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56 references
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- Vol 4 RE: Chapter 6
self-regulated learningcontinuing educationachievement motivationlearning engagementorganisational learning culturejob controllearning performanceJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Hemmler and Ifenthaler systematically review and meta-analyse factors associated with adults’ use of self-regulated learning strategies in continuing education. Across 58 studies, they organise correlates into learning-process, learner, continuing-education, and work-related factors and use three-level random-effects models to accommodate dependent effects.
Key ideas
Strategy use showed positive relationships with achievement motivation, learning performance, engagement, satisfaction, prior knowledge, prior continuing-education experience, organisational learning culture, job control, and job demands, while avoidance behaviour related negatively. Associations were strongest for engagement and performance among the reported estimates, though considerable heterogeneity remained. Variable operationalisation, learning setting, and the work-relatedness of continuing education moderated some results. The synthesis shows that self-regulation is not solely an individual trait: course design and workplace conditions also matter.
Why it matters
Correlational evidence dominates the included literature, measures and contexts vary, and meta-analytic association does not prove which interventions cause improvement. The authors call for better-specified research on moderators and provide a basis for designing supports that connect motivation, learning processes, educational environments, and work contexts.
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- Vol 5 TE: App C
formative assessmentlearning progressionssuccess criteriaassessment evidenceresponsive instructionstudent self-assessmentfeedback processesBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Heritage translates formative assessment from a general principle into a recurring classroom process. Teachers and students clarify learning goals and success criteria, elicit evidence during instruction, interpret what that evidence reveals, identify the gap between current and intended learning, and select feedback or instructional responses that move learning forward.
Key ideas
Learning progressions help locate present understanding and plausible next steps. Feedback should provide usable information for action, while students develop self-assessment and self-management rather than remaining passive recipients of judgements. The classroom culture must make uncertainty, revision, dialogue, and mistakes safe parts of learning. Formative assessment is defined by how evidence is used, not by a particular quiz or instrument; the same task can serve different purposes.
Why it matters
Effective implementation requires teachers to understand content, likely learning pathways, assessment methods, interpretation, feedback, and responsive pedagogy. Heritage also treats change as sustained professional learning: educators need time, collaboration, examples, reflection, and leadership support to deepen practice instead of adding isolated techniques to otherwise unchanged instruction.
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- Vol 2 RE: Chapter 4
- Vol 2 TE: App B
- Vol 4 RE: Chapters 10, 14, 16, 22, App A, App B, App C
- Vol 4 TE: App C
problem-based learningself-directed learningcollaborative problem solvingflexible knowledgeintrinsic motivationinstructional scaffoldingprior knowledgeJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Hmelo-Silver reviews what students learn through problem-based learning and the processes intended to produce those outcomes. In PBL, learners work collaboratively on a complex problem without one predetermined answer, identify what they need to know, pursue self-directed study, apply new knowledge, and reflect on both the solution and their strategies.
Key ideas
The teacher facilitates rather than simply transmits information. The approach aims to develop flexible knowledge, effective problem-solving, self-directed learning, collaboration, and intrinsic motivation. The review connects these goals with cognitive and motivational theory and examines evidence from medical and other professional education. Students may acquire somewhat less immediately testable factual knowledge in some comparisons, yet often show advantages in application, retention, reasoning, and learning skills, with outcomes depending on curriculum design and assessment. Tutorial interaction, prior knowledge, problem quality, group functioning, and facilitation shape the learning process.
Why it matters
PBL is therefore not a single treatment or unguided discovery. Its effectiveness depends on scaffolding inquiry, aligning problems and assessments with goals, and supporting students as responsibility gradually shifts toward them.
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- Vol 2 RE: Chapter 4, App C, App D
- Vol 7 RE: Chapter 5
inquiry learninginstructional scaffoldingcognitive loadteacher facilitationstaged fadingepistemic practicesflexible knowledgeJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Hmelo-Silver, Duncan, and Chinn respond to claims that problem-based and inquiry learning provide minimal guidance and overload novices. They argue that established forms of PBL and inquiry are not unguided discovery: teachers and learning environments supply extensive scaffolding while students investigate authentic problems or phenomena.
Key ideas
Supports include carefully designed tasks, facilitation, prompts, modelling, questioning, representations, collaboration structures, resources, and staged fading of assistance. These measures reduce unnecessary cognitive load, direct attention toward productive reasoning, and make disciplinary practices accessible without replacing learners’ intellectual work. The authors also broaden the outcomes under consideration. Such approaches aim not only at immediate factual recall but at flexible knowledge, problem solving, epistemic practices, collaboration, and self-directed learning. Evidence must therefore be interpreted in relation to the actual instructional design and intended goals.
