In this study of concept mapping and expository writing, 12 eighth-grade students with reading difficulties composed descriptive essays under three conditions: no-map support, hand-map support, and computer-map support. Both hand-maps and computer-maps resulted in increases in number of words, number of T-units, and holistic writing scores.…

A new fuzzy student modeling method with two intelligent agents, a diagnosis agent and a learning agent, are suggested by this article for several aspects of student modeling in Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Also integrated are fuzzy theories and Fuzzy-Hasse diagrams for student modeling. (Author/AEF)

Interviews 9th and 10th grade students (n=13) who studied an ecology unit and analyzed tape-recorded data for changes in organization of knowledge, represented by ideational networks and the development of higher cognitive operations. Provides insights into how students developed knowledge schemata, ideational networks, and the capacity to express…

In higher education, different instructors who teach the same course may vary the instructional paths, pace, and depth of the content. These variations may result in different performances among learners. The intent of this research is to design a course management system that aggregates appropriate course units based on maximum consensus among…

A 4-year-long action research project involving curriculum development in education for sustainable living as part of home economics in a university teacher education course is described and analysed. Design experiments were used to develop the curriculum and promote learning. The design experiments emphasised an integrating approach to action…

This paper presents a generally applicable method for characterizing subjects' hypothesis-testing behaviour based on a synthesis that extends on previous work. Beginning with a transcript of subjects' speech and videotape of their actions, a Reasoning Map is created that depicts the flow of their hypotheses, tests, predictions, results, and…

Considers effective dialogue between teacher and student essential for promoting meaningful learning in the classroom. Effective dialogue enables teachers and students to be active in the construction of shared understanding by making explicit the overlap between the perspectives held by students and teachers. Suggests that concept maps provide a…

Four groups (three engineering students in each group) were videotaped while constructing concept maps in Linear Algebra. There are two aims of this study. The first is to characterize the discourse in the groups by addressing the following research questions: Do the students communicate in an "effective" way? Do the students'…

The article presents empirical evidence for the effectiveness and efficiency of a modified version of Trochim's (1989a, b) concept mapping approach to define the characteristics of an adaptive learning environment. The effectiveness and the efficiency of the method are attributed to the support that it provides in terms of elicitation, sharing,…

Middle school students examine data from the Great Lakes region, assess impact of climate changes, and relate climate and water processes in a concept map. After learning how lake water levels will likely decline, they listen to a story about a grandparent revisiting the lakeshore with a grandchild. In the role of the grandparent and then of the…

In this article, the author shares insights derived from her journey as an evaluation practitioner and as a capacity-building evaluation facilitator committed to demystifying evaluation as a core development resource. The author weaves in some foundational stories that have shaped and informed her path. Through her work and praxis, she has been…

Collaborative problem solving and collaborative skills are considered necessary skills for success in today's world. Collaborative problem solving is defined as problem solving activities that involve interactions among a group of individuals. Large-scale and small-scale assessment programs increasingly use collaborative group tasks in which…

Drawing on Vygotsky's (1997a) concept of "fossilized behavior", this study examines the cultural fault lines between the imagined community (Anderson, 1991) of early childhood education and some Australian Indigenous families. Through creating a social space within which Indigenous families could examine dominant and taken-for-granted…

We report the development of an assessment instrument that provides a profile of the attainment and the errors of pre-service primary teachers across the mathematics curriculum. We describe test development, analyses and test validation involving a sample of 426 pre-service teachers in the first year of their training in primary education courses…

This study looks at a specific application of Ainsworth's conceptual framework for learning with multiple representations in the context of using multiple sequential graphic organizers that are student-generated for a process-writing task. Process writing refers to writing that consists of multiple drafts. It may be a process of re-writing without…