One hundred years ago, Paul Weiss and Ludwig von Bertalanffy independently proposed that living organisms interact with their environment through systems. In the century that has followed, systems thinking and modeling have grown in tandem with discovery of the vast complexity of the universe at microscopic through astronomic levels. As our…

Several studies in multimedia learning have examined the effect of emotional design. Recent findings from cognitive psychology provide opportunities for educators to use more direct ways of manipulating emotion to enhance learning. These studies have shown that emotionally arousing words and pictures are remembered better than neutral ones.…

Teachers' knowledge of students' mathematical thinking is a growing area of research in mathematics education. The literature has reported plentiful evidence of the interplays between teachers' mathematical knowledge and their knowledge of students' mathematical thinking. The present study builds on this body of work to explain how such interplays…

Concept maps are assumed to enhance learning as their inherent structure makes relations between information more salient. Nevertheless, research on how to design concept maps as conducive to learning as possible is still rare. In particular, the salience of spatial arrangement of thematically related concepts within the map as well as the…

Cognitive load theory's incorporation of evolutionary perspectives has generated several instructional designs based on movement, including the tracing effect, occurring when learners benefit from explicit instructions to trace out specific elements of lesson materials with the index finger. Historical descriptions of children's tracing behaviours…

This commentary discusses how research approaches from Cognitive Network Science can be of relevance to research in the field of Learning Analytics, with a focus on modelling the knowledge representations of learners and students as a network of interrelated concepts. After providing a brief overview of research in Cognitive Network Science, I…

As AI increasingly enters classrooms, educational designers have begun investigating students' learning processes vis-à-vis simultaneous feedback from active sources--AI and the teacher. Nevertheless, there is a need to delve into a more comprehensive understanding of the orchestration of interactions between teachers and AI systems in educational…

Cognitive load theory provides instructional recommendations based on our knowledge of human cognition. Evolutionary psychology is used to assume that knowledge should be divided into biologically primary information that we have specifically evolved to acquire and biologically secondary information that we have not specifically evolved to…

According to previous studies, traditional laboratory safety courses are delivered in a classroom setting where the instructor teaches and the students listen and read the course materials passively. The course content is also uninspiring and dull. Additionally, the teaching period is spread out, which adds to the instructor's workload. As a…

In calculus courses, instructors often use the end-of-section problems in a textbook in homework assignments or other course assessments. As a result, these problems influence the teaching and learning of calculus. In this study, we examine the levels of cognitive demand of these problems in a mainstream calculus textbook and classify them within…

Task design is an important element of effective mathematics teaching and learning. Past research in mathematics education has investigated task design in mathematics education from different perspectives (e.g., cognitive and cultural) and offered a number of (theoretical) frameworks and sets of principles. In this study, through a narrative…

Technology is transforming higher education by removing geographic constraints for both students and instructors and increasing learning and cooperation with internet-based applications. Bloom's taxonomy continues to play a significant role in instructional design for both the classroom and online, but other theories that address the challenges of…

Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) research includes examination and development of second language learners' cognitive and metacognitive self-regulated learning skills, but the affective learning component of self-regulation in this context remains largely unexplored. Support for affective learning, which is defined by learners' beliefs,…

Passively listening to a lecture (deWinstanley & Bjork, 2002), skimming a textbook chapter, or googling for an answer to a homework problem is not conducive to deep and lasting high-order learning. At the same time, presenting complex concepts in problem-based classes might overload students' working memory capacity. Effective student learning…

It's all too easy for teachers to focus on building students' knowledge and skills without paying attention to the mental habits that students need to be effective learners. Guy Claxton discusses the need for teachers to design their instruction in a way that promotes resilience, curiosity, independence, and a positive disposition toward learning.