This study used think-aloud methodology to investigate 51 Norwegian undergraduates' topic-specific epistemic cognition while working with six documents presenting conflicting views on the issue of cell phones and potential health risks. Results showed that students' epistemic cognition was represented by one dimension concerning the certainty and…

The capacity to solve tasks that contain high concentrations of visual-spatial information, including graphs, maps and diagrams, is becoming increasingly important in educational contexts as well as everyday life. This research examined gender differences in the performance of students solving graphics tasks from the Graphical Languages in…

This study investigated students' activating positive affective experiences in mathematics lessons, their antecedents, their cognitive and motivational consequences, as well as their effect on achievement. The participants were 682 Grade 8 and 9 students from 37 classes from Germany and Switzerland who participated in a video study of lessons on…

Based on a coding of 39 videotaped three-lesson units on the introduction to the Pythagorean Theorem, three teaching patterns were identified: lecturing, developing based on a problem, and discovery based on a problem. The analysis showed no effect of the teaching patterns on student achievement, whereas effects were discovered on students'…

This study examined how constructivist and didactic instruction was related to students' cognitive, motivational, and achievement outcomes in English classrooms, using a sample of 3000 Grade 9 students from 108 classrooms in 39 secondary schools in Singapore. Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed differential cross-level relations. After…

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,…

Two features of a new horizontal conceptualization of expertise are explored. Polycontextuality refers to the multiple ongoing tasks apparent in expert work, and boundary crossing is considered as a cognitive process that characterizes much expertise. Three case studies, one in a Finnish elementary school, illustrate these concepts. (SLD)

We studied children's conceptions of the writing process while the complex cognitive activity of writing is carried out through a pictorial representation of the writing process. Sixty children attending Kindergarten, first grade and fourth grade in Bariloche, Argentina, were presented individually with a sequence of four questions about the…

Examined processing strategies, regulation strategies, conceptions of learning, and motivational orientation for 60 vocational-secondary-education students in the Netherlands. Also studied the systematic relations among these concepts for 1,036 students, resulting in descriptions of four learning styles. Results support strong differences in…

The effects of four different instructional formats (orthographic drawing, isometric drawing, physical model, and isometric and physical model together) on learning outcomes and strategies for spatial tasks were studied with 40 secondary students. Findings indicate that physical models cause the least extraneous cognitive load. (SLD)

The effects of incidental learning were assessed in 2 experiments involving 201 seventh graders in Poland through an experimental paradigm based on the levels of processing theory. Data suggest that an important aspect of intelligence is "opportunistic" learning (learning in advance). Intelligent people take cognitive advantage of…

This study demonstrated that the modality principle applies to multimedia learning of regular science lessons in school settings. In the first field experiment, 27 Dutch secondary school students (age 16-17) received a self-paced, web-based multimedia lesson in biology. Students who received lessons containing illustrations and narration performed…

Mental arithmetic strategies were studied with 91 Dutch third graders who computed by splitting off 10s and units in both numbers or counting by 10s up or down from the first unsplit number. Results reveal flexibility in changing between and within strategy use. Implications for instruction are discussed. (SLD)

Subjects forced to process redundant material or split their attention between multiple sources of information may encounter extraneous cognitive load. Results of 4 experiments involving 125 fourth graders in Sydney (Australia) provide evidence for the inadequacy of conventionally formatted instructional materials and emphasize debilitating…

Introduces a descriptive system of analysis of peer-group interaction that consists of a three-dimensional analysis of peer-group interaction by focusing on the functions of verbal interaction and the nature of cognitive processing and social processing. Twenty 12-year-old students from one Finnish classroom participated in the study. Empirical…