It is often hypothesized that prior knowledge strongly predicts learning performance. It can affect learning positively mediated through some processes and negatively mediated through others. We examined the relation between prior knowledge and learning in a meta-analysis of 8776 effect sizes. The stability of individual differences, that is, the…

The current work was conducted to better understand the influences of source presence and individual differences on evaluating and sharing information from multiple conflicting Internet texts about childhood vaccinations. The results indicate that college student readers appeared to be insensitive to a source availability manipulation. However,…

Extending studies on emotional design in multimedia learning beyond college samples and further considering individual differences, we examined the effects of emotional design on middle school students' learning and whether this relationship is moderated by learners' prior knowledge, using a computer-based lesson covering the topic "the…

Willingness to communicate (WTC) has recently been researched as a dynamic variable, with some investigations viewing it as a complex dynamic system (CDS). One important property associated with CDS is the notion of attractor states, which are characterized by stable patterns of behavior. The present study employed an idiodynamic method to monitor…

This study has been aimed to propose a conceptual framework that helps researchers examine mathematics teachers' PCK in the context of supporting students' mathematical thinking. "Advancing Children's Thinking Framework" which is a pedagogical model developed by Fraivillig, Murphy and Fuson (1999) that supports the development of…

Knowing what skills underlie college success can allow students, teachers, and universities to identify and to help at-risk students. One skill that may underlie success across a variety of subject areas is structure building, the ability to create mental representations of narratives (Gernsbacher, Varner, & Faust, 1990). We tested if…

In this review of literature we examine empirical research of individual differences in younger readers' knowledge and use of expository text structures. The goal of this review is to explore the influence of reader and text characteristics in order to better understand the instructional needs of elementary school readers. First we review research…

It is complicated to design a computer simulation that adapts to students with different characteristics. This study documented cases that show how college students' prior chemistry knowledge level affected their interaction with peers and their approach to solving problems with the use of computer simulations that were designed to learn…

Educational psychology has indicated that prior knowledge is a potentially important educational variable. Recent and earlier research in educational psychology has shown that 30 to 60% of the variance in study results could be explained by this variable. Insight into these factors should influence the return on education. A common theoretical…

This study sought to examine the nature and dimensions of prior knowledge among undergraduates in an economics course at the Open University of the Netherlands (OuN). A total of 22 law and 55 economics students enrolled in two economics courses were given a 154-item domain-specific knowledge test, which was then analyzed independently by three…

Four studies examined the relationship between students' ability and the learning processes the students engaged in when they acquired knowledge from their classroom experiences. The research was based on a model of learning processes during knowledge acquisition that identifies critical learning experiences and predicts what is learned and…

With few exceptions, the development of adult intelligence assessment instruments has proceeded along the lines of the Binet-Simon tests for children, stressing psychological assessment over the evaluation of what an individual knows. These tests, developed over 90 years ago, were quite effective in predicting school success, but were much less…

Decoding, working memory, and domain-specific prior knowledge were studied as predictors of comprehension for 48 university undergraduate students after rewriting notes, rereading notes, or rereading a text. Working memory was most important for comprehension of text-implicit information, whereas knowledge was relatively more important for…

The 12th iteration of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2019) is organized under the auspices of the International Educational Data Mining Society in Montreal, Canada. The theme of this year's conference is EDM in Open-Ended Domains. As EDM has matured it has increasingly been applied to open-ended and ill-defined tasks…

This interview study gathered information about the prior knowledge and thinking of kindergarten to third- graders regarding the supply of water, heat, and light to modern homes. Findings indicated that students possessed only limited and spotty knowledge about utilities in modern homes. Within general trends, there was evidence of growth in…