Collaboration scripts and heuristic worked examples have been described as powerful scaffolds to support skill acquisition in CSCL. While CSCL scripts particularly facilitate argumentative discourse within groups, heuristic worked examples provide heuristics and worked out pathways to solve domain-specific tasks. Yet, both scripts and heuristic…

Design activities typically involve and culminate in the creation of models representative of new ideas and conceptions. The format is often dictated by the specific discipline, with ideas in design and technology education regularly being externalised through the use of computer aided design (CAD). This paper focusses on the realisation stage of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a quantitative model of problem solving performance of students in the computer-based mathematics learning environment. Design/methodology/approach: Regularized logistic regression was used to create a quantitative model of problem solving performance of students that predicts whether students can…

This article describes a study into the role of heuristic support in facilitating discovery learning through simulation-based learning. The study compares the use of two such learning environments in the physics domain of collisions. In one learning environment (implicit heuristics) heuristics are only used to provide the learner with guidance…

A study examined the quantity and quality of ideas produced in freshman composition students' writing to determine whether computer assisted instruction (CAI) stimulates invention as well as or better than current invention instruction in traditional classrooms. Two CAI programs were used: QUEST, the systematic program that examines an item/event…

After reviewing 50 educational software titles produced by 21 companies to assess how thinking and thinking skills were developed, the author found most had similar methodological drawbacks. Describes the algo-heuristic methodological position and outlines drawbacks of current software. (PEN)

This paper presents a model that was developed for the categorization and evaluation of stand-alone interactive media and that now is used to contribute to a more detailed and specific educational discussion of Internet use. The paper begins with a review of the foundations on which the model is built, including software as subject, tool, or…