The educational advantages of inquiry learning environments that incorporate modelling facilities are often challenged by students' poor inquiry skills. This study examined two types of model progression as means to compensate for these skill deficiencies. Model order progression (MOP), the predicted optimal variant, gradually increases the…

Motor skills are often demonstrated with a combination of verbal information and video demonstration. In this study, participants learned to tie nautical knots with a video clip demonstrating the motor task preceded by a descriptive or a metaphorical, picture-like verbalization. In a control condition participants learned the knots with a video…

In a series of two "in vivo" experiments, we examine whether correct and incorrect examples with prompts for self-explanation can be effective for improving students' conceptual understanding and procedural skill in Algebra when combined with guided practice. In Experiment 1, students working with the Algebra I Cognitive Tutor were randomly…

The aim of this study was to investigate whether physical or virtual manipulative experimentation can differentiate physics learning. There were four experimental conditions, namely Physical Manipulative Experimentation (PME), Virtual Manipulative Experimentation (VME), and two sequential combinations of PME and VME, as well as a control condition…

This study examined the effects of a school/home-based intervention program designed to enhance the reading motivation and comprehension of Swiss fourth graders (N = 713). In order to identify the specific contribution of the home environment, the program was implemented in one group "without" (N = 244) and in one group "with"…

Transfer of strategies between problems sharing the same formal structure is facilitated by a semantic recoding that makes evident the structural similarities between the problems. Two experiments were carried out among 4th and 5th grade pupils, with an experimental group trained to compare strategies in order to reinterpret an arithmetic word…

Undergraduate students in dyads (N = 72) were randomly and equally assigned to four groups, namely three teaching groups (General, Infusion, and Immersion) and the control group. Students were initially administered the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST). After instruction, each dyad's critical-thinking performance on an ill-defined…

The aim of this study was to improve 7th- and 8th-grade students' (N = 83) compare-contrast reports when writing from sources. An instructional unit was designed and implemented for this purpose. It focused on increasing students' knowledge of compare-contrast text structure and on having students memorize and use a table to plan the structure of…

The mnemonic keyword method is an effective technique for vocabulary acquisition. This study examines the effects on recall of word-meaning pairs of (a) training in use of the keyword procedure at the time of retrieval; and (b) the influence of the self-rated ability to image. The performance of students trained in bidirectional retrieval using…

In this study we examined the effects of skill training, in particular mental abacus and music training, on working memory. Two groups of participants--children who had received mental abacus training and their controls--participated in Experiment 1. All participants performed the following span tasks: forward digit span, backward digit span,…

Results from an experiment with 28 experimental and 28 matched control college students taking a 13-week computer science course support the potential of modeling and coaching students in metacognitive strategies to enhance learning. The instructional method had significant long-term and short-term effects on cognitive and affective learning…