When analyzing student reflection assignments from a mandatory research methods course, the authors were struck by the tension between students' own approaches to learning and the challenges, uncertainties, and frustrations accompanying their efforts. Students' ideas about what constitutes learning, how learning is to be done, and how they…

This study explored whether different types of instructional visuals--knowledge maps and pictorial illustrations--encourage students to focus on specific types of conceptual relationships during learning. Undergraduates (n = 134) studied a text lesson on the human nervous system accompanied by maps (text-with-maps group), illustrations…

Perceptions about learning to read were studied in 474 second through fifth graders in three elementary schools. The children were asked to respond in writing to a question about what they would say if they were asked to help someone learn to read. Initially, the responses were analyzed qualitatively by identifying themes and categories; further…

Self-regulated learning has been described as an adaptive process: students adapt their learning strategies for attaining different learning goals. In order to be adaptive, students must have a clear notion of what the task requirements consist of. Both trace data and questionnaire data indicate that students adapt study strategies in limited ways…