Background: Both learning and problem solving are major goals of complex problem solving in engineering education. The order of knowledge construction and problem solving in learning through problem solving, however, has not been explained in current literature. Objectives: To understand their relationships, this study compared the effects of…

We examined student performance in a computer-supported learning environment after students undertook, among others, a graphing task within an inquiry context. Students were assigned in two conditions: (a) Students were given one variable, and they had to select the second one to construct their graph; (b) students were given four variables, and…

Background: Engaging students in computer-assisted guided inquiry learning has great potential to scaffold their scientific understanding: Students are expected to improve their scientific problem-solving skills, and at the same time gain a deep conceptual understanding of the subject-matter. Additional generative activities such as creating video…

Facing students' decreasing motivation to pursue scientific study, schools and educators need to coordinate new technologies with pedagogical agents to effectively sustain or promote students' scientific learning and motivation to learn. Although the provision of pedagogical agents in student learning has been studied previously, it is not clear…

Sixty-five teams of basic and secondary school students solved problem-solving tasks during a virtual hike in a Web-based inquiry-learning simulation Hiking Across Estonia. This environment provided learners with all necessary background information for problem-solving and tools for carrying out experiments. There were 25 tasks in certain order…