Complex perceptual tasks, like clinical reasoning based on visual observations of patients, require not only conceptual knowledge about diagnostic classes but also the skills to visually search for symptoms and interpret these observations. However, medical education so far has focused very little on how visual observation skills can be…

Computer-based surgical training simulators are instrumental in skill-based training and performance measurement. However, to date, the educational employment of these tools lacks empirically founded insights and effective practical guidelines. This study examined surgical residents during computer-based simulator training of basic laparoscopic…

Because simulators offer the possibility of functioning as authentic representations of real-world tasks, these tools are regarded as efficient for developing expertise. The users' experience of realism is recognised as crucial, and is often regarded as an effect of the similarity between reality and the simulator itself. In this study, it is…

The study reported in this article concerns the questions what and how fourth-year medical students can learn from a series of cases that have a similar underlying problem. This question is crucial in the theoretical sense as it looks at mechanisms of updating and improving knowledge structures, which are conjectured to consist of "illness…

New representational technologies, such as virtual microscopy, create new affordances for medical education. In the article, a study on the following two issues is reported: (a) How does collaborative use of virtual microscopy shape students' engagement with and learning from virtual slides of tissue specimen? (b) How do visual and conceptual cues…

In the present study teacher students' contextual learning experiences were examined longitudinally in authentic study environments using the contextual activity sampling system, a means of mobile-supported experience sampling. The students' (n = 9) experiences were first recorded during a 2 week period in their first year of study. The same…

In mathematics learning, word problems always include sufficient information; however, in everyday situations, people sometimes encounter problems with insufficient information. Previous studies suggest that people cannot successfully handle word problems with insufficient information because they believe a word problem has only one answer and…

This study explored the impact of explicit teaching of reading strategies on English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students' reading performance in Iran. The study employed a questionnaire adapted from Chamot and O'Malley's (1994) cognitive and metacognitive strategies framework. To test the effects of explicit teaching of cognitive and…

This study examined the effect of imagery interventions for the presentation of novel science vocabulary to fifth grade learners. Eighty-nine students from two schools in Long Island participated in this study and were randomly assigned to four different instructional interventions: a Picture Presentation method, in which a word was paired with a…

Groups of children at a science museum were pre- and post-assessed with a type of concept map, known as personal meaning maps, to determine what new understandings, if any, they were gaining from participation in a series of structured hands-on activities about bones and the process of bones healing. Close examination was made regarding whether…

In the current study, we focus on teacher-student discourse in Pre-K science activities, with particular attention to teacher questioning. Videotaped classroom observations and teacher interviews served as the corpus of data. Overall, teachers asked mostly closed-ended questions, but used more open-ended questions when experiments were being…

This study investigated the influence of general vocabulary knowledge, science vocabulary knowledge, and text based questioning on the science reading comprehension of three types of students who varied in their English language proficiency. Specifically, grade 5 English-Only speakers, English Language Learners in the United States, and students…

Research has shown that learners do not always engage in appropriate metacognitive and self-regulatory processes while learning complex historical topics. However, little research exists to guide the design of technology-rich learning environments as metacognitive tools in history education. In order to address this issue, we designed a…

This study extends prior research on approaches to teaching and perceptions of the teaching situation by investigating these elements when e-learning is involved. In this study, approaches to teaching ranged from a focus on the teacher and the taught content to a focus on the student and their learning, resembling those reported in previous…

We examined undergraduate research experiences (UREs) participants' and their faculty mentors' beliefs about the professional practices and dispositions of research scientists. In Study 1, 63 science interns and their mentors rated Merton's ("J Legal Political Sociol," 1:115-126, 1942) norms and Mitroff's ("Am Sociol Rev," 39 (August):579-595,…