Self-Determination Theory and Flow Theory propose that perceived autonomy fosters the positive qualities of motivation and flow-experience. Autonomy-support can help to maintain students' motivation in very interesting learning activities and may lead to an increase in the positive qualities of motivation in less interesting learning activities.…

The understanding of complex, dynamic and animate systems has a special standing in education for sustainable development and biology. Thus one important role of science teacher education is to promote student teachers' Content Related Knowledge (CRK) for teaching systems thinking, consisting of extensive Content Knowledge (CK) and well formed…

Our study investigated whether problem-oriented designed ecology lessons with phases of direct instruction and of open experimentation foster the development of cross-domain and domain-specific components of "experimental problem-solving ability" better than conventional lessons in science. We used a paper-and-pencil test to assess…

In 2010 1.1 million pupils took private lessons in Germany, with 25% of all German children by the age of 17 having attended paid private lessons at some point in their school career (Klemm & Klemm, 2010). The high demand for support for learning curricular content led us to consider an integrated solution that speeds up both the design of…

Constructive error handling is considered an important factor for individual learning processes. In a quasi-experimental study with Grades 6 to 9 students, we investigate effects on students' attitudes towards errors as learning opportunities in two conditions: an error-tolerant classroom culture, and the first condition along with additional…

Concept mapping is discussed as a means to promote meaningful learning and in particular progress in reading comprehension skills. Its increasing implementation necessitates the acquisition of adequate knowledge about frequent errors in order to make available an effective introduction to the new learning method. To analyse causes of errors, 283…

Species identification tasks are a prerequisite for an understanding of biodiversity. Here, we focused on different educational materials to foster the identification of six European reptile species. Our educational training unit was based on natural plastic models of six species and pupils either used an illustrated identification book or a…