This study aimed to investigate the following questions: Does the use of thinking maps and semantic mapping during explicit vocabulary instruction affect content specific science vocabulary knowledge and comprehension in fourth grade students? and What are student perceptions of using thinking maps and semantic maps to learn new vocabulary? To…

Purpose: Word learning requires the creation of phonological and semantic representations and links in long-term memory. Phonological distance of a given word from the spoken language affects children's lexical-phonological representations and processing. The study investigates the role of the phonological distance of Modern Standard Arabic (StA)…

Background: Pedagogical sensemaking, in which teachers attempt to figure something out in relation to teaching and learning, as a form of generative teacher discourse can provide opportunities for teachers to learn. However, much of the research in these areas examines how teachers reason during sustained collegial discourse outside the classroom.…

Problem posing has received increased attention among researchers and educators. One of the most important aspects is to understand the cognitive process of problem posing. In this study, we conceptualized a framework for the cognitive process of mathematical problem posing in three stages: (a) input--understanding the task, (b)…

Although research on the home literacy environment and its impact on early literacy has long focused on mothers, the past decade has seen a shift in scholarly attention to the role of fathers. Building on this shift, we examined whether the nature of parent-child interactions during shared storybook reading varies with parent gender, child gender…

This longitudinal study aimed to determine changes in students' predictive reasoning across one year. Forty-four Australian students predicted future temperatures from a table of maximum monthly temperatures, explained their predictive strategies, and represented the data at two time points: Grade 3 and 4. Responses were analysed using a…

Confusion may benefit learning when it is resolved or partially resolved. Metacognitive strategies (MS) may help learners to resolve confusion when it occurs during learning and problem solving. This study examined the relationship between confusion and MS that students evoked in Betty's Brain, a computer-based learning-by-modelling environment…

Mathematical problems can be divided into two types, namely, process-open and process-constrained problems. Solving these two types of problems may require different cognitive mechanisms. However, there has been only one study that investigated the differences of the cognitive abilities in process-open and process-constrained problem solving, and…

The main objective of this study was to investigate 9-10-year-old children's comprehension processes during listening to and free recall of a story. A cross-linguistic design comprised texts in L1 German and recall in L2 English and vice versa. Corresponding mono-linguistic control conditions in either L1 or L2 allowed to examine the extent to…

Listening narrative comprehension is a complex process that requires the processing of explicit (i.e., information presented in the text) and implicit information (i.e., information inferable from the text) and involves several linguistic and cognitive skills. However, the specific role of these skills in children's comprehension remains unclear.…

In this study, we investigated the potential of a hypothesized geometrical measurement learning progression (LP) to examine students' thinking and understanding in this domain.We interviewed 30 third to fifth graders using 3 LP-based cognitive tasks that asked the students to find the length, perimeter, area, surface area, and volume measurement…

The cognitive domain in mathematics, defined as thinking and understanding in the process of learning mathematics, is a main focus of curricula in many countries. This study explores breadth and depth of understanding as addressed in mathematics textbooks certified as aligned to Israeli national mathematics curricula. We compare opportunities for…

Coming some four years after the introduction of the new National Curriculum, this article considers the media storm and debate around the concept of chronology and how it should be taught in schools. Drawing on empirical evidence, the article strongly suggests that young children are capable of grasping complex temporal concepts, specifically…

Many studies report that comics are useful as learning material. However, there is little known about how learning with comics works. Based on previously established theories about multimedia learning, we conducted an eye-tracking experiment to examine learning about geography with a specially designed combination of comic and map which we call…

Topic-specific didactical design research provides means not only to investigate how to learn but also what to learn, i.e., for specifying learning contents by analyzing students' comprehension processes in detail. This important characteristic of didactical design research is exemplarily shown for students' difficulties in finding symbolic…