Schools need to develop critical thinkers who are learning collaboratively alongside their peers and teachers. With the support of their community, nonacademic values need to be stressed outside the classroom, where students actively engage in social activities to develop their community and increase the value in their education. Combining these…

Successful problem solving is a complex process that requires content knowledge, process skills, developed critical thinking, metacognitive awareness, and deep conceptual reasoning. Teaching approaches to support students developing problem-solving skills include worked examples, metacognitive and instructional scaffolding, and variations of these…

Metacognition supports students in successfully working through struggle by equipping them with the tools to maintain an awareness of what they are doing and to change directions when needed to overcome obstacles. Thus, it is of little surprise that effective problem solvers spend a significant amount of time analyzing tasks relative to the amount…

Since its first notable appearance in the "Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning," the phrase productive struggle has garnered support from a few, yet very influential, educational researchers. However, since the phrase was popularized by Hiroko Warshauer in 2011, examinations of the productive struggle have…

Mathematical modeling and applications are an important part of curriculum and considered to be important for students' current and future lives. In this contribution, we focus on mathematical modeling from a cognitive prospective. Following embedding the cognitive perspective within the discourse of mathematical modeling, we describe some of the…

This article discusses the role of the three components of executive functions (EF) in geometric understanding. Discussing several examples of geometry problems, this article shows how EF are actively employed to solve geometry problems. Inhibition as the first component of EF helps the individual to suppress contextually irrelevant information.…

The nature of the development of arithmetic performance has long been intensively studied, and available scientific evidence can be evaluated and synthesized in light of Nelson and Narens' model of metacognition. According to the Nelson-Narens model, human cognition can be split into two or more interrelated levels. Obviously, in the case of more…

A deeper understanding of the processes leading to problem framing and behind finding solutions to problems should help explain variability in the quality of the solutions to those problems. Using Sternberg's WICS model as the conceptual basis of problem solving, this article discusses the relations between creative, analytical, practical, and…

This is the protocol for a Campbell systematic review. The objectives are as follows: The purpose of this review is to synthesize the evidence about the efficacy of problem solving before instruction (PS-I) to promote learning and motivation in students. Specifically, this review is designed to answer the following questions: To what degree does…

This paper invokes cognitive developmental theory as a means for preparing citizens to deal with and resolve conflicts within or across nations. We take the centuries-old Greek-Turkish dispute as an example. We first outline a theory of intellectual development postulating that mental changes emerge in response to changing developmental priorities…

There is a large body of research on how to improve student learning through active learning and metacognition. However, without well-structured guidelines, students do not tend to actively engage with the taught material, peers, and the instructor at a desirable metacognitive level (Deslauriers et al., 2019). To address this problem, a…

Among different transitions that happen in a young person's life, transition to adulthood can be one of the most challenging. The new post-school environment requires increased self-determination, including self-awareness, self-advocacy, self-management, and other important skills that help one function as an independent adult. Because it takes…

Metacognition is an essential, but habitually ignored element of 21st century education, which aims to teach students how to learn. 'Meta' is a Greek word meaning 'after', 'behind' or 'beyond'; 'meta' is added to terms such as meta memory, meta comprehension, and metacognition. The lack of consciousness is cognitive self-regulation activities…

This paper aims at defining and exploring design principles in a distance technological setting for an educational activity for mathematics undergraduate students, devoted to the construction of basic concepts in general topology, the promotion of problem-solving processes, the development of metacognitive aspects, and, in general, the development…

Education is an important tool which is very useful in everybody's life. A science curriculum should offer students opportunities that relate to life outside the classroom. It should provide students with situations in which they can frame and solve problems of their own making; and it should be supportive of students. Teaching methods and…