Echoing the increasing emphasis on STEM literacy, computational thinking has become a national priority in K-12 schools. Scholars have acknowledged abstraction as the keystone of computational thinking. To foster K-12 students' computational thinking and STEM literacy, students' ability to think abstractly should be enhanced. However, the existing…

Causal reasoning represents one of the most basic and important cognitive processes that underpin all higher-order activities, such as conceptual understanding and problem solving. Hume called causality the "cement of the universe" [Hume (1739/2000). Causal reasoning is required for making predictions, drawing implications and…

The field of instructional design has traditionally treated concepts as discrete learning outcomes. Theoretically, learning concepts requires correctly isolating and applying attributes of specific objects into their correct categories. Similarity views of concept learning are unable to account for all of the rules governing concept formation,…

Proposes a metatheory of problem solving. Describes differences among problems in terms of their structured ness, domain specificity (abstractness), and complexity; describes individual differences that affect problem solving; and presents a typology of problems, each of which engages different cognitive, affective, and conative process and…

Discusses a cognitive approach to instructional design (ID) and how practitioners can design training differently using this approach; explains how the behavioral approach is different from the cognitive approach; describes how learning occurs and various categories of knowledge; and presents a model for a well-designed lesson based on cognitive…

Examines the use of cognitive apprenticeships as a framework for instructional design to help address the needs of a distributed learning environment. Describes the applications of a multimedia training course that helps weather forecasters interpret radar. Findings indicate that cognitive apprenticeships can be implemented in multimedia to meet…

Discusses writing instruction and the use of educational computer programs; provides a theoretical framework that includes cognitive tool partnerships, learning theory, writing research, and the Vygotskian theory of mediated learning; and describes a prompting tool that used the macro language of IBM's WordPerfect with college and middle school…

Discussion of constructivist learning environments focuses on the concept of grounded design, a process that involves linking the practices of learning systems design with related theory and research. Topics include directed versus situated learning environments, situated cognition and anchored instruction, social constructivism and problem…

Reports on data obtained in Australia on practicing teachers' thinking as they interacted with a professional development interactive multimedia courseware package. Two types of thinking are discussed: (1) cognitive mediating processes related to content; and (2) evaluative thoughts about the instructional design of the courseware, from which a…