Certain item features can be used to explain the difference between the difficulties of items. These item features can relate to the steps necessary to solve the problems or ways in which a increased understanding of material is acquired. This study will examine the relationship between item difficulty and the process skills associated with these…

To optimize learning in lectures, students need to maintain a sustained level of attention to the lecture material. Previous research has suggested, however, that student attention declines over the course of the lecture. One strategy suggested to improve sustained attention of students during the lecture is to encourage note-taking by students.…

Digital video has become a popular instructional media, which makes students more enthusiastic about the subjects they are learning. However, students may not be able to receive these benefits if the videos present the information they contain too quickly. To overcome this problem, this study proposed a video annotation learning system, by which…

EFL (English as a foreign language) students usually learn by rote when they study English grammar. They usually memorize all the grammar rules mechanically instead of learning grammar in a structured way. Researchers have suggested that students can internalize knowledge via using knowledge construction tools and collaborated learning activities.…

Within initial teacher education there is increasing pressure to enhance the use of assessment data to support students to improve their knowledge and skills, and to determine what standards they meet upon graduation. For such data to be useful, both programme designers and students require meaningful and comprehensive assessment reports on…

The current study considered young students' (7 and 8 years old) experiences and perceptions of mathematics lessons involving challenging (i.e. cognitively demanding) tasks. We used the Constant Comparative Method to analyse the interview responses (n = 73) regarding what work artefacts students were most proud of creating and why. Five themes…

Instructional design theories such as the "cognitive load theory" (CLT) or the "cognitive theory of multimedia learning" (CTML) explain learning difficulties in (computer-based) learning usually as a result of design deficiencies that hinder effective schema construction. However, learners often struggle even in well-designed…

Dual-process theories posit two distinct types of cognitive processing: Type 1, which does not use working memory making it fast and automatic, and Type 2, which does use working memory making it slow and effortful. Mathematics often relies on the inhibition of pervasive Type 1 processing to apply new skills or knowledge that require Type 2…

Numeracy is a key competency for living in our modern knowledge society. Therefore, it is essential to support numerical learning from basic to more advanced competency levels. From educational psychology it is known that learning is most effective when the respective content is neither too easy nor too demanding in relation to learners'…

Student learning is greatest in classrooms where students engage in problem solving tasks that are cognitively demanding. However, there are growing concerns that many Australian students are given limited opportunities to engage in these types of tasks. 108 upper primary school teachers were surveyed to examine task features and cognitive demand…

At the start of mathematics education children are often presented with addition and subtraction problems in the form of pictures. They are asked to solve the problems by filling in corresponding number sentences. One type of problem concerns the representation of an increase or a decrease in a depicted amount. A decrease is, however, more…

Lecturing is widely considered to be a passive, teacher-centred teaching method that fails to foster learning, yet it remains the most feasible method of teaching among higher institutions. Some modern lectures, aligned with recommendations from published guidelines on effective lecturing, are less didactic and more interactive than others, but…

Worked examples and collaborative learning have both been shown to facilitate learning. However, the testing of both strategies almost exclusively has been conducted independently of each other. The main aim of the current study was to examine interactions between these 2 strategies. Two experiments (N = 182 and N = 122) were conducted with…

This research investigated the effects of 3 instructional design formats on learning introductory accounting. In accordance with cognitive load theory, it was predicted that students who would learn with a guided self-managed instructional design format would outperform students who would learn with a conventional split-attention format or an…

Conflicting explanations and unrelated information in science classrooms increase cognitive load and decrease efficiency in learning. This reduced efficiency ultimately limits one's ability to solve reasoning problems in the science. In reasoning, it is the ability of students to sift through and identify critical pieces of information that is of…