Creativity is typically defined as the generation of novel and useful ideas or artifacts. This generative capacity is crucial to everyday problem solving, technological innovation, scientific discovery, and the arts. A central concern of cognitive scientists is to understand the processes that underlie human creative thinking. We review evidence…

This article develops the ideas of perfection and education in Spinoza and Maimonides. Both thinkers identify human perfection with intellectual knowledge and a transformation in affect. They accordingly envision education in terms of enhancing cognition and shaping the desire to know. The first steps are a critical evaluation of imagination and…

Although there is wide evidence on young children's category learning, questions concerning how cognitive mechanisms and social mediation work collaboratively in this process remain sparse. Here, we study the impact of pedagogy in young children's categorization of novel artifacts. A before-and-after micro-genetic study compared 58 3-year-old…

In the context of a rapid digital transformation, digital competence is now regarded as a fourth cultural skill complementing reading, writing, and arithmetic. We argue that a well-structured and sound competence model is needed as a shared foundation for learning, teaching, pedagogical diagnostics and evaluative schemes in the school system.…

Background: Computational thinking (CT) has been broadly considered one of the 21st-century competencies, and an emerging trend has been seen in integrating CT into primary education. Cumulative research was conducted to investigate the influencing factors of CT learning performance, and an ample range of factors has been identified, involving…

Enhancing students' analytical thinking skills holds great promise for bolstering a nation's economic growth, fostering a dynamic learning culture, and nurturing human capital development. It is especially critical in today's rapidly changing landscape, where the demand for skilled, adaptable graduates is high. Achieving and sustaining these…

This case study explores how 12-13-year-old students encounter proportional reasoning while working with geometric patterning tasks using concrete materials. The focus is on the students' use of spontaneous concepts when first dealing with such patterns in the context of collaborative work. Based on video recordings of a single lesson, a…

Chemical reasoning takes many forms. The focus in this paper is on a reasoning process that facilitates using experimental evidence to make connections between macroscopic and submicroscopic domains, which we will refer to as "creating representation." It is a particular type of reasoning that has played a critical role in chemistry,…

This research aims to: 1) Develop an effective Brain-Based Learning (BBL) plan combined with skill practice exercises for Grade 10 students, achieving a performance criterion of 70/70; 2) Compare the learning outcomes in elementary logic before and after implementing the BBL approach combined with skill practice exercises for Grade 10 students; 3)…

Game-based learning has gained significant attention from educational researchers because of its ability to create an engaging and enjoyable learning environment for students. However, there was a research gap regarding the design of game mechanics that specifically helped students understand abstract scientific concepts. Also, the impact of…

Conceptual approaches to contemporary physics topics pose many learning challenges. One factor influencing knowledge integration is a student's epistemic framing. Epistemic frames provide a context within which a particular situation is perceived, interpreted, and judged. The objective of this study is to explore secondary students' framings…

This commentary provides an overview of abduction, also known as Inference to the Best Explanation, and argues that the term and relevant problem-solving methods should be adopted by chemistry educators. Abductive reasoning, especially within the context of science and medicine, continues to be an active area of exploration for philosophers and…

This study examined age-related differences in the effectiveness of two generative learning strategies (GLSs). Twenty-five children aged 9-11 and 25 university students aged 17-29 performed a facts learning task in which they had to generate either a prediction or an example before seeing the correct result. We found a significant Age × Learning…

The mathematics classroom is particularly vulnerable to these judgments of perfectionism, with endless evidence of students and teachers believing that mathematics is based on an ultimate truth or a single, objective, unique answer. School mathematics still favors students' participation in rote procedures, memorization, and using only a few…

In undergraduate mathematics, deductive reasoning plays important roles in teaching and learning various ideas, and is primarily characterized by the concept of logical implication. This comes up whenever conditional statements are applied, i.e., one checks if a statement's hypotheses are satisfied and then makes inferences. In calculus, students…