Why it matters
The article does not claim that every inquiry implementation succeeds or that novices need no explicit teaching. Its central distinction is between minimally guided discovery and scaffolded, facilitated inquiry, making implementation quality and alignment between supports, learners, content, and outcomes decisive.
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- Vol 4 RE: Chapters 6, 12, 18, 25, App C
artificial intelligence in educationintelligent tutoring systemslearner modellingadaptive assessmenteducational automationhuman agencyeducational technology governanceJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Holmes and Tuomi review the state of artificial intelligence in education and challenge inflated claims about its transformative power.
Key ideas
They explain that expectations often rest on misunderstandings of current technical capabilities, limited knowledge of existing educational applications, and narrow assumptions about education’s social purposes. The article develops a typology of AI-in-education systems and relates different applications to their underlying ideas about intelligence, learning, teaching, and educational aims. It surveys systems that automate or support tasks such as tutoring, assessment, recommendation, and learner modelling, while examining the pedagogical assumptions embedded in their design. The authors identify roadblocks including technically driven development, weak educational theory, limited evidence, reductionist models of learners, and insufficient attention to human agency and institutional context.
Why it matters
They argue that educators and policymakers should evaluate AI by the educational purposes it serves, not by novelty or automation alone, and retain meaningful human responsibility throughout design and use.
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- Vol 4 RE: App C
- Vol 5 RE: Chapters 4, 8, 12, 15, App C
- Vol 6 RE: App E
- Vol 6 RE: Chapter 14, App D
- Vol 7 RE: Chapters 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, App D
artificial intelligence literacyadaptive learning systemslearning analyticsintelligent tutoring systemscritical thinkingteacher augmentationalgorithmic biasstudent privacyBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Holmes, Bialik, and Fadel examine two connected questions: what young people should learn in an AI-shaped world and how AI systems might support education. The first part argues that curricula need deliberate updating across knowledge, skills, character, and meta-learning, including data and AI literacy, interdisciplinary understanding, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, ethics, and the capacity to keep learning.
Key ideas
The second explains major AI techniques and surveys educational applications such as intelligent tutoring, adaptive systems, assessment, learning analytics, conversational agents, and administrative support. The authors distinguish plausible uses from exaggerated promises and emphasise that technology embodies assumptions about learning. AI can offer timely information, personalisation, and assistance, but risks include bias, privacy loss, opaque decisions, surveillance, commercial interests, narrowing educational purposes, and the displacement or deskilling of teachers. The book favours augmenting educators rather than automating them.
Why it matters
It calls for educators, researchers, policymakers, and developers to evaluate systems against educational goals, evidence, equity, and human values, while preparing learners to understand and shape AI rather than merely consume it.
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- Vol 4 RE: Chapters 24, 27
human rights in educationartificial intelligence governancedata protectionalgorithmic profilingalgorithmic transparencylearner autonomydemocratic educationai literacyBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Holmes and colleagues critically examine artificial intelligence in education through the Council of Europe’s commitments to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. They distinguish learning with AI, using AI to learn about learning, and learning about AI, then review applications and the assumptions embedded in them.
Key ideas
Potential support for learners and teachers is set against risks involving privacy, data protection, profiling, discrimination, autonomy, dignity, transparency, commercialisation, accountability, and unequal access. Because educational systems intentionally influence children’s development, technical performance alone cannot determine whether an application is acceptable. The report argues that teaching, assessment, and accreditation should not be uncritically delegated to opaque systems; learners and families need understandable decisions, avenues for challenge, meaningful choice, and protection from exploitation. AI literacy must include social and human dimensions as well as technical knowledge.
Why it matters
The authors challenge hype and weak evidence and conclude with a provisional needs analysis for research, governance, professional capacity, and democratic debate. AI should empower educators and learners while remaining answerable to public educational purposes and enforceable rights.
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- Vol 4 TE: App C
self-directed learningchildhood curiosityexperiential learningtheory formationlearning through playlearner autonomyobservational pedagogyBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Holt develops an observational account of how young children learn when curiosity, experimentation, and purposeful activity are allowed to guide them. Drawing on episodes involving talk, reading, games, movement, art, and mathematics, he argues that children form and test theories about the world rather than passively absorbing adult explanations.
Key ideas
Their errors are therefore informative steps in inquiry, not simply failures to be corrected. The book contrasts this confident, self-directed learning with schooling that can make children cautious, dependent on approval, or preoccupied with producing the expected answer. Holt’s practical message is to watch children closely, respect the logic behind their attempts, provide rich opportunities and materials, and intervene sparingly. The work is based primarily on reflective observation rather than controlled research, so its claims should be read as a provocative educational interpretation.
Why it matters
Its enduring contribution is a detailed case for trust, autonomy, play, and attentive adult support in learning.
