This paper reviews the studies on teaching writing from a sociocultural framework. Vygotskyan Sociocultural theory of mind (SCT) has been presented as an alternative to mainstream research in second and/or foreign language learning and teaching contexts. This paper examines key elements of writing from a SCT perspective and reviews the studies on writing according to their orientations. It grou...

The appearance of resistance to many first-line antimicrobial agents presents a critical challenge to the successful treatment of bacterial infections. Antimicrobial resistant bacteria and resistance genes are globally distributed, but significant variations in prevalence have been observed in different geographical regions. This article discusses possible relationships between socioeconomic an...

© 2012 Ordóñez CE, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License (http://creativecommons...

This paper examines the problem of knowledge transfer from a sociocultural perspective. It is held that expectations of and understanding about transfer between different types of social practice (e.g. between the classroom and workplace) may be based on incomplete premises. It is proposed that vocational knowledge is sourced from different levels of social practice, each with its own character...

This article discusses a sociocultural approach to processes of identity that has implications for how we understand learning and identity formation in education. Focusing on the socially constructed and culturally figured nature of language, tools, and interactions in learning contexts, this approach assists in the appreciation of how students navigate through and develop an understanding of t...

Virtual teams are developing rapidly in organisations of the new economy. As educators, we have a responsibility to ensure that our students are appropriately prepared for work in the virtual workspace, where teams may cross time, geographical, and cultural boundaries. In this article, the culturally sensitive theory of sociocultural learning is combined with GSS (Group Support Systems) to illu...

This paper explores Japanese patterns of school bullying and Ijime (insidious acts of social manipulation and group bullying of weaker peers) in the context of cross-national comparison. Following a brief overview of Japan’s public debate on Ijime, we discuss the nature of Japanese classrooms, review efforts to define school bullying from both an international and an indigenous perspective, ass...

Explanation pertaining to individuals’ cognitive development and learning approaches is a recurring theme in the areas of education and psychology. The work of Okagaki (e.g., Okagaki, 2001; Okagaki & Frensch, 1998), for example, has provided both theoretical and empirical insights into the structuring and situational positioning of individuals within a community (e.g., the school, the family). ...

This paper describes the fit between educational technologies and teacher views and pedagogies in light of two recently completed research projects. These studies focused on observed pedagogies associated with the classroom-based use of two learning technologies: digital video (student-generated), and interactive whiteboards. The paper considers the use of these two technologies from a sociocul...

Introduction. This paper presents a way to design and conduct interviews, within a sociocultural perspective, for studying information literacy practices in everyday life. Methods. A framework was developed combining a socio-cultural perspective with a narrative interview was developed. Interviewees were invited to participate by talking and using visual tools (deck of cards of information sour...