Forty 4th and 9th grade students participated individually in tutorial interviews centered on a problem-solving activity designed for learning basic algebra mechanics through diagrammatic modeling of an engaging narrative about a buccaneering giant burying and unearthing her treasure on a desert island. Participants were randomly assigned to…

In the present study, we examined the effects of feedback that corrects and contrasts a student's own erroneous solutions with the canonical, correct one (CEC&C feedback) on learning in a conceptual change task. Sixty undergraduate students received expository instruction about natural selection, which presented the canonical, scientifically…

To learn content knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and math domains, students need to make connections among visual representations. This article considers two kinds of connection-making skills: (1) "sense-making skills" that allow students to verbally explain mappings among representations and (2) "perceptual…

In this paper we investigate whether computer programming has an impact on high school student's reasoning skills, problem solving and self-efficacy in Mathematics. The quasi-experimental design was adopted to implement the study. The sample of the research comprised 66 high school students separated into two groups, the experimental and the…

Visual arts education focuses on creating original visual art products. A means to improve originality is enhancement of divergent thinking, indicated by fluency, flexibility and originality of ideas. In regular arts lessons, divergent thinking is mostly promoted through brainstorming. In a previous study, we found positive effects of an explicit…

This study examined how differing instructional scaffolding influenced the actual use of evaluation skills to improve argumentation quality during college science inquiry. Source representation scaffolds supported multi-faceted reflection of complex source properties while managing cognitive load. Students were given an online annotation tool…

In two experiments, we compared effects of instructions that encourage learners to create referential connections between words and pictures with instructions that distract learners from creating referential connections. In Experiment 1, students read a scientific text under four conditions. In the text-picture condition, students read the…

Acquisition of critical thinking skills is considered an important goal in higher education, but it is still unclear which specific instructional techniques are effective for fostering it. The main aim of this study was to unravel the impact of critical thinking instructions, practice, and self-explanation prompts during practice, on students'…

This study investigated the effectiveness of three different versions of a training programme on physician-patient and teacher-parent conversations for medical students and student teachers. The research questions concerned the differential effects of e-learning featuring contrastive video cases, role-play including video feedback and their…

Direct instruction is a proven effective method to strengthen children's ability to design unconfounded experiments using the control-of-variables strategy (CVS). Recent research suggests that task segmentation can also promote children's use of this strategy. The present study investigated this assumption by comparing the relative…

Argumentation skills play a crucial role in science education and in preparing school students to act as informed citizens. While processing conflicting scientific positions regarding topics such as sustainable development in the domain of ecology, argumentation skills such as evaluating arguments or supporting theories with evidence are…

Recent decades have witnessed a growing interest in intervention-based assessment to promote and enhance children's learning. In this study, we explored the potential effect of an experimental visual-spatial intervention procedure and possible training benefits of two prompting modalities: one group received training with verbal and visual…

This study investigates the effects of prompting on secondary students' written peer feedback in chemistry investigation reports. In particular, we examined students' feedback features in relation to the use of criteria, feedback specificity, and feedback levels. A quasi-experimental pre-test post-test design was adopted. Reviewers in…

This paper presents the outcomes of teaching an inventive problem-solving course in junior high schools in an attempt to deal with the current relative neglect of fostering students' creativity and problem-solving capabilities in traditional schooling. The method involves carrying out systematic manipulation with attributes, functions and…

The current experiment examined the potential effects of the method of propositional manipulation (MPM) as a lecturing method on motivation to learn and conceptual understanding of statistics. MPM aims to help students develop conceptual understanding by guiding them into self-explanation at two different stages: First, at the stage of…