Research shows that multiple representations can enhance student learning. Many curricula use multiple representations across multiple task types. The temporal sequence of representations and task types is likely to impact student learning. Research on contextual interference shows that interleaving learning tasks leads to better learning results…

Fostering lifelong learning (LLL) is a topic of high relevance for current educational policy. School lays the cornerstone for the key components of LLL, specifically persistent motivation to learn and self-regulated learning behavior. The present study investigated the impact of classroom instruction variables on concrete determinants for these…

We confronted 151, 5th and 6th elementary grade pupils with a quantitative problem in a mathematics or religion class, to examine the influence of the context on pupils' understanding and solution of such problems inside and outside the mathematics class. Pupils were first asked to solve a problem about fair sharing either during a mathematics or…

This study examined the effect of different goals (process, performance outcome, and multiple goals) and self-recording on self-regulation of learning a dart-throwing skill. Participants were 105 fifth and sixth graders who were randomly assigned to six (3 Goal type x 2 self-recording) experimental and one control group. Results showed a positive…

This study investigated the relations between teachers' pedagogical beliefs and students' self-reported engagement in learning from texts with instructional pictures. Participants were the biology, geography, and German teachers of 46 classes (Grades 5-8) and their students. Teachers' instructional behaviors and students' engagement in learning…

This research aimed at identifying unique effects of reading motivation on reading performance when controlling for cognitive skills, familial, and demographic background. We drew upon a longitudinal sample of N = 1508 secondary school students from 5th to 8th grade. Two types of intrinsic reading motivation (reading enjoyment, reading for…

The present study examined the motivational correlates and achievement consequences of students' help-seeking tendencies during sixth grade (N = 217). Students' grades were collected from school records at the beginning and end of the school year. Midway through the year students reported on their academic self-efficacy and social demonstration…

The present study explores the approaches employed by sixth-grade students to compare rival solutions in socio-scientific decision-making situations. Data were collected using three specially developed open-ended tasks. Two of them were administered to 96 students in a written form while the third was administered to 20 of these students through…

Based on current theories of multimedia learning, we propose a strategy for learning from animations. Two different experimental studies were conducted in order to evaluate the strategy. In the first study, 22 sixth graders learned from an animation without the strategy while 21 students were encouraged to make use of the proposed strategy during…

The present study investigated the effects on learning in a sheltered Internet environment using so-called WebQuests in elementary school classrooms in the Netherlands. A WebQuest is an assignment presented together with a series of web pages to help guide children's learning. The learning gains and quality of the work of 229 sixth graders…

How do concrete objects that cue real-world knowledge affect students' performance on mathematics word problems? In Experiment 1, fourth- and sixth-grade students (N = 229) solved word problems involving money. Students in the experimental condition were given bills and coins to help them solve the problems, and students in the control condition…

The present study aimed at examining the effectiveness of a team-sports-based life-skills program taught as part of physical education lessons. One hundred sixty-five sixth and eighth graders were assigned either in an experimental or in a control group and received an abbreviated version of SUPER, a team-sports-based program. The program focused…

One hundred and forty-three Jewish and Arab 6th grade children in Israel participated in this study, which explored several attitude dimensions and willingness to communicate (WTC) in the language of the other. Analysis of variance indicated differences between groups, with Arab children having in general more positive attitudes and higher WTC in…

A key learning outcome in problem-solving domains is the development of flexible knowledge, where learners know multiple strategies and adaptively choose efficient strategies. Two interventions hypothesized to improve flexibility in problem solving were experimentally evaluated: prompts to discover multiple strategies and direct instruction on…

Seventy-one normally functioning Spanish sixth-grade students participated in classroom-based training in cognitive strategies for preplanning and substantive revision of expository text. Short essays completed by these students pre-intervention, post-intervention, and after a 12 week delay were compared with those of an ordinary-curriculum…