The purpose of the study was to examine and evaluate the extent to which the supportive conditions (collaboration, teacher efficacy, shared leadership, and trust) were present in the district's current professional learning communities (PLCs) model, and whether teachers perceived the supportive conditions to be related to improving their instructional practices. This mixed-methods study used Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression, and focus group interviews to concurrently triangulate data to answer the research questions. The sample from this study was identified from 600 middle school teachers. Survey participants included 139 teachers and each of the four focus group interviews contained 6 teachers for a total of 24 teachers. Of the four supporting conditions analyzed, trust generated the highest mean (M = 3.41). Results from this study indicate that the supportive conditions for PLCs have a strong correlation (0.10) with the studied district's current PLC model and each specific supporting condition elicits a targeted aspect of professional learning that has a significant impact on teacher instructional practices. Recommendations for future studies include the expansion of this study to include elementary and high school participants and to extend this study to a larger scope of interested districts seeking to improve their PLC structures for improved teacher instructional practices. Expanding this research could build upon the current body of literature as it relates to PLCs, professional learning, and student achievement.

The value of video games in education has been displayed in more than one field (Gee, 2007; Devlin, 2011). The possible effects of using video games as a learning tool have been studied in numerous academic situations: with young students ranging from elementary to secondary levels (Barab et al., 2009; Cipollone, 2015; Kellert, 2018; Seidel et al., 2019; Sherry et al., 2019; Tüzün et al., 2019), with postsecondary students (Mahood & Hanus, 2017; Smith et al., 2020; Vásquez & Ovalle, 2019), and with educators employing video games in the classroom (Bell & Gresalfi, 2017). The purpose of this study was to investigate how adult gamers perceive their learning when playing video games for enjoyment. To conduct this study, Barbara Rogoff's interpretation of sociocultural theory (2003) was adopted, which offers a closer look on the influences of cultural communities. This study recruited a sample size of 6 adult gamers and adopted a narrative inquiry model, allowing participants to share their lived experiences about video game play and everything related to it. The results indicate that what participants were learning during their video game play could fall under one or more of these four themes: wellbeing, problem-solving, transferable skills, and multimedia literacy. By understanding how video games function as an inherent learning tool, this study helps create a foundation for future research in the field.

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Thesis (Ed. D.)--Graduate School of Education, Oral Roberts University, 2003. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-200).

This dissertation presents the development of a semi-supervised incremental learning framework with a multi-view perspective for image concept modeling. For reliable image concept characterization, having a large number of labeled images is crucial. However, the size of the training set is often limited due to the cost required for generating concept labels associated with objects in a large quantity of images. To address this issue, in this research, we propose to incrementally incorporate unlabeled samples into a learning process to enhance concept models originally learned with a small number of labeled samples. To tackle the sub-optimality problem of conventional techniques, the proposed incremental learning framework selects unlabeled samples based on an expected error reduction function that measures contributions of the unlabeled samples based on their ability to increase the modeling accuracy. To improve the convergence property of the proposed incremental learning framework, we further propose a multi-view learning approach that makes use of multiple features such as color, texture, etc., of images when including unlabeled samples. For robustness to mismatches between training and testing conditions, a discriminative learning algorithm, namely a kernelized maximal- figure-of-merit (kMFoM) learning approach is also developed. Combining individual techniques, we conduct a set of experiments on various image concept modeling problems, such as handwritten digit recognition, object recognition, and image spam detection to highlight the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

