Science education reforms advocate modeling as a core practice in which "analogy" is a significant form and "analogical modeling" is a creative process for scientific explanation and discovery. This study adopts the self-generated analogical modeling approach involving electricity, which considers all the modeling subprocesses…

In science, one of the most crucial representations for constructing meaning about physical events is graphs. The first graph students encounter in science class is the constant velocity motion graph. Therefore, examining students' understanding of structuring and interpreting these graphs for the relationship between distance, time, and velocity…

This paper builds on our previous research and investigates how students' fractional competence and reasoning can provide clear evidence of non-symbolic algebraic thinking and its progressive transition towards fully generalised algebraic thinking. In a large-scale study, 470 primary students completed a written paper and pencil test. This…

In this exploratory descriptive study, changes in one cohort's responses to an authentic statistical investigation at the commencement of years 3 and 4 were analysed. Forty-four students made predictions by interpreting a data table of historical monthly temperatures, represented these data and explained their reasoning. An Awareness of…

To illustrate primary students' use of argumentation, this study reported on an analysis of elements in argumentation of 168 grade 5 students in Taiwan. This study adopted the van Hiele (vH) model as the main theoretical framework with relevant studies to show the development of argumentation. This study designed a geometric argumentation test…

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a prominent topic in K-12 education recently. However, pedagogical design has remained a major challenge, especially among young learners. Guided by the Zone of Proximal Development theory and AI education research literature, this design-based study proposes an analogy-based pedagogical approach to…

This exploratory study evaluated the effects of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) on students' written expression when asked to solve a word problem and explain reasoning. A secondary question evaluated potential for differential effects based on determination of having mathematics difficulty (MD). We implemented a quasi-experimental…

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relational reasoning performance of three groups from South Korea who either differed significantly in age or in the timing of their education. One group consisted of 200 sixth-grade adolescents. The other groups were composed of older adults who either attended school during the mandated…

Supporting students of all levels to move beyond empirical arguments, which employ example based reasoning to endorse universal truths and are thus mathematically invalid, remains a challenging goal in mathematics education. Arguments that make use of generic examples are both mathematically valid and accessible for even young learners. However,…

Problem solving is an essential skill for students to be successful in life and careers. Students need to use efficient strategies to solve problems effectively. In this basic interpretive qualitative study, we aimed to (a) explore children's problem-solving strategies in a game-based tool (i.e., puzzles), and (b) investigate the troubleshooting…

One of the aspects of programming that novices often struggle with is the understanding of abstract concepts, such as variables, loops, expressions, and especially Boolean operations. This paper aims to explore the effects of programming tools with different degrees of embodiment on learning Boolean operations in elementary school. To this end, 67…

The purpose of this study is to examine how the reasoning of elementary school students develops and progresses within a learning progression. In order to do this, we analyzed third, fourth, and fifth grade elementary school students' levels of reasoning about phenomena related to changes of state of water. The results show that higher grades…

In this article we illustrate how one teacher used PhET cannonball simulation as an instructional tool to improve students' algebraic reasoning in a fifth grade classroom. Three instructional phases effective to implementation of simulation included: Free play, Structured inquiry and, Synthesizing ideas.

Achievement goal theory research, which investigates students' perceptions of the classroom climate, has mainly focused on teacher practices from a deductive perspective. However, this appears to hinder a fuller understanding of all the factors that influence students' perceptions of the classroom goal structures (CGS). Therefore, using a…

In the process of problem solving, intuitive thinking leads to findings that go beyond gaps and plays a decisive role in problem solving. Considering that problems often need to be solved in groups rather than by individuals, it is necessary to examine how intuitive thinking expressed by individuals is shared and elaborated among peers in a group…