Objective: When students learn or solve problems, attentional resources are depleted; rest breaks may restore cognitive functioning in support of learning. Research framed by attention restoration theory holds that exposure to natural environments may be another means to restore attentional resources. The study investigated the effects of…

Research Findings: Grounded on personification storytelling, this intervention study introduced a science program including extensive astronomy concepts to 24 children (4-5 years). The storytelling attributes personal characteristics to cosmic bodies with metaphors relating to children's lives in explaining the scientific concepts, for example,…

The use of non-academic sources of health information is popular among both the public and exercise professionals. However, the quality of this information varies and without the application of critical thinking skills, may lead to misconceptions forming. This research aimed to compare the knowledge, presence of misconceptions, and critical…

The use of online student response systems (OSRSs) is increasing within tertiary education providers, however, research investigating their potential to enhance student engagement is limited. The aim of the current study was to examine the impact of an OSRS using an experimental crossover design. Quantitative data measuring student engagement was…

Effective communication is a generic competency essential to clinical practice. However, access to work-integrated placements where such competencies are traditionally developed is diminishing, compelling universities to develop supplementary placement opportunities in the form of simulated learning environments (SLE). Virtual or digital patient…

There is a growing interest in the value of teachers guiding students to generate their own representations to support conceptual learning in science and across complementary subjects such as mathematics. However, this approach to an interdisciplinary focus poses challenges for programme design and learning assessment. In this paper, we report on…

The use of recorded lecture videos (RLVs) in mathematics instruction continues to advance. Prior research at the post-secondary level has indicated a tendency for RLV use in mathematics to be negatively correlated with academic performance, although it is unclear whether this is because regular users are generally weaker mathematics students…

Problem solving and researching are connected activities in the engineering profession and across education. The empirical research presented in this paper considered the effectiveness for teaching and learning of a model that was based on this connection and derived from the parameters of the Research Skill Development framework. The model,…

This work focused on increasing Year 3 students' use of critical thinking and taking the "second-person perspective" (2ndPP) when interpreting and resolving life issues. Previous research indicated the Personal Viewpoints Pedagogy (PVP) elicited social thinking that exhibited strong perspective-taking and precursors to critical thinking…

School-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programmes represent a practical method of improving social and emotional well-being in students. To date, however, what is less well understood is why a theoretically sound, appropriately administered, engaging universal SEL programme may be more effective for some children over others. In the…

This paper focuses on the development of the academic and personal literacy and numeracy skills of pre-service teachers. It examines how an embedded enhancement framework of literacy and numeracy support named the DEER (Developing, Embedding, Extending, Reflecting) framework by the researchers was created in initial teacher education (ITE)…

Agentic orientation, critical thinking (CrT) and taking the fourth-person perspective (4PP) are described as teachable attainments. A Personal Viewpoints (PVs) Biblical Studies curriculum challenged Year 7 students to resolve socially problematic situations through group discussion and perspective-taking. A life-issue scenario was used to pre- and…

The variability effect occurs when learners' exposure to highly variable tasks results in better learning. It was hypothesised that learners who studied high variability worked examples would obtain higher post-test scores compared to learners who studied low variability examples, and learners who self-generated problem solutions for the same high…

Teachers in the early years of primary school play an important role in supporting students' oral language skills; however, there is evidence to suggest many Australian teachers are not adequately prepared to provide systematic, evidence-based instruction in oral language and early literacy. The aim of this study was to describe the observed and…

Because different musical scales use different sets of intervals and, hence, different musical pitches, how do music listeners learn those that are in their native musical system? One possibility is that musical pitches are acquired in the same way as phonemes, that is, via distributional learning, in which learners infer knowledge from the…