Assessing text quality as an indication of underlying skills still remains challenging; irrespective of the approach, many studies struggle with reliability or validity problems. If writing is considered problem-solving, a report must make the reader understand the described situation and call for its mental reconstruction. Therefore, text quality…

Students with high reading proficiency typically achieve better results in science assessments, indicating the importance of reading proficiency. Since the process of reading is a complex interaction between properties of a text and a reader, the linguistic demands of a text might affect text comprehension. Certain linguistic features, such as…

The present study investigates the empirical separability of mathematical (a) content domains, (b) cognitive domains, and (c) content-specific cognitive domains. There were 122 items representing two content domains (linear equations vs. theorem of Pythagoras) combined with two cognitive domains (modeling competence vs. technical competence)…

Despite the general effectiveness of multimedia instruction, students do not always benefit from it. This study examined whether students' learning from multimedia can be improved by teaching them relevant learning strategies. On the basis of current theories and research on multimedia learning, the authors developed a strategy training for…

Empirical analysis of secondary biology classrooms revealed that, on average, 68% of teaching time in Germany revolved around processing tasks. Quality of instruction can thus be assessed by analyzing the quality of tasks used in classroom discourse. This quasi-experimental study analyzed how teachers used tasks in 38 videotaped biology lessons…

Only recently has cognitive load theory been applied in conceptual change approaches. To the authors' knowledge, theirs is the first study to examine the effects on students' cognitive load of an approach contrary to a refutation text design. The authors combined computer and textbook instruction with involving alternative conceptions (ACs) to…

This study investigated students' activating positive affective experiences in mathematics lessons, their antecedents, their cognitive and motivational consequences, as well as their effect on achievement. The participants were 682 Grade 8 and 9 students from 37 classes from Germany and Switzerland who participated in a video study of lessons on…

This research examined how motivation (perceived control, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation), cognitive learning strategies (deep and surface strategies), and intelligence jointly predict long-term growth in students' mathematics achievement over 5 years. Using longitudinal data from six annual waves (Grades 5 through 10;…

This study investigated the reading behavior of 15-year-old students while reading texts and answering corresponding multiple-choice questions. The availability of the texts during question answering was manipulated experimentally. Allocation of resources to several cognitive processes at the word, sentence, and text level was measured by…

Recently, there have been efforts to rethink assessment. Instead of informing about (relatively stable) learner characteristics, assessment should assist instruction by looking at the learning process, facilitating feedback about what students' next step in learning could be. Similarly, new forms of strategy assessment aim at capturing…

Up to now, only a few studies in multimedia learning have focused on gender effects. While research has mostly focused on learning success, the effect of gender on instructional efficiency (IE) has not yet been considered. Consequently, we used a quasi-experimental design to examine possible gender differences in the learning success, mental…