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- Vol 4 RE: Chapter 16
homeschoolingunschoolinginterest-based learningfamily learningcommunity-based learningchild autonomyhome education policyBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Holt presents home-based education as a way for children to learn through ordinary life, sustained interests, family relationships, work, play, reading, and participation in the wider community.
Key ideas
Rather than reproducing school at home, he recommends trusting children’s curiosity and helping them obtain people, tools, books, and experiences when those resources become useful. The book addresses common objections to homeschooling, including socialization, parental expertise, legal constraints, and access to further education, while drawing heavily on letters and experiences shared by early home-educating families. Holt also challenges the assumption that compulsory schooling is the only reliable source of learning or civic cohesion. His argument is advocacy grounded in cases and practical correspondence, not a systematic comparative trial, and readers should interpret broad effectiveness claims accordingly.
Why it matters
Historically, the book is important for articulating an early unschooling model in which adults remain responsive and responsible but do not control every subject, sequence, or pace of a child’s education.
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- Vol 6 PE: App E
- Vol 6 RE: Chapter 6
professional learning communitiescollective inquiryshared leadershipteacher collaborationshared instructional practicecontinuous improvementsupportive school conditionsReport Evidence summaryAt a glance
Hord reviews the idea of a professional learning community as a school staff that studies, plans, works, and acts collectively to improve learning for students and adults. Across the literature and school examples, five recurring attributes emerge: shared and supportive leadership, collective creativity and inquiry, shared values and vision, supportive conditions, and shared personal practice.
Key ideas
Such communities reduce teacher isolation, deepen professional knowledge, strengthen commitment to common purposes, distribute responsibility for students, and can support changes in classroom practice and student outcomes. They are not simply regularly scheduled meetings or congenial staff groups. Members examine evidence, question assumptions, learn together, test approaches, observe or discuss practice, and sustain improvement over time. Development depends on trust, time, communication, proximity, resources, leadership participation, and structures that enable joint work.
Why it matters
Hord describes an evolutionary process rather than a quick programme and acknowledges that much of the available evidence was descriptive. The report’s enduring contribution is a practical framework for distinguishing continuous collaborative inquiry from superficial collaboration and for planning conditions that help a learning community mature.
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- Vol 7 PE: App D
- Vol 7 RE: Chapter 8, App D
blended learningstudent-centered learningonline learninglearning personalizationrotation modeldisruptive innovationinstructional designschool change managementBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Horn and Staker present a practical framework for designing and implementing blended learning in K–12 schools.
Key ideas
They define blended learning as formal education in which students learn partly online with some control over time, place, path, or pace, and partly in a supervised physical setting, with the components connected into an integrated experience. The book organizes common designs into Rotation, Flex, A La Carte, and Enriched Virtual models and uses disruptive-innovation theory to explain when new models may improve or replace established arrangements. Its guidance moves from identifying a problem or opportunity through assembling a team, motivating participants, selecting technology, designing the student experience, and creating a culture that supports change. The authors emphasize student-centered goals and warn that merely adding devices to conventional instruction does not constitute meaningful transformation.
Why it matters
Examples and planning questions help school leaders match a model to local needs, anticipate implementation risks, and use online learning to expand personalization while preserving valuable teacher relationships and face-to-face experiences.
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- Vol 4 RE: App D
neuroscience of learningmusic practiceembodied learningphysiological learning statesattention and memorybrain-based educationecologically valid researchOnline article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Huotilainen discusses how neuroscience can inform educational research without reducing learning to isolated brain events. Laboratory studies provide detailed knowledge about neural indices of memory, attention, and perception, while improving portable measurement makes it possible to examine learners’ physiological states in more realistic settings.
Key ideas
The article highlights music and bodily activity as especially useful contexts. Musical practice engages auditory prediction, attention, memory, motor coordination, emotion, and social interaction; embodiment can influence arousal and support participation in learning. Physiological readiness varies with factors such as stress, fatigue, movement, and environment, so identical instruction may meet learners in different states. Huotilainen argues for connecting precise brain measures with behaviour, experience, pedagogy, and authentic classroom activity rather than treating a neural signal as a direct prescription for teaching.
Why it matters
Neuroscience may help clarify mechanisms and individual variation, but educational interpretations require collaboration across disciplines and ecologically valid designs. The practical implication is cautious: music, movement, rest, and learning environments can support conditions for learning, yet claims should remain proportional to the evidence and the distance between laboratory findings and classroom decisions.
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- Vol 4 RE: App D
brain plasticityattention regulationretrieval practicespaced practicememory consolidationmotivationsleep and recoverysocial interactionBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
In this Finnish-language popular-science book, Huotilainen explains learning as a biological, psychological, and social process rather than a simple act of storing information. The brain changes through use, and attention, prior knowledge, practice, retrieval, feedback, emotion, motivation, sleep, recovery, physical activity, music, and social interaction all shape what can be learned and retained.
