Chemistry is considered a difficult subject by most students. Its difficulty lies in Chemistry's complex and abstract nature. This highly abstract nature requires constant interplay and coordination between the macroscopic, particulate, and symbolic representations. Experts can successfully navigate the various representations without overloading…

Computational thinking requires high cognitive load as students work to manage multiple tasks in their problem-solving environment. Through research in K-2 classrooms on computational thinking, we noticed that students lack the representational fluency needed to move from one form to another--such as moving from physical to more abstract…

Changes in the demands posed by increasingly complex workplaces in the 21st century have raised the importance of nonroutine skills such as complex problem solving (CPS). However, little is known about the antecedents and outcomes of CPS, especially with regard to malleable external factors such as classroom climate. To investigate the relations…

This study investigated the role of broad cognitive processes in the development of mathematics skills among children and adolescents. Four hundred and forty-seven students (age mean [M] = 10.23 years, 73% boys and 27% girls) from an elementary school district in the US southwest participated. Structural equation modelling tests indicated that…

The 21st-century work environment places strong emphasis on nonroutine transversal skills. In an educational context, complex problem solving (CPS) is generally considered an important transversal skill that includes knowledge acquisition and its application in new and interactive situations. The dynamic and interactive nature of CPS requires a…

This study explored the relationship between college student achievement and two other dimensions: cognitive complexity and the concreteness or abstractness of selected concepts. Although the level of abstractness alone did not influence achievement, the cognitive complexity of the item and the interaction of the two main effects was significant.…

The Domain of Cognition is a taxonomy for planning, sequencing, and implementing instruction, which covers the entire range of cognitive and cognitive-affective learning and behavior. Students acquire, learn, and use information on eight hierarchically and sequentially arranged levels of complexity. The levels and their corresponding abilities…

Information about how Graduate Record Examination (GRE) examinees solve verbal analogy problems was obtained in this study through protocol analysis. High- and low-ability subjects who had recently taken the GRE General Test were asked to "think aloud" as they worked through eight analogy items. These items varied factorially on the…