Traditional knowledge-component models describe students' content knowledge (e.g., their ability to carry out problem-solving procedures or their ability to reason about a concept). In many STEM domains, instruction uses multiple visual representations such as graphs, figures, and diagrams. The use of visual representations implies a…

Predicting the success or failure of a student in a course or program is a problem that has recently been addressed using data mining techniques. In this paper we evaluate some of the most popular classification and regression algorithms on this problem. We address two problems: prediction of approval/failure and prediction of grade. The former is…

Effective teaching practices, including the ability to make data-based decisions, are necessary to close achievement gaps. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a collaborative, data-based decision making (DBDM) intervention on the quality of preservice teachers' DBDM. Participants were 45 preservice general educators…

This paper reports on a controlled experiment on the effects of three types of reflection triggers in an online course. Fifty-four volunteers, distributed in five groups, used these structured opportunities for reflection during learning. Results show that reflection triggers were extensively employed by the test persons and were perceived as…

An experiment was designed to compare two alternative procedures for revising a preliminary version of an instructional program, one based on a subjective analysis of the program's behavioral goals, the other on an objective analysis of test data obtained from a trial of the unrevised program. Conforming to an experimental model, 20…

An evaluation of materials in the sequential anthropology curriculum project with regard to student learning and teacher training is presented. The project sample consisted of 2,183 students in grades 1, 2, 4, and 5. Two forms of the anthropology achievement test were administered as pretest and posttest measures to experimental and control groups…

The paper discusses an experiment in which regression analysis was used to examine predictors of information retention following a college economics course. It was hypothesized that students taught in small classes with self-instructional materials would place a higher value on basic economic concepts and retain these concepts longer than students…