It is often argued, rightly, that critical thinking is a necessary condition for democracy. This essay looks at the other side of that relationship, how certain democratic conditions are necessary for critical thinking to flourish. In turn, this dynamic, interactive account of democratic culture, institutions, and dispositions has implications for…

In interactive e-learning environments such as Intelligent Tutoring Systems, pedagogical decisions can be made at different levels of granularity. In this work, we focus on making decisions at "two levels": whole problems vs. single steps and explore three types of granularity: "problem-level only" ("Prob-Only"),…

This study examined college calculus instructors' preferences in solving two calculus tasks to examine college calculus instructors' use of important cognitive roots in understanding derivatives of function. Our results showed that only one instructor consistently uses cognitive roots while other instructors either focus on algebraic methods or…

Despite the prevalence of undergraduate drop-in mathematics tutoring, little is known about the behaviors of this specific group of tutors. This study serves as a starting place for identifying their behaviors by addressing the research question: what observable behaviors do undergraduate drop-in mathematics tutors exhibit as they interact with…

This study was conducted while 9th grade students learn to solve inequalities and seeks to understand their approach to solving problems with a real-life context. Specifically, the aim is to understand: (1) What are the main characteristics of the students' approaches to the proposed problems? (2) What is the impact of the real context on the…

In recent years, an increasing number of studies have examined the association between mathematical abilities and executive functions (EFs). However, it remains unknown via which mechanisms' mathematical performance is associated with EFs. The current study examined the associations of overall task proficiency, strategy selection, and strategy…

A major goal of physics education is to develop strong problem-solving skills for students. To become expert problem solvers, students must have opportunities to deliberately practice those skills. In this work, we adopt a previously described definition of problem solving that consists of a set of 29 decisions made by expert scientists. We…

Contribution: Model-based learning improves systems thinking (ST) based on students' prior knowledge and gender. Relations were found between textual, visual, and mixed question types and student achievements. Background: ST is essential to judicious decision-making and problem-solving. Undergraduate students can be taught to apply better ST, and…

The current study aims to contribute to the literature on how organic chemistry students weigh various factors when predicting products of substitution and elimination reactions. This study focuses specifically on these mechanism types, as they are often the first instances where students must consider the "how" and the "why"…

This qualitative case study investigates how, and to what extent, primary school teachers notice students' mathematical thinking in the context of whole number subtraction. A task involving a student's invented strategy was used to collect data. Three noticing questions connected to the task were asked to 45 teachers. Their written answers were…

Educational escape rooms are beneficial for student learning as it relates to critical thinking, decision making under time constraints and practical exploration of real-life work scenarios. This type of learning experience is beneficial across many disciplines with emphasis for healthcare management due to the dynamic nature and common pressures…

The second CSEDM data challenge aimed at finding innovative methods to use students' programming traces to model their learning. The main challenge of this task is how to decide which past problems are relevant for predicting performance on a future problem. This paper proposes a set of weighting schemes to address this challenge. Specifically,…

The demands placed on principals have increased exponentially in the aftermath of the global COVID-19 pandemic, especially for principals who lead high-needs schools. Given that principals are the primary problem solvers, it is critical to better understand their preferred decision-making styles. Decision-making is influenced by perceptions of…

In the 21st century, with the exponential rise in global population and a greater demand for environmental resources, the focus of engineering is on integrated solutions within a multifarious context. To successfully navigate today's multidisciplinary and multicultural environment, engineers require soft skills in addition to their technical or…

With multiple sources of information available, knowing how to use data efficiently and effectively with limited resources is critical to the successful implementation of school-wide, classroom, and individual interventions. In this practice guide, we describe a scientifically-based approach for data-based decision-making called Team-Initiated…