Multiple document comprehension and knowledge integration across domains are particularly important for pre-service teachers, as integrated professional knowledge forms the basis for teaching expertise and competence. This study examines the effects of instructional prompts and relevance prompts embedded in pre-service teachers' learning processes…

Critical thinking (CT) is a metacognitive process, consisting of a number of sub-skills and dispositions that, when used appropriately, increases the chances of producing a logical conclusion to an argument or solution to a problem. Though the CT literature argues that dispositions are as important to CT as is the ability to perform CT skills, the…

This paper presents results from an experimental study that examined embedded strategy prompts in digital text and their effects on calibration and metacomprehension accuracies. A sample population of 80 college undergraduates read a digital expository text on the basics of photography. The most robust treatment (mixed) read the text, generated a…

Hypermedia learning environments (HLE) unevenly present new challenges and opportunities to learning processes and outcomes depending on learner characteristics and instructional supports. In this experimental study, we examined how one such HLE--MetaTutor, an intelligent, multi-agent tutoring system designed to scaffold cognitive and…

According to Krashen's affective filter hypothesis, students who are highly motivated have their self-consciousness. When they enter a learning context with a low level of anxiety, they are much more likely to become successful language acquirers than those who do not. Affective factors such as motivation, attitude, and anxiety, have a direct…

Betty's Brain is an open-ended learning environment in which students learn about science topics by teaching a virtual agent named Betty through the construction of a visual causal map that represents the relevant science phenomena. The task is complex, and success requires the use of metacognitive strategies that support knowledge acquisition,…

Proposes a framework for thinking about how metacognition research might apply to design activities. Examines two basic approaches to supporting metacognition: strategy training, and creation of a supportive social environment for metacognition. Identifies two kinds of content that are taught using these two approaches: knowledge about a specific…

Discusses self-regulation, learning to learn, and adaptive problem solving, and describes study of third, fifth, and eighth graders. The study investigated whether providing a model of self-regulating skills via teaching a computer to solve problems would increase the number tasks completed, and decrease the error and trial rate. (11 references)…