This study is predicated on the belief that there does not now exist, nor will there ever exist, any single theory of learning that is broad enough to account for all types of learning yet specific enough to be maximally useful in practical application. Perhaps this dichotomy is the reason for the apparent gap between existing theories of learning and the practice of instructional design. As an alternative to any supposed grand theory of learning—and following the lead of prominent thinkers in the fields of clinical psychology and language teaching—this study proposes a shift toward principles. It presents a principle-based conceptual framework of learning, and recommends use of the framework as a guide for creating domain-specific theories of learning. The purpose of this study was to review theories of learning in the behavioral, cognitive, constructive, human, and social traditions to identify principles of learning local to those theories that might represent specific instances of more universal principles, fundamentally requisite to the facilitation of learning in general. Many of the ideas reviewed have resulted from, or been supported by, direct empirical evidence. Others have been suggested based on observational or practical experience of the theorist. The ideas come from different points in time, are described from a variety of perspectives, and emphasize different aspects and types of learning; yet there are a number of common themes shared among them regarding the means by which learning occurs. It is hypothesized that such themes represent universal and fundamental principles of learning. These principles were the objective of the present study. They have been sought through careful review and analysis of both theoretical and empirical literature by methods of textual research (Clingan, 2008) and constant comparative analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). By way of textual research a methodological lens was defined to identify general themes, and by way of constant comparative analysis these themes were developed further through the analysis and classification of specific instances of those themes in the texts reviewed. Ten such principles were identified: repetition, time, step size, sequence, contrast, significance, feedback, context, engagement, and agency. These ten facilitative principles were then organized in the context of a comprehensive principles-of-learning framework, which includes the four additional principles of potential, target, change, and practice.

Dieser Tagungsband beinhaltet die auf dem E-Learning Symposium 2012 an der Universität Potsdam vorgestellten Beiträge zu aktuellen Anwendungen, innovativen Prozesse und neuesten Ergebnissen im Themenbereich E-Learning. Lehrende, E-Learning-Praktiker und -Entscheider tauschten ihr Wissen über etablierte und geplante Konzepte im Zusammenhang mit dem Student-Life-Cycle aus. Der Schwerpunkt lag hierbei auf der unmittelbaren Unterstützung von Lehr- und Lernprozessen, auf Präsentation, Aktivierung und Kooperation durch Verwendung von neuen und etablierten Technologien.

This study presents three of the many strategies that pupils can use, in order to learn vocabulary. The aim of this essay is to study the combination of three strategies of learning and three methods of teaching, and compare the three different combinations in order to find out which one of them is the most efficient for pupils who learn new vocabulary. The three strategies are visual, auditory and kinesthetic strategies.               This is a pilot study that takes place in a group of students that study Spanish as a foreign language in a Swedish school. Each combination of strategy and method is tested on the group of pupils and thereafter evaluated in a semi-structured, qualitative way that consists of a questionnaire that the students fill in after each combination has been tested.               The results of the study show that, according to the pupils, the visual and the kinesthetic strategies are the most efficient ones for the pupils that participated in the study, whereas the results of the tests that were conducted show that the visual strategy was the most efficient one. The study also concludes that every student needs to find their individual strategy to learn vocabulary in a foreign language.

In the 21th century, the core competitive advantage of companies results from human beings who create virtual capital such as knowledge and skills. Thefefore, the real winners will be those people who can use the resources to learn anytime and anywhere. As investment in human, time, and financial resources for e-Learning continues to rise, so should the companies concern the effectiveness of implement of e-Learning will be the key of success of e-Learning. All questions in the survey questionnaire were designed by summarizing the definitions or opinions of some literatures in relation to learning motivation, learning strategy and knowledge-oriented culture, adopting the exploration of empirical survey approach. It¡¦s not only to figure out the relationship and influence between learning motivation and learning effectiveness of e-learning, but also to examine if learning motivation or knowledge-oriented culture has the moderator effects to the learning satisfaction or enterprise performance on e-learning. Also, trying to find out the differences of all variables among the e-learners¡¦ characteristics, and to determine the differences of all variables in comparison to different type of companies. After empirical datas collection and statistic analysis, the results come out as the following statements: 1. There is a positive relationship and effect among learning satisfaction and enterprise performance of effectiveness of e-Learning. 2. Learning strategy has the partial moderator effects to learning motivation and enterprise performance. 3. Knowledge-oriented culture has the partial moderator effects to learning motivation and enterprise performance. 4. There are differences in different type of companies to the variables of learning strategy, knowledge-oriented culture, learning satisfaction and enterprise performance.