There is increasing educational interest in immersive virtual reality (IVR) applications which aid student learning and performance. However, few empirical studies have investigated the potential for implementing the technology in middle-school social studies classrooms. This study employed a quasi-experimental approach to address this issue,…

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is an important method in STEM courses that can help learners acquire knowledge by discovering, organizing, and integrating materials. However, learners may not perform well without scaffolding, which results in purely participation in tasks without solid knowledge acquisition. To guarantee SRL effectiveness,…

Reading is regarded as one of the basic learning processes that provides multiple skills and abilities for daily life. The study reported on here arose from evidence of reading comprehension difficulties of middle school students in Colombia, and from reflection on the didactic strategies used for the promotion and teaching of reading. The purpose…

The aim of this research is to determine the impact of activity-based teaching on students' map literacy academic achievements in teaching secondary school seventh grade map skills subjects. The research was carried out in a semi-experimental design model with a pretest-posttest control group. The academic achievement test, consisting of a total…

The study of motivation in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) contexts has hitherto one-sidedly been concerned with motivation to learn the foreign language, without regard for CLIL's eponymous focus on the inextricable connection between language and content. To fill this gap, this article focusses on CLIL learners' motivation not…

The purpose of this study is to broaden theoretical meaning of challenge and attain a place for its practical use in schools. Based on the purpose, a theoretical construct was developed to explain four types of challenge-oriented behavior: (a) creators, (b) choosers, (c) maintainers and (d) avoiders. 634 fifth-, sixth- and seventh-grade students…

This study investigated how the format of verbal instructions in computer simulations and prior knowledge (PK) affected 8th graders' cognitive load (CL) level and achievement in a multimedia learning environment. Although PK was not found to significantly affect student performance and CL level, instruction format was found to impact both.…

Educators and policymakers have debated in recent years how best to improve academic performance in the middle grades. In the absence of outcomes-based research about what works, school districts have reshuffled grade configurations, bolstered their focus on "academic rigor," and worked to ensure that students are engaged in school as…

For the thirty-seventh year, the Research and Theory Division and the Division of Instructional Design of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) sponsored the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. This year's Proceedings…

This report examines the most recent middle school data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to investigate how selected dimensions of instructional practice are related to higher-order learning of middle-grade students. In particular, the paper: (1) outlines the theoretical basis for prescribing middle level instructional…

This study investigated return-to-task rates on hard and easy tasks that secondary students projected for scenario characters and for themselves. Data revealed significantly greater rates of return to easy tasks. Girls had significantly higher return-to-task rates. Evidence of self-presentation bias was present. (SM)

This 10-chapter report provides detailed information on a study which examined what combinations of teacher, student, and curricular variables were associated with more effective life science instruction at the intermediate level. The conception of effectiveness was guided by the normative framework of scientific literacy and by student growth on…

A culturally and economically diverse group of 361 urban seventh graders rated their perceptions for liking and difficulty of core academic subjects and their attributions for mathematics test performance. Results suggest that boys and girls are not significantly different in their perceptions and in their attributions for lack of success. (SLD)

These proceedings contain the papers of the IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2013), October 22-24, 2013, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS), co-organized by The University of North Texas (UNT), sponsored by the…