Key ideas
Learning capacity varies across moments and people because arousal, stress, fatigue, interest, and environmental demands affect cognitive resources. The book connects neuroscience findings with everyday study, teaching, work, and lifelong learning, while warning against simplistic brain-based recipes. Effective practice is active and spaced, links new material with existing understanding, permits errors and correction, and alternates focused effort with consolidation and rest. Teachers and learners can influence conditions for attention and engagement, but a neural explanation does not replace pedagogical judgement or individual context.
Why it matters
The authoritative publication record dates the book to 2019, correcting the reference’s 2018 date. Its central message is hopeful: brains remain plastic, but sustainable learning depends on how activity, environment, wellbeing, and meaning work together.
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- Vol 7 RE: Chapter 3
distributed cognitioncognitive systemsrepresentational statescognitive artefactssocial coordinationsituated cognitioncultural cognitionauthentic practiceBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Hutchins combines ethnography, anthropology, and cognitive science to analyse navigation aboard a large naval vessel. Instead of treating cognition as computation located solely inside one person, he follows how information is represented, transformed, and coordinated across crew members, instruments, charts, procedures, language, spatial arrangements, and historically developed practices.
Key ideas
The navigation team forms a cognitive system whose properties cannot be inferred by examining each participant in isolation. Tools do more than store outputs: their structure reorganises tasks, constrains action, and supports propagation of representational states. Social organisation distributes expertise, checks error, and enables complex performance, while learning occurs through participation and changes in the larger activity system. Comparisons with Micronesian navigation show that cognition is culturally constituted, not merely an invariant mechanism later influenced by culture.
Why it matters
The book does not deny individual mental activity; it changes the unit of analysis needed to explain real work. Its methodological lesson is to study cognition in authentic practice and trace coordination among people and artefacts over time, revealing capacities and failure modes invisible in decontextualised laboratory tasks.
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- Vol 4 RE: Chapters 16, 20, App C
institutional schoolingcredentialismlearning webspeer learningself-directed learningvoluntary learningcompulsory curriculaprofessional authorityBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Illich offers a radical critique of institutional schooling and the social beliefs it reinforces. He argues that modern societies confuse teaching with learning, credentials with competence, attendance with achievement, and institutional provision with genuine value.
Key ideas
Schools consequently reproduce inequality while encouraging dependence on professional authorities and packaged services. Illich does not merely propose reforming classrooms; he calls for separating education from compulsory, age-graded institutions and redirecting resources toward voluntary learning. His alternative is a set of decentralized “learning webs” that would give people access to educational objects, enable skill exchanges, match peers with shared interests, and make independent educators publicly discoverable. Technology could support these networks, but only if it expands personal initiative rather than strengthening institutional control.
Why it matters
The book’s central distinction is between education as a managed commodity and learning as an activity embedded throughout life and community. Its proposals remain provocative because they challenge credentialism, compulsory curricula, and the monopoly of schools while anticipating networked, peer-based, and self-directed forms of learning.
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- Vol 4 RE: Chapter 24
creative problem solvingdivergent thinkingconvergent thinkingaffirmative judgementcreative potentialfacilitationcreative climaterisk takingJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Isaksen traces the evolution of deliberate Creative Problem Solving (CPS) and argues that creative potential develops through the interaction of process, people, and place. Contemporary CPS balances divergent thinking—generating many, varied, and original possibilities—with convergent thinking that uses affirmative judgement to select, strengthen, and implement promising options.
Key ideas
Its flexible components help people understand a challenge, generate ideas, prepare for action, and plan an approach rather than follow a rigid sequence. Individual preferences matter: people differ in orientation to change, preferred ways of processing, and decision style, so facilitation should use diversity productively. Context also matters. A climate characterised by challenge, freedom, trust, idea support, playfulness, constructive debate, risk taking, and manageable conflict can enable creativity, whereas hostile conditions suppress application even after good training.
Why it matters
Isaksen integrates historical reflection, research programmes, tools, and practitioner experience rather than reporting one new experiment. His main claim is systemic: teaching techniques alone are insufficient unless learners can navigate the process, work with differing people, and apply creativity in a supportive environment.
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Evidence summaries explain the central idea and why the source matters to educators.
How to access it
Entries link to lawful full text where available, or to a publisher, library or purchase page.
Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
Citation checks
References are checked against publisher records, scholarly indexes, DOI or ISBN metadata, repositories and author records where available. An entry marked [Citation not verified] preserves the wording found in the relevant volume without attributing findings to an unconfirmed work.
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