Explanation of natural phenomena at one level of biological organisation almost always involves causes that are found at other levels. Although scientists thinking across levels find it easy to explain physiological phenomena, students often perceive this as a challenge. We developed a new graphic organiser called Zoom Map, which is a mode for…

Writing cohesive texts is a crucial but challenging skill to master. Recently, cognitive tools that provide students with a graphical representation of their texts in the form of concept-maps have been shown to support students' writing. Despite its beneficial effects, the addition of a graphical representation may have the disadvantage that…

Formative assessment is about providing and using feedback and diagnostic information. On this basis, further learning or further teaching should be adaptive and, in the best case, optimized. However, this aspect is difficult to implement in reality, as teachers work with a large number of students and the whole process of formative assessment,…

Concept Mapping (CM) is a learning strategy to organize and understand complex relationships, which are particularly characteristic of the natural science subjects. Previous research has already shown that constructing concept maps can promote students' meaningful learning in terms of deeper knowledge and its more flexible use. While researchers…

No consensus has been reached so far concerning the key topics on quantum physics suitable for secondary school teaching, despite comprehensive research. We identified the the variety of associations with quantum physics among professionals as a potential cause. From an explorative mind map study with N = 29 physics researchers, we derive six…

Collaboration is regarded as one of the core competences of the 21st century when it comes to complex problem solving. In response to high dropout rates among STEM students, we developed a digital-collaborative intervention on a difficult topic, MO theory, for first-year chemistry students. First, students work independently in a Digital Learning…