Gamifying online homework activities and learning assignments is an effective approach to facilitate students' engagement and enjoyment. While incorporating game elements to gamify homework and learning assignments promoted positive psychological and learning outcomes, the mere use of these elements brings several flaws associated with the gameful…

Research Findings: This article describes major theories and research on math cognition across the fields of neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and education and connects these literatures to intervention practices. Commercially available math intervention programs were identified and evaluated using the following questions: (a) Did neuroscience…

This report discusses the design of the Macintosh version of INQUIRE, a software package developed to support the processes and activities of inquiry learning and teaching. It is noted that the design challenge was to encourage students to consider information from a variety of perspectives, to make and articulate conceptual connections between…

Questions the use of computers in children's education, focusing on the depth of processing involved in the management of information received through mass media and the relation between the person and the environment and the effects of mediated experience. Suggests we need to question when we should use computers for which goals and objectives.…

This exploratory study investigated the influence of two recreational computer games on children's subsequent performance on computer-based instructional tasks. Examined speed, correct solutions, and cognitive processes; and suggests that the extent of recreational game influence depends on how closely the game type matches the design of the tasks…

Discussion of the use of computer programing languages to facilitate cognitive skill transfer focuses on logical reasoning. Conditional logic principles are examined, and a study is described that examined the effects of learning the LOGO Programing Language on fifth graders' conditional reasoning abilities. (35 references) (LRW)

Examines spatial concepts required by young children for the understanding and manipulation of turn commands in Logo, and reviews the literature on children's Logo learning and the psychological-cognitive development of spatial concepts. Geometric concepts, alternative frames of reference, and the use of Turtle graphics are also discussed. (39…

Presents a review of literature on programing in Logo, including prerequisites of programing, cognitive effects of programing, stages of programing, and levels of programing expertise. An analysis of the literature establishes the need for operationalizing problem solving with Logo, and a research strategy to meet this need is suggested. (32…

This study assessed the effects of learning logo computer programing and computer-assisted instruction (CAI) on specific cognitive skills, metacognitive skills, creativity, and achievement. The programing group scored significantly higher on measures of operational competence, two of three measures of metacognitive skills, and a measure of…

A study was conducted to examine computer programming as a problem solving activity. Thirteen fifth grade children were selected by their teacher from an above average class to use Apple IIe microcomputers. The investigator conducted sessions of 40-50 minutes with the children in groups of two or three. Four problems, incorporating the programming…

Discusses the logical and psychological significance of video games, microcomputer prose adventures, and computer programing. Explores the implications of these for teachers as humanists. (HTH)

Describes an exploratory study on the acquisition and use of knowledge representation skills and structures by sixth-graders, supported by a computer-based learning environment. Results indicated that symbolic structures can be taught successfully, and that students using them in the context of instructional tasks perform at the higher band of…

Educational microworlds are defined and their potential for developing learners' thought processes is hypothesized to be more realizable than has previously been thought. A structured programing methodology that uses a point-and-click technique and that requires little syntactic sophistication on the part of the participant is presented. (LB)

Forty-seven elementary and middle school students, most with learning disabilities, used a computer-assisted instruction program which rapidly presented seven pieces of information or one which cumulatively presented smaller information "chunks." Both groups worked to mastery level successfully, but the cumulative group spent one-third…

Describes studies of children involved in cognitive play activities using discrete and continuous computer microworlds and their transformation of these activities into independent mathematical activity. (Contains 22 references.) (MKR)