Cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) are a family of psychometric models designed to provide categorical classifications for multiple latent attributes. CDMs provide more granular evidence than other psychometric models and have potential for guiding teaching and learning decisions in the classroom. However, CDMs have primarily been conducted using…

Argument writing is challenging for elementary students. Previous experimental research has focused on scaffolding rhetorical goals, leaving content goals relatively unexplored. In a randomized experiment, 73 students in grades 5, 6, and 7 wrote persuasive texts about difficult-to-classify vertebrates. Each student received one of three sets of…

This paper presents a scheme for classifying learning tasks, a scale built from that scheme, and data obtained from utilizing the scale with secondary students in various subject areas. (Author/SJL)

College students read two passages. Four groups answered questions requiring either a summary, a new example of the concept, a list of critical attributes of the concept, or identification of a new example. The "identify post-question group" showed the greatest accuracy in classifying new examples. (Author/MH)

Effects of author-generated and learner-generated elaborations on subjects' abilities to recall, classify, and apply conceptual knowledge were compared for 94 college undergraduates studying a passage on psychological concepts. Author-generated elaborations and specific elaboration activities produced superior effects in comparison with…

The number of video examples of a concept and the dispersion of the examples were studied as variables affecting concept learning by 50 Dutch 12-year-old and 14-year-old secondary students. Although the number had no effect, broadly dispersed examples improved posttest classification ability. Implications for concept teaching are discussed. (SLD)