Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) support students in learning a complex problem-solving skill. One feature that makes an ITS architecturally complex, and hard to build, is support for strategy freedom, that is, the ability to let students pursue multiple solution strategies within a given problem. But does greater freedom mean that students…

Research over the past fifteen years has investigated and developed online science inquiry environments to support students engaging in authentic scientific inquiry practices. This research has focused on developing activity structures and tools to scaffold students in engaging in different aspects of these practices, but relatively little of this…

This study examined the impacts of educational interface agents with different attributes on achievement, attitude and retention of elementary school students in their science and technology courses. The study was implemented in four different eighth- grade classes (aged 13-14) of an elementary school. Four different types of educational software,…

This research attempted to categorize reflection in a Web-based portfolio assessment using the Chinese Word Segmenting System (CWSS). Another aim of this research was to explore reflective performance in which individual differences were further examined. Participants were 45 eight-grade students from a junior high school taking a computer course.…

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the views of primary students about interactive whiteboard [IWB] use in their classes from attitudinal and pedagogical perspectives. Research was designed as an empirical approach to "phenomenology." Data was collected from fifty primary students (fourth to eighth) through focus group interviews.…

This paper presents the results obtained with the implementation of a series of learning activities based on Mobile Serious Games (MSGs) for the development of problem solving and collaborative skills in Chilean 8th grade students. Three MSGs were developed and played by teams of four students in order to solve problems collaboratively. A…

This study investigates the potential of a digital game that overlays popular game-play mechanics with formal physics representations and terminology to support explicit learning and exploration of Newtonian mechanics. The analysis compares test data, survey data, and observational data collected during implementations in Taiwan and the United…

Examination of the "digital divide" has increasingly gone beyond the study of differences in physical access to computers to focus on individuals' use of technological tools for empowered and generative uses. In this research study, we investigated the relationship between access to tools and experience with creative production activities. Our…

The purpose of this study is to examine the difference in effectiveness between two on-line scientific learning programs--one with an argumentation component and one without an argumentation component--on students' scientific argumentation ability and conceptual change. A quasi-experimental design was used in this study. Two classes of 8th grade…

This research aims to determine whether the use of specific types of visualization (3D illustration, 3D animation, and interactive 3D animation) combined with narration and text, contributes to the learning process of 13- and 14- years-old students in science courses. The study was carried out with 212 8th grade students in Greece. This…

This study reported an investigation of eighth graders' (14-year-olds) web searching strategies and outcomes, and then analyzed their correlations with students' web experiences, epistemological beliefs, and the nature of searching tasks. Eighty-seven eighth graders were asked to fill out a questionnaire for probing epistemological beliefs (from…

This work presents the analysis of the 2001 Brazilian Basic Education Evaluation System (SAEB) achievement exam. The SAEB tested 4th, 8th, and 11th grade students, in mathematics and reading (Portuguese). We classified the students into seven socioeconomic classes, and for each class, compared the test results according to frequency of computer…

Scratch is a visual programming environment that is widely used by young people. We investigated if Scratch can be used to teach concepts of computer science (CS). We developed learning materials for middle-school students that were designed according to the constructionist philosophy of Scratch and evaluated them in a few schools during two…

The primary objective of this study was to determine the degree to which academic motivation predicted the executive help-seeking, instrumental help-seeking, perceived benefits of help-seeking, and avoidance of help-seeking of high school students enrolled in computer science (n = 314). Task goals were positively associated with instrumental…