This study was conducted to investigate the quality and nature of the students' interactions during asynchronous online problem solving in two sections of College Algebra taught by the author. In a shared-work section, students worked independently for an initial phase and had access to classmates' work during a follow-up phase. Students in the…

This study examines online messages in a discussion forum that a group of K-12 history teachers used to discuss curriculum implementations as part of their professional development. It has 3 main research foci. First, it focuses on identifying the types of assistances provided to the teachers in an online forum. Second, it examines teachers'…

This study employed a quantitative research design to examine the predictive relationships between: (a) learner autonomy and course success; and (b) learner autonomy and final grades in community college online courses. Learner autonomy was defined as the characteristic of an individual who exhibited intentional behavior in learning activities.…

The College of Education Assessment Infrastructure Survey was developed and administered to 1011 institutions over a 12-month period ending April 2007. The survey examined the capacity of university-based teacher preparation programs to respond to the growing and increasingly complex data management requirements that accompanies assessment and…

Many forms of technological communication exist in non-linear environments and there is potential for new approaches to learning and teaching which may more closely approximate naturalistic and authentic approaches to learning. The following study examined the ways in which high school students were influenced by technology as they wrote and how…

In this article we sought to understand how social studies teachers' metacognitive awareness of their technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) changed after their participation in a program that consisted of: (a) professional development for the use of an online learning environment; and (b) using an online learning environment in…

The web has the potential to offer an environment that can support standardized medical education to students dispersed in time or place and, in the process, respond to reduced availability of patients for practice. This exploratory article describes how we evaluated critical thinking in an online collaborative Problem-based Learning (PBL)…

Conflicts occur when learners interact with pedagogical agents and virtual characters. Such conflicts--arising from technological limitations, psychosocial perceptions, and pedagogical inadequacies--hinder communication and interaction between virtual characters and learners, and impede successful engagement with learning tasks and experiences. To…

This study examined the tensions surrounding the implementation of a technology-rich educational innovation called Quest Atlantis (QA) in a local public elementary school. Three qualitative case studies of three classrooms implementing the innovation and a subsequent cross-case analysis were undertaken to illuminate: 1) the reasons why teachers…

The present study investigated (1) the impact of cognitive styles on learner performance in well-structured and ill-structured learning, and (2) scaffolding as a cognitive tool to improve learners' cognitive abilities, especially field dependent (FD) learners' ability to thrive in an ill-structured learning environment. Two experiments were…

Recent years have seen a shift in focus from assessment of learning to assessment for learning and the emergence of alternative assessment methods. However, the reliability and validity of these methods as assessment tools are still questionable. In this article, we investigated the predictive validity of measures of the Pathfinder Scaling…

Homework is a standard, yet controversial, component of the American educational system. Unfortunately, research on parent perceptions of the efficacy of homework has been limited by a lack of reliable, valid measurement. The present study assessed the structural validity of an electronic version of a newly developed homework performance scale.…

Children with mental retardation have pronounced difficulties in using cognitive strategies and comprehending abstract concepts--among them, the concept of sequential time (Van-Handel, Swaab, De-Vries, & Jongmans, 2007). The perception of sequential time is generally tested by using scenarios presenting a continuum of actions. The goal of this…

The number of games, simulations, and multi-user virtual environments designed to promote learning, engagement with subject matter, or intended to contextualize learning has been steadily increasing over the past decade. While the use of these digital designs in educational settings has begun to show promise for improving learning, motivation, and…

While opportunities for online learning are increasing in K-12 education, few teacher education programs include courses on online teaching and learning. Using Garrison and Anderson's (2003) "Community of Inquiry" framework, this qualitative study explored the educational experiences of pre-service teachers in an experiential online course…