This experimental investigation considers how the inherent conceptual structure of external representations influences individuals' knowledge structure, and in addition proposes a measure of global collective knowledge to account for the influence of pre-existing knowledge structure. In two studies, undergraduates in a hospitality management…

The perceptions of students who study environmental science related to pollution are certainly different because they are influenced by various circumstances. These circumstances, among others, depend on what they observe around them and their prior knowledge. This study aimed to determine the concept of pollution according to the cognitive…

What do we know about how well graduate teaching in economics addresses cognitive challenges to learning? In short, very little. There is a dearth of research that investigates how graduate student, program and professor characteristics, and choices impact graduate student learning and other outcomes. Some of the broader literature on graduate…

The purpose of education is to actualise meaningful learning. Therefore, researching the issues on how students process information and how they configure it is important for meaningful learning. The issue of protein synthesis contains a number of abstract topics and concepts. Hence, it is important in biology teaching to be informed of students'…

In order to develop an expert-like mental model of complex systems, causal reasoning is essential. This study examines the differences between forward and backward instructional strategies in terms of efficiency, students' learning and progression of their mental models of the electronic transport chain in an undergraduate metabolism course…

Chemistry courses remain a challenge for many undergraduate students. In particular, first-semester organic chemistry has been labeled as a gatekeeper with high attrition rates, especially among students of color. Our study examines a key factor related to conceptual understanding in science and predictive of course outcomes-knowledge structures.…

Prior learning assessment (PLA) students enter academia with different types of concepts--some of them have been formally accepted and labeled by academia and others are informally formulated by students via independent and/or experiential learning. The critical goal of PLA practices is to assess an intricate combination of prior learning…

Instructors are constantly baffled by the fact that two students who are sitting in the same class, who have access to the same materials, can come to understand a particular chemistry concept differently. Variation theory offers a theoretical framework from which to explore possible variations in experience and the resulting differences in…

Introduction: The study seeks to answer two questions: How do university students learn to use correct strategies to conduct scholarly information searches without instructions? and, What are the differences in learning mechanisms between users at different cognitive levels? Method: Two groups of users, thirteen first year undergraduate students…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of node-link mapping on students' meaningful learning and conceptual change in a 1-semester introductory life-science course. This study used node-link mapping to integrate and apply the National Research Council's (NRC, 2005) three principles of human learning: engaging students' prior…

This paper presents several methods to automatically detecting students' mental models in MetaTutor, an intelligent tutoring system that teaches students self-regulatory processes during learning of complex science topics. In particular, we focus on detecting students' mental models based on student-generated paragraphs during prior knowledge…

This article develops the concept-mapping method as a tool for enhancing teaching quality in higher education. In particular, it describes how concept mapping can be used to transform abstract knowledge and understanding into concrete visual representations that are amenable to comparison and measurement. The article describes four important uses…

Compared to other subjects, the typical introductory programming (CS1) course has higher than usual rates of both failing and high grades, creating a characteristic bimodal grade distribution. In this article, I explore two possible explanations. The conventional explanation has been that learners naturally fall into populations of programmers and…

Determining students' knowledge structure is important for assessing what a learner knows about a domain of knowledge. Traditional assessment methods are not always appropriate for exploring students' knowledge structure and changes during the learning period. This study investigates how the existing knowledge structure of the learners interacts…

The described study investigated the effectiveness of an e-learning Web 2.0 course redesigned from the perspective of cognitive load theory. The analyzed variables were course wiki design features, levels of instructor support, levels of cognitive load and engagement, and values students placed on particular pedagogical approaches used during…