learning (SRL) are short-sighted. The author provides a comprehensive, but brief, overview of SRL which addresses such issues as (a) SRL processes, (b) SRL strategies, (c) compartments of SRL, (d) theories of SRL, (e) agency in SRL, and (f) models of SRL. He then presents a new model…

This paper critiques the historical partnership between Education and Psychology in their coordinated search for theorizations of learning and teaching. Psychologists' construction of learning as an integrated set of processes (albeit complex and multifaceted) subserves the historical imperative of this preparadigmatic science to achieve…

This article looks at one way for teachers to make classrooms emotionally, mentally, and physically healthy places to learn--places where tensions and stresses are lessened and where teachers and students are concentrating, yet relaxed. "Harmonious language learning classroom" is the term the author coined to describe this kind of language…

An important topic of current brain research is "cognitive overload." It is about the capacity of a person's working memory and the strategies employed when that capacity is taxed. The most common strategy for coping with cognitive overload is shutting down, like that point in a conversation with a non-English speaker when everything one…

In this commentary on the special issue, I join the authors in searching for a conceptual framework that would clarify the concepts of metacognition, self-regulation, and self-regulated learning. Building on the insights of the different articles, I suggest that metacognition, self-regulation, and self-regulated learning should be considered as…

The current notion of lifelong learning in policy and practice is dominated by behaviorist, adaptive accumulation of skills and qualifications. An alternative is reflexive lifelong learning, developed through social learning networks within the context of dislocation and uncertainty. It involves the reflexive practices of metacognitive analysis…

Argues that learning can be addressed as a discrete topic. Discusses learning styles and barriers to learning. (JOW)

Halliday's view of all learning as a form of language development is supported as a first step, but an argument is made for a view of learning as induction into discourses as ways of being, not just ways of using words. (Contains 19 references.) (LB)

Takes the position that (1) metacognition is a general and pervasive aspect of cognitive development, (2) is fostered by schooling and appears to be a necessary condition to success in schooling, and that (3) metacognitive skills develop when the individual is faced with both the need to know and a source of information about strategic processes…

This discussion of metalearning theories and thinking skills in relation to instructional design highlights other papers presented in this journal issue. Topics discussed include properties of skills; problem solving; the concept of psychological sets in contrast to the concept of skill; and the organization of previously acquired systematic…

The work of two theorists are compared by focusing on a limited number of central issues for a language-based theory of learning (LTL), including long-term goals and a genetic approach; language and social activity; appropriating culture; thinking in school; sociosemantic variation; enculturation; and intellectual consequences. The combined…

The training of learning strategies with students having academic difficulties is discussed in the context of theory that distinguishes between declarative and procedural knowledge and between inert and useful learning. Explained are effective learning strategies for acquiring useful declarative knowledge, practice strategies for procedural…

After an overview of several studies of cognitive instruction used with problem learners, the article describes two learning mechanisms that explain why such cognitive interventions work--prolepsis (communication that initially leaves implicit some information) and reflective abstraction (changing observables into meaningful internalized…

Five principles emerging from cognitive science research are as follows: (1) help students organize their knowledge with concept mapping; (2) build on what students already know; (3) facilitate information processing; (4) facilitate deep thinking; and (5) make thinking processes explicit. (SK)