The purpose of this quasi-experimental quantitative study was to investigate whether online interactive simulations would provide a positive improvement in learners' ability to apply critical thinking skills in a dangerous work environment. The course in which an improvement in critical thinking skills was the target outcome was a course which…

This study is aimed at investigating the relationships among students' relevant prior knowledge, meaningful learning orientation, reasoning ability, self-efficacy, locus of control, attitudes toward biology and achievement with the human circulatory system (HCS) using the learning cycle (LC) and the traditional classroom setting. The study was…

Looking for more active and motivating methodological alternatives from the students' perspective, which promote analysis and investigation abilities that make the student a more participative agent and some learning processes are facilitated, a practical study was conducted in the University of La Sabana (Chia, Colombia), in Computing Engineering…

Providing a meaningful and experiential learning environment for all students has long created a concern for alternate ways to teach students who are reportedly demonstrating non-mastery on state standardized assessments. As the benchmark for showing successful academic achievement increases, so does the need for discovering effective ways for…

This study discusses findings that replicate and extend the original work of Burns and Vollmeyer (2002), which showed that performance in problem-solving tasks was more accurate when people were engaged in a non-specific goal than in a specific goal. The main innovation here was to examine the goal specificity effect under both observation-based…

A review is presented of the research on the use of cooperative, competitive and individualistic goal structures on learning processes and outcomes. (Author)

This conference paper discusses two factors which seem to be responsible for the lack of clear progress in research dealing with motivation and learning in the schools: first, an overemphasis on the presumed influence of motivation on learning, which has resulted in a neglect of the many other processes that are directly influenced by motivational…

This study compared the effects of instructor-provided vs. learner-generated analyses of semantic relationships between major concepts on structural knowledge acquisition in an introductory psychology course. One group explained the relationships on instructor-provided graphic organizers; the other group classified relationships between concepts…

A STUDY, IN PROGRESS, IS ATTEMPTING TO DETERMINE THE INTERACTION OF VARIOUS REWARD CONDITIONS AND VARIOUS TYPES OF PRESCHOOL EXPERIENCE WITH DISCRIMINATION LEARNING. THE SUBJECTS ARE 240 4- AND 5-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN WITH THREE TYPES OF PRESCHOOL EXPERIENCE--1 TO 3 MONTHS OF HEAD START, 10 TO 12 MONTHS OF HEAD START, AND NO ATTENDANCE IN A PRESCHOOL…

Investigates teachers' perceptions in two studies regarding extent to which various teaching methods are differentially appropriate for various types of students. Results of both studies indicate teachers do differentiate among appropriateness of various methods for different students, and their decisions tend to agree with existing research on…

Attitudes toward learning in the United Kingdom were examined by studying 2 populations: a sample of 1,043 adults from 130 sampling points throughout England, Scotland, and Wales and a sample of 4,245 school-age pupils in England and Wales. Both samples were representative from the standpoints of age, sex, geographic location, social class, and…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…