In this paper, we integrate organizational, engineering education, and educational learning literature to develop a model of student learning so as to research how learning style, behavioral tendencies, gender, and race have the potential to act as facilitators or barriers to the learning process. We argue that the gains in higher-order cognitive…

Forty-two undergraduate and graduate students completed VIEW: An Assessment of Problem Solving Style, the non-verbal Torrance Test Thinking Creatively with Pictures, and the Problem Solving Inventory (PSI). VIEW assesses individuals' orientation to change, manner of processing, and ways of deciding, while the Torrance test measures several…

This article describes the use of contextualized and "blended" learning to teach biochemistry to dietetic students during the second year of their professional training in a 4-year undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics). Contextualized content was used to engage students and motivate them to learn biochemistry, which many…

The goal of the study reported here is to gain a better understanding of the role of belief systems in the approach phase to mathematical problem solving. Two students of high academic performance were selected based on a previous exploratory study of 61 students 12-13 years old. In this study we identified different types of approaches to…

The study reported here is the third in a series of research articles (Harkness, S. S., D'Ambrosio, B., & Morrone, A. S., in "Educational Studies in Mathematics" 65:235-254, 2007; Morrone, A. S., Harkness, S. S., D'Ambrosio, B., & Caulfield, R. in "Educational Studies in Mathematics" 56:19-38, 2004) about the teaching practices of the same…

The study examined the incremental validity of thinking styles in predicting academic achievement after controlling for personality and achievement motivation in the hypermedia-based learning environment. Seventy-two Chinese college students from Shanghai, the People's Republic of China, took part in this instructional experiment. The…

Critical thinking is deemed as an ideal in academic settings, but cultural differences in critical thinking performance between Asian and Western students have been reported in the international education literature. We examined explanations for the observed differences in critical thinking between Asian and New Zealand (NZ) European students, and…

One of the greatest needs of faculty in adult and higher education today is to understand how to design distance learning courses which address the needs of their current and prospective students while upholding academic excellence and remaining feasible to develop (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009; Palloff & Pratt, 2004). This…

Not all children are made the same. Learning disabilities like dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalculia are either not understood or ignored in schools. As a result, the schoolchildren suffer for no fault of theirs and they lag behind in their course of learning. They may find it difficult to achieve the basic skills of learning such as reading,…

Key to renewed concern on the affective domain of education (Fensham, 2007) and on school graduates' readiness for a world of work (DEST, 2008; WDA, 2006) is the student's inclination-to-reflect when engaged in a learning or problem-solving task. Reflective learning is not new to education (Dewey, 1933; Ellis, 2001). Since the…

This study aimed at investigating: (a) the psychometric properties of Kolb's LSI-1985 in a Greek sample of pre-service and in-service teachers (N=338), (b) group differences in their learning styles and (c) possible relations between the participants' learning styles and their metacognitive knowledge about the frequency of using various…

The reality is that approximately 5-8% of school-age students have memory or other cognitive deficits that interfere with their ability to acquire, master, and apply mathematical concepts and skills (Geary, 2004). These students with Mathematical Learning Disabilities (MLD) are at risk for failure in middle school mathematics because they…

This study reviews theories supporting the construction of student knowledge and found they rely upon theoretical operations with few pragmatic applications. A new paradigm of learning needs to emerge which focuses on how students actually construct their own knowledge, based on reconstructing current/past knowledge or experience, and their…

Today with teacher cutbacks looming, and more integration units, general teachers might be required to teach the visual arts. Therefore, teachers need a clear definition of the discipline of art and personal exposure to aesthetic experiences. Many references are made to classic art education research. When lesson plan formats are generic it…

This study investigated the relationship between 3 ability-based cognitive styles (verbal deductive, spatial imagery, and object imagery) and performance on geometry problems that provided different types of clues. The purpose was to determine whether students with a specific cognitive style outperformed other students, when the geometry problems…