Traditional knowledge-component models describe students' content knowledge (e.g., their ability to carry out problem-solving procedures or their ability to reason about a concept). In many STEM domains, instruction uses multiple visual representations such as graphs, figures, and diagrams. The use of visual representations implies a…

Electronic marking tools that incorporate statement banks have become increasingly prevalent within higher education. In an experiment, printed and emailed feedback was returned to 243 first-year students on a credit-bearing laboratory report assessment. A transmission approach was used, students being provided with comments on their work, but no…

Previous research has illustrated the importance of acquiring knowledge from authentic contexts; however, without full engagement, students' learning performance might not be as good as expected. In this study, a Team Competition-based Ubiquitous Gaming approach was proposed for improving students' learning effectiveness in authentic learning…

A central goal of the learning sciences is to discover principles that determine the optimal amount of instructional assistance to support robust learning (Koedinger & Aleven, 2007). We examined learning outcomes from providing and withholding stepwise instructional explanations as students studied worked examples and solved physics problems. We…

The goal of the present study was to examine the mechanisms underlying a strategy that we developed to make instructional explanations effective. In two experiments participants learned about plate tectonics from a multimedia material, including adjunct explanations that revised common misunderstandings. These explanations were either marked…

Scratch, a visual programming language, was used in many studies in computer science education. Most of them reported positive results by integrating Scratch into K-12 computer courses. However, the object-oriented concept, one of the important computational thinking skills, is not represented well in Scratch. Alice, another visual programming…

Learning to argue is prerequisite to solving complex problems in groups, especially when they are multidisciplinary and collaborate online. Environments for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) can be designed to facilitate argumentative knowledge construction. This study investigates how argumentative knowledge construction in…

Analogies are ubiquitous during instruction in science classrooms, yet research about the effectiveness of using analogies has produced mixed results. An aspect seldom studied is a model of instruction when using analogies. The few existing models for instruction with analogies have not often been examined quantitatively. The Teaching With…

An increasing number of K-12 school teachers have been using handheld, or palmtop, computers in the classroom as an integral means of facilitating education due to the flexibility, mobility, interactive learning capability, and comparatively inexpensive cost. This study involved two experiments in handheld computers: (a) a comparison of the…

We present an inference algorithm for perturbation models based on Poisson regression. The algorithm is designed to handle unclassified input with multiple errors described by independent mal-rules. This knowledge representation provides an intelligent tutoring system with local and global information about a student, such as error classification…

Analytical competency in classroom situations can be seen as a crucial aspect of teachers' professional competency. While case-based learning is considered to have great potential for teacher education, particularly with respect to the promotion of teachers' analytical skills, there have been very few attempts to investigate the effects of…

Four experiments investigate the differences between implicit and explicit sequence learning concerning their resilience to structural and superficial task changes. A superficial change that embedded the SRT task in the context of a selection task, while maintaining the sequence, did selectively hinder the expression of implicit learning. In…

McCarthy (1985) constructed the 4MAT teaching model, an eight step instrument developed in 1980, by synthesizing Dewey's experiential learning, Kolb's four learning styles, Jung's personality types, as well as Bogen's left mode and right mode of brain processing preferences. An important implication of this model is that learning retention is…

The study attempted to measure the impact of diverse instructional methods on individuals whose learning styles tended to fall along a concrete-symbolic continuum as measured by a learning activities questionnaire. Two assumptions were made: (1) those with highly concrete learning styles learn best by direct contact type activities and (2)…

The purpose of the study was to experimentally test the theory that programed instruction can satisfactorily teach psychomotor tasks which primarily require the learning of cognitive knowledge in order to properly utilize motor skills already possessed. A programed unit on regrinding drills was selected, and a dexterity test and self-instructional…