Tasks are essential in fostering students' learning processes, and thinking skills are considered to be of central importance to learning. In order to analyse how tasks promote the development of thinking skills in school geography, we need an instrument that looks beyond a simple distinction between lower and higher order thinking. It should be…

Background Improving scientific reasoning and argumentation are central aims of science education. Because of their complex nature, self-regulation is important for successful scientific reasoning. This study provides a first attempt to investigate how scientific reasoning and self-regulation processes conjointly impact argumentation quality.…

An increasing number of findings suggest that cognition is grounded in sensorimotor experiences. Research suggests that fine motor skills (FMS) link to cognitive abilities. Existing studies, however, lack conceptual and methodological differentiation regarding FMS and little is known about the directional nature of links. In study 1, we measured…

Background: Studies have reported positive effects of physical activity on cognitive executive functions, such as inhibitory control and creativity. These studies predominantly compared scenarios of sports participation vs. no sports participation or reduced sports to simple aerobic exercises. However, whether the type or intensity of physical…

Early scientific thinking in kindergarten (6-year-olds) was investigated in a large study involving 227 participants. We investigated (1) whether individual differences across 3 scientific-thinking components (experimentation, data interpretation, and understanding the nature of science) are stable across children, (2) whether children's increased…

Objective: Two studies were performed to assess both divergent and convergent thinking in adults with ADHD. Method: The first study compared the problem-solving abilities of healthy participants (N = 144) and unmedicated adults with ADHD (N = 144). In the second study, problem-solving abilities of adults with diagnosed ADHD (N = 22) were examined…

In an ever changing society of the 21st century, there is a demand to equip students with meta competences going beyond cognitive knowledge. Education, therefore, needs a transition from transferring knowledge to developing individual potentials with the help of constructivist learning. Advantages of constructivist learning, and criteria for its…

Starting from difficulties that students of education display when they interpret empirical findings and generate scientific arguments, a problem-based e-learning environment was developed. Based on first evaluation data, an elaboration tool was integrated into the learning environment. The tool consisted of a modelling and an explanation part. In…

In educational settings, computers provide specific possibilities of visualizing information for instructional purposes. Besides the use of static pictures, computers can present animated pictures which allow exploratory manipulation by the learner and display the dynamic behavior of a system. This paper develops a theoretical framework for…

This paper describes four research examples of the use of prediction analysis in research. The aim of prediction analysis is to compare a rule as specified by a theory with a reference rule. The first example of prediction analysis in this paper concerns a study of 120 first, second, and third graders' performance on length and weight problems.…

Maintains that the Holocaust is an integral part of the Canadian secondary history and social science curriculum. Asserts that pedagogical considerations for the Holocaust should not differ from the study of other major events. Discusses content selection, skill development, appropriate resources, and student sensitivities. (CFR)

These proceedings contain the papers of the International Conference e-Learning 2014, which was organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society and is part of the Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (Lisbon, Portugal July 15-19, 2014). The e-Learning 2014 conference aims to address the…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…