This study examines the effects of an online learning environment on preservice teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), content knowledge (CK) (related to French in primary teacher education), and pedagogical knowledge (PK) in a quasi-experimental design. More specifically, the following research question is addressed: Is a systematically…

When learning with abstract and scientific multiple external representations (MERs), low prior knowledge learners are said to have difficulties in using these MERs to achieve conceptual understanding. Yet little is known about what these limitations precisely entail. In order to understand this, we presented 101 learners with low prior knowledge…

Critical thinking is an important goal in higher education. Students are expected to grow in critical thinking during their higher education programme. The present study investigates the development of critical thinking in 1134 bachelor students in Flanders, Belgium. The study followed a mixed longitudinal design. Students' critical thinking was…

Introduction: In this study, the effectiveness of two different interventions was investigated. The effects of a concrete abstract intervention and a regular method of teaching intervention were compared. Both interventions were designed in line with the specifications of classical principles of instructional design for learning mathematics in the…

Identifying effective instructional approaches that stimulate students' critical thinking (CT) has been the focus of a large body of empirical research. However, there is little agreement on the instructional principles and procedures that are theoretically sound and empirically valid to developing both domain-specific and domain-general CT…

It is still unclear on what and how tool and learner characteristics influence tool use and consequently performance in computer-based learning environments (CBLEs). This study examines the relationships between tool-related characteristics (tool presentation: non-/embedded tool and instructional cues: non-/explained tool functionality) and…

Research has documented the use of tools in computer-based learning environments as problematic, that is, learners do not use the tools and when they do, they tend to do it suboptimally. This study attempts to disentangle cause and effect of this suboptimal tool use for experienced learners. More specifically, learner variables (metacognitive and…

Background: The study deepened our understanding of how students' self-ef?cacy beliefs contribute to the context of teaching English as a foreign language in the framework of cognitive mediational paradigm at a ?ne-tuned task-speci?c level. Aim: The aim was to examine the relationship among task complexity, self-ef?cacy beliefs, domain-related…

Learning environments commonly offer aids to address learners' lack of knowledge or skills. However, learners are not or sub-optimally using these aids when these are non-embedded or segregated (Aleven, Stahl, Schworm, Fischer, & Wallace, 2003; Clarebout & Elen, 2006). This lack of optimal usage has been related to variables as…

This article addresses the issue of instructional guidance in reciprocal peer tutoring with task cards as learning tools. Eighty-six Kinesiology students (age 17-19 years) were randomized across four reciprocal peer tutoring settings, differing in quality and quantity of guidance, to learn Basic Life Support (BLS) with task cards. The separate and…

This study aimed at experimentally investigating the moderating role of instructional conceptions on the effectiveness of powerful learning environments (PLE) designed in line with the four-component instructional design model (4C/ID-model). The study also investigated the influence of learning in a 4C/ID PLE on students' instructional…

The aims of the present studies were to test the generalizability of the modality and dialogue effect to open learning environments, previously found by Moreno and Mayer (e.g., Moreno, Mayer & Lester, 2001) with an agent providing metacognitive support. As an extension, the agent's continuous presence effect on learning was also tested. Three…

Adjunct aids are instructional interventions inserted in textbooks in view of supporting learners to process the information. Different types of adjunct aids are assumed to support different cognitive processes. Research on adjunct aids has focussed on the learning effects of single types of adjunct aids. In this study, the learning effects of…

In this study, the effectiveness of learning environments, developed in line with the specifications of the four components instructional design model (4C/ID model) and the additional effect of ICT for fostering the development of technical expertise in traditional Ghanaian classrooms, was assessed. The study had a one-by-one-by-two…