This study explored why mastery-based achievement goals often are unrelated to class grades despite promoting deep learning strategies and high course interest. We hypothesized that mastery-oriented students jeopardize their exam performance by allowing their individual interests to dictate their study efforts such that they neglect boring topics…

Complex skill acquisition by performing authentic learning tasks is constrained by limited working memory capacity [Baddeley, A. D. (1992). Working memory. "Science, 255", 556-559]. To prevent cognitive overload, task difficulty and support of each newly selected learning task can be adapted to the learner's competence level and perceived task…

Sound symbolism is the notion that there is a subset of words in the world's languages for which sounds and their symbols have some degree of correspondence. Two studies assessed 5th and 6th graders' knowledge of word meanings for English sound symbolic and non-sound symbolic words. Both studies found that the meanings of sound symbolic words were…

Vowels in Spanish have direct one-to-one letter-sound correspondences, whereas vowels in English usually have multiple spellings. For native Spanish-speaking children learning to spell in English, this transition from a shallow to a deep orthography could potentially cause difficulties. We examined whether the spelling of English vowel sounds was…

Children in sixth grade randomly assigned to a teacher-made writing procedure anchored in the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) model and training procedures were predicted to surpass children assigned to the comparison condition on dependent measures of writing clarity, organization, and cogency. The prediction was generally…

A regression design was used to test the unique and interactive effects of self-efficacy beliefs and metacognitive prompting on solving mental multiplication problems while controlling for mathematical background knowledge and problem complexity. Problem-solving accuracy, response time, and efficiency (i.e. the ratio of problems solved correctly…

We compared 56 eighth-grade students who, 28 months previously, had received instruction in strategies for planning and revising their writing, with 21 students of similar academic ability from the same school who had not experienced the intervention. Both groups wrote an expository essay whilst logging their writing activities and completed…

Adopting a combination of expectancy-value and achievement goal theories, this study examined the role of self-efficacy, task value, and achievement goals in students' learning strategies, task disengagement, peer relationship, and English achievement outcome. A sample of 1475 Year-9 students participated in the study. A structural equation model…

This study examined social participation and strategic problem solving behavior of boys diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) when collaborating on a planning task with a trained peer partner. Twenty-four 9- to 13-year-old boys with ADHD who were receiving a medication intervention, were individually pre-tested to assess…

Using a multi-theory approach, the current study was designed to identify gender differences in the psychological mechanisms by which urban adolescents' motivation in physical education transfers into their leisure-time activities. The theoretical frameworks of Self-Determination Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior were integrated to…

This article serves two functions. First, it addresses why studying collaborative discourse and collaborative argumentation is important for promoting students' deep-level understanding of content. A literature review is presented examining the evidence for this claim, concluding that engaging in collaborative discourse and argumentation might…

The hospital critical care unit provides an authentic, high-stakes setting for studying reasoning, argumentation, and discourse. In particular, it allows examination of structural and pragmatic features of informal collaborative argument created while participants are engaged in familiar, meaningful activities central to their work. The nursing…

The micro-time context of group processes (such as argumentation) can affect a group's micro-creativity (new ideas). Eighty high school students worked in groups of four on an algebra problem. Groups with higher mathematics grades showed greater micro-creativity, and both were linked to better problem solving outcomes. Dynamic multilevel analyses…

This study investigated the collaborative decision-making and communicative discourse of groups of learners engaged in a simulated medical emergency in two conditions. In one condition subgroups used a traditional whiteboard (TW group) to document medical arguments on how to solve a medical emergency. In the other condition subgroups used…

Prior research on collaborative learning identifies student behaviors that significantly predict student achievement, such as giving explanations of one's thinking. Less often studied is the role of teachers' instructional practices in collaboration among students. This article investigates the extent to which teachers engage in practices that…