In higher education, just amounts of tuition fees are often a topic of heated debate among different groups such as students, university teachers, administrative staff, and policymakers. We investigated whether unpleasant situations that students often experience at university due to social crowding can affect students' views on the justified…

In addition to serving summative assessment purposes, testing has turned out to be a powerful learning tool. However, while the beneficial effect of testing on learning performances has been confirmed in a large body of literature, the question of exactly how testing influences cognitive and metacognitive processes remains unclear. We therefore…

Writing is regarded as the most challenging task and the most difficult language skill among EFL students. Students need to employ different cognitive strategies in order to convey the meaning to the reader. Due to the complexity of the process, students display negative attitudes towards writing and the level of success is low. This study…

Understanding methods for effectively instructing STEM education concepts is essential in the current climate of education (Freeman, Marginson, & Tyler 2014). Kolb's experiential learning theory (ELT) outlines four specific modes of learning, based on preferences for grasping and transforming information. This quasi-experimental study was…

The purpose of this study was to introduce an instructional technique for teaching complex tasks in physics, test its effectiveness and efficiency, and understand cognitive processes taking place in learners' minds while they are exposed to this technique. The study was based primarily on cognitive load theory (CLT). CLT determines the amount of…

For this study, we designed learning activities in which students applied newly acquired knowledge to solve meaningful daily life problems in their local community--a real, familiar, and relevant environment for students. For example, students learned about signs and rules in class and then applied this new knowledge to create their own rules for…

The aim of this study was to analyse whether conducting physical education lessons according to different motivational climates leads to a significant difference between students' achievement goals, motivational strategies and attitudes towards physical education. Participants (81-ninth grade students) were allocated to one of three experimental…

Although it is well known that music can affect cognitive processes, little research has been conducted examining the influence of background music on students in information literacy classrooms. In 2010, librarians at Western Michigan University investigated the effect of background music on student engagement and retention of information…

Considering social and emotional competence in learning, "emotion awareness" aims to detect the emotions that students show during their learning interactions and make these emotions explicit to them. Being aware of their emotions, students become more conscious of their situation, what may prompt them to behavioral change. The main goal…

This quantitative study sought to identify the effect of heightened situational awareness (SA) on persistence of doctoral distance learners. Factors in the distance learners' micro-environment, vis-à-vis Urie Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecology theory of human development, were the focus. Study participants included new doctoral candidates continuing…

The authors examined the role of an intervention designed to increase reading comprehension, reading self-efficacy beliefs, and engagement in social studies for middle school students of varying language backgrounds. Thirteen sixth- and seventh-grade teachers implemented the United States History for Engaged Reading (USHER) program with their…

This study aims at identifying the effects of the mind-mapping technique upon students' perceptions of inquiry-learning skills, academic achievement, and retention of knowledge. The study was carried out in the Science and Technology course. A quasi-experimental research design with a pre-test and post-test control group, which was selected from…

This paper reports on a series of introductory programming workshops, initially targeting female high school students, which utilised Lego Mindstorms robots. Cognitive load theory (CLT) was applied to the instructional design of the workshops, and a controlled experiment was also conducted investigating aspects of the interface. Results indicated…

The study compared the academic achievement, as measured by final examination scores, of an experimental group of undergraduate educational psychology students who were provided with concrete mechanisms designed to promote metacognition and the use of specific encoding strategies to the achievement of a control group of similar students who were…

Universities are trending towards displacing traditional printed textbooks (p-books) with electronic textbooks (e-books), even though an incomplete body of knowledge exists about the learning value of using e-books as instructional materials. As a result, this dissertation study was conducted to determine if digital textbooks are as…