Virtual experiments offer opportunities for students to engage in the scientific process and observe scientific phenomena. However, virtual experiments are not always effective for learning. The current study examined how two small manipulations might support better learning from virtual experiments and the extent to which this varied across…

Both medium (paper or screens) and interest have been noted as important factors in learning from reading text, but connections between them have not been examined. The purposes of this study are to examine whether reading medium and interest, both individual and situational, interact to predict performance on a reading assessment and whether…

This article describes the research design and findings from a use-inspired study of online text-based mathematics resources. We sought to understand whether and how existing mathematics interest, together with the learner characteristics of prior coursework in mathematics and proof scheme, influenced comprehension of mathematical argumentation…

This study investigated the effects of pre-training types on the cognitive load, collaborative knowledge construction and level of learning in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment. Pre-training was provided to help learners optimise their cognitive load, build accurate shared-knowledge and achieve successful deep learning. The…

We present a quantitative study of responses to voluntary and anonymous surveys of undergraduate geology students enrolled at an English-medium, research university in South Africa. This research captured student interest in geology, their perceived level of understanding of key geological concepts, and the extent to which in-class and in-field…

This study aims to describe the ability of students' mathematical connections in solving problems in the circle equation material through transposition studies. The method in this research is a descriptive qualitative approach, the techniques used in the study are tests, interviews, and documentation to explore data in research. Test and interview…

Calculus differential is the basis of mathematics before entering the level of further mathematics, which has a high analysis level. Students have difficulty understanding concepts and have not been able to analyze/predict/realize (self-efficacy) that impact challenges in working on calculus problems. On the other hand, technology has been…

We present a question bank consisting of over 250 multiple-choice and true--false questions covering a broad range of material typically taught in an introductory undergraduate course in numerical analysis or computational science. The questions are ideal for polling students during lectures by means of a student response system that uses…

College biology courses commonly use diagrams to convey information. These visual representations are embedded in course materials with the expectation that students can comprehend and learn from them. Educational research, however, suggests that many students have difficulty understanding diagrams and the conventions (e.g., labels, arrows) they…

This narrative essay describes a basic writing instructor's engagement with student confusion in a hybrid Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) course. The story examines the ways confusion can mark sites of engagement for students and teachers and how ALP courses, in particular, might mediate effective (and ineffective) forms of confusion.

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…

Visualizations and visual models are of substantial importance for science learning (Harrison and Treagust, 2000), and it seems impossible to study chemistry without visualizations. More specifically, the combination of visualizations with text is especially beneficial for learning when dual coding is fostered (Mayer, 2014). However, at the same…

The present empirical study investigated whether progressive visuospatial cues presented in a self-regulatory mode could assist learners in comprehending the operation of a mechanical system. In the present study, the interactivity and cueing were the independent variables in terms of investigating their effectiveness on retention and transfer…

This study examined learning differences for students who were given instructor-provided examples during a lesson compared with student-generated examples. In an experiment, 348 students were exposed to an online lesson about fear appeals and were randomly assigned to either a condition where (a) examples of key concepts were provided by the…

Learners often insufficiently monitor their comprehension, which results in overconfident judgments of learning and underachievement. In the 3 present experiments, we investigated whether insufficient comprehension monitoring is due in part to the fact that learners are not sufficiently aware of the benefit of comprehension monitoring and thus…