In 2006, after receiving the Division 15 Career Award, Alexander delivered a keynote address entitled "Evolution of a Learning Theory: A Case Study." This presentation was a clarion call for greater respect for and attention to scientific speculation in educational psychology as a critical component in theory building. To build her case,…

Use of theory within a field of research provides the foundation for designing effective research programs and establishing a deeper understanding of the results obtained. This, together with the emergence of domain-specific theory, is often taken as an indicator of the maturity of any research area. This article explores the development and…

Connectivism, a learning theory that reveals a new learning in the Internet environment, has become a popular academic topic at the forefront of online learning. The MOOC Research Team at the Distance Education Research Centre at Beijing Normal University designed and developed the first massive open online course in China, adapting a connectivist…

Historical thinking is a construct approached by different disciplines with a recent proliferation in research interest compared to thinking in other domains. Leading exponents do not agree on its definition and include the two main traditions: Anglo-American and German, and various groups or research centres throughout the Western world.…

This article introduces a transliteracies framework to conceptually account for the contingency and instability of literacy practices on the move and to offer a set of methodological tools for investigating these mobilities. Taking the paradox of mobility--the simultaneous restricting or regulation of movement that accompanies mobility--as its…

The purpose of this study is to discuss instructional design and technology (IDT) model strategies for developing learning and teaching environments, based on philosophical approaches to educational technology theory. The study begins with a discussion of IDT models to define the history of educational technology or instructional technology…

Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and other growing theories such as Actor-Network and Connectivism are circulating in the educational field. For each, there are allies who stand behind research evidence and consistency of observation. Meantime, those existing theories dominate the field until the background is changed or new concrete…

The Mobile Assisted Language Learning concept has offered infinite language learning opportunities since its inception 20 years ago. Second Language Acquisition however embraces a considerably different body of knowledge from first language learning. While technological advances have optimized the psycholinguistic environment for language…

Socioconstructivism has been established as a prominent and intriguing learning theory, and consequently, pedagogical practice. This study focused on the introduction of constructivist pedagogy to secondary social studies pre-service teachers. Students' engagement with each other and the course instructor was a primary concern to mitigate student…

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…

Two complementary approaches are proposed when designing the learning event, viz. a journeybased approach and a destination-based approach. These two approaches take a big-picture approach to instructional design, intended to contextualize and categorize the many theories and models of learning and instructional design. With Destination-based…

Lave and Wenger have greatly influenced existing views of learning and teaching, but relatively little has been written about the implications for the understanding of teacher behavior and teacher learning, and for the pedagogy of teacher education. Based on their work, a three-level model of learning is used to analyze the friction between…

What does it mean to be a graduate student and to "do" graduate school? What happens when we shift our focus away from learning as a process of gaining expertise in a field or being socialized into the literacy conventions of a discipline and instead consider the ontological component of learning--the idea that learning entails becoming a certain…

This article describes a research project into the self-efficacy and anxiety of college English students at four universities in China. A total of 738 participants completed a questionnaire measuring self-efficacy and anxiety in writing in English. This was immediately followed by a writing task. The questionnaire used a seven point Likert type…

This article aims to develop a paradigm of lifelong learning situations. The starting point is the EU-Commission policy document where three kinds of learning situations are identified: formal, non-formal and informal. The article tries to deepen this categorisation by searching for the underlying ontological and epistemological dimensions. The…