Game-based learning has been a strong emerging trend in the 21st century, but several research studies on game-based learning reports that the educational potential of games has not been fully realised. Many educational games do not combine learning outcomes with entertaining gameplay. At the same time as there is a tendency to digitise and…

Disciplines such as Geography are well placed to respond to the changing needs of society and the effective application of geographical knowledge to real-world problems. This project surveyed first year Geography undergraduates' understanding of "What is Geography?", both before and after an exercise in which geographic topics were…

This research examined whether the informational advantage of an animation over a static picture (and over no visualizations as a control condition) can be compensated by presenting the information in the text that constitutes this informational advantage. In addition, it was investigated whether learners' spatial abilities acted as a compensator…

Many pre-service teachers are members of the net generation and are expected to be familiar with different ICTs, yet several studies have indicated that they are not necessarily able to use them for teaching and learning. The notion of teachers' technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) is central to this concern. In this study we use the…

Background: Microorganisms are very important in day-to-day life, but they are inadequately addressed in the Spanish educational system. It is essential that students are well informed about their characteristics and functions. Purpose: The study aims to find out primary school students' perceptions of microorganisms and to analyze whether…

Misconceptions are a barrier to understanding biology hence, to promote meaningful learning, it is necessary to overcome these difficulties with the help of different instructional methods rather than traditional instructional methods. Therefore it could be very interesting to find out "how students' prior knowledge of genetics affects…

The current study investigated how perceived popularity and collaboration quality were associated with knowledge gain of adolescents during a collaborative learning task. Participants included 264 children ages 10-12 years (52.3% boys), who collaborated 3 times in same-sex dyads on a computer assignment. Results indicated that the knowledge of the…

This study explored differences that might exist in comprehension when students read digital and print texts. Ninety undergraduates read both digital and print versions of newspaper articles and book excerpts on topics of childhood ailments. Prior to reading texts in counterbalanced order, topic knowledge was assessed and students were asked to…

Previous work on seductive details has demonstrated that interesting but irrelevant messages hinder students' text learning. Considering that there is little evidence suggesting the relationship between seductive details and prior knowledge, the present study examined how seductive details affect learning in terms of prior knowledge to address the…

Plagiarism in higher education is a widespread and complex issue. Students' understanding of plagiarism differs as a result of combining their prior learning about referencing with their current experience of institutional policies and generic resources. Plagiarism was identified as a major learning issue in a core second-year undergraduate…

Video lectures are being widely used in online and blended learning classes worldwide, and their learning effectiveness is becoming a focus of many educators and researchers. This study examined the cognitive load and learning effectiveness of video lectures in terms of the type of knowledge being taught (declarative or procedural) and instructor…

Students' assessment, in general, observed through a socio-historical prism, has always been treated as an extremely sensitive, current, significant, indicative and continuously present phenomenon. In that respect, what is especially relevant is that for a very long time docimological procedures and their effects have been focused on following…

When teachers or instructors create computer-based learning environments, they often solely consider technical aspects of interactivity. As a consequence, learners' main role is to respond to requests of the learning environment (e.g. by answering multiple-choice questions). This aspect of interactivity is, however, not sufficient to understand…

Modern biotechnology has a large and rapidly increasing impact on society. New advances in genetics, stem cells and other areas hold great potential for human health but also presenting socioscientific issues that commonly divide public opinion. While knowledge is necessary to develop informed opinions about biotechnology, they may also be…

This research aims to investigate, compare, and describe the achievement and enhancement of students' mathematical communication skills (MCS). It based on the prior mathematical knowledge (PMK) category (high, medium and low) by using Treffinger models (TM) and conventional learning (CL). This research is an experimental study with the population…