The evolving digital world requires scientifically literate citizens who are able to critically evaluate Internet sources of varying credibility. Instruction on evidence evaluation in postsecondary education often focuses on peer-review as a singular indicator of credibility. With increased access to web-based scientific information, students must…

This essay explores ways television commercials can teach both media literacy skills and social studies content knowledge. Because of their brevity and concise messages, commercials offer teachers a wide assortment of engaging, content focused lesson topics that can be used to introduce new ideas, as writing or discussion prompts to further…

Previous research is mixed regarding whether laypeople are sensitive to sample size. Here the author argues that this is in part because sample size sensitivity follows a curvilinear function with decreasing sensitivity as sample size become larger. This functional form reconciles apparent discrepancies in the literature, accounting for results…

Background: This paper contributes to current discussions about supporting prospective teachers (PSTs) in developing skills of noticing students' mathematical thinking. We draw attention to PSTs' initial noticing skills (prior to instruction focused on supporting noticing) as PSTs engage in analyzing written artifacts of student work and…

Digital technologies are part of many children's everyday lives. They use them for entertainment, information seeking and connecting with friends on social media. These shifts in children's literacy practices have impacted the ways in which they learn. As more children are engaged with digital technologies, critical literacy practices are vital,…

Parents who vary in their experience with formal schooling are likely to use different types of informal guidance with their children. However, rather than assuming a deficit approach we need evidence regarding how parents with limited schooling support their children's learning. Forty U.S. families of Mexican-heritage, from two levels of…

The epistemic understanding of science has always been an important part of science education, and critical engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) is a desirable outcome of scientific literacy. However, investigations into the link between these two concepts have been inconclusive. Many students have very limited interest in epistemic…

It has been suggested that due to functional similarity, sortal object individuation might be a primordial form of psychological essentialism. For example, the relative independence of identity judgment from perceived surface features is a characteristic of essentialist reasoning. Also, infants engaging in sortal object individuation pay more…

Social inequalities limit important opportunities and resources for members of marginalized and disadvantaged groups. Understanding the origins of how children construct their understanding of social inequalities in the context of their everyday peer interactions has the potential to yield novel insights into when--and how--individuals respond to…

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Health Communication. Objectives: In this single-class activity, students gain awareness and practice in suspending judgments about "difficult" people in order to understand the reasoning behind certain objectionable behavior.

In the context of examinations, the phrase "maintaining standards" usually refers to any activity designed to ensure that it is no easier (or harder) to achieve a given grade in one year than in another. Specifically, it tends to mean activities associated with setting examination grade boundaries. Benton et al (2020) describes a method…

Metacomprehension as reflected in judgements of one's learning is crucial for self-regulated study, yet their accuracy is often low. We investigated text difficulty as a constraint on metacomprehension accuracy in text learning. A total of 235 participants studied a 10-section expository text and afterwards took a knowledge test. They made…

The construct of cognitive discourse functions (CDFs) has been proposed as a bridge between linguists and educationalists, linking 'subject specific cognitive learning goals with the linguistic representations they receive in classroom interaction' (Dalton-Puffer 2013. "A Construct of Cognitive Discourse Functions for Conceptualising…

In this study, considering the effect of interactive learning environments on human cognition, we have examined extraneous processing effects of multimedia materials on cognitive load, metacognitive judgments and learning outcomes. This study examines Augmented Reality Learning Environments (ARLE) and Virtual Reality Learning Environments (VRLE)…

Designing experiential learning activities requires an instructor to think about learning outcomes. Using importance-performance analysis (IPA) can assist with the instructional design of the activities for implementing service-learning in distance education courses. This study used IPA in a fully online asynchronous graduate class to gauge…