Universities face the challenge of constantly improving the quality of higher education and changing the learning behaviour of students, from passive reactive learning to active self-regulated learning. Learner-centred, constructively designed learning tasks offer a great opportunity here. This paper investigates to what extent the learning…

Background: This study investigated learning outcomes and user perceptions from interactions with a hybrid intelligent tutoring system created by combining the AutoTutor conversational tutoring system with the Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS) adaptive learning system for mathematics. This hybrid intelligent tutoring system (ITS)…

The Association of American Colleges and Universities ranks multiple process of science (POS) skills among the top-10 skills employers seek in college graduates. As part of an effort to explore and align the emphasis on POS skills in our science departments, we sought three things: (a) to determine if faculty and students felt enough time was…

Understanding how students translate between mathematical representations is of both practical and theoretical importance. This study examined students' processes in their generation of symbolic and graphic representations of given polynomial functions. The purpose was to investigate how students perform these translations. The result of the study…

A sample of 127 high school Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus students from two schools was utilized to study the effects of an engineering design-based problem solving strategy on student performance with AP style Related Rate questions and changes in conceptions, beliefs, and influences. The research design followed a treatment-control multiple…

Seeking improved student performance in elementary schools has led educators to advocate inquiry-based teaching approaches, including problem-based learning (PBL). In PBL, students simultaneously develop problem-solving strategies, disciplinary knowledge bases, collaborative skills, and dispositions. Research into the efficacy of PBL in elementary…

This study manipulated the timing and control of error feedback in problem solving and examined their effects on skill acquisition by 40 undergraduate students learning to program in the computer language Lisp under four error feedback conditions. These four conditions included two types of symbol-by-symbol feedback that vary in content, a…

A within-subjects design was used to compare two instructional methods--explicit timing and interspersing--with 187 second-grade students. Students completed two mathematics word problem assignments under differing conditions. In the explicit timing condition, students were told they would be timed while working long mathematics word problems. In…

Discusses problem solving, problem-based learning, and collaborative learning, and describes a university study that investigated the effects of individual Web-based learning versus computer-mediated collaborative Web-based learning and ability grouping on learner performance in solving ill-defined problems. Considers time on task, participant…

This issue of "Investigations in Mathematics Education" contains: (1) a review of E. Fischbein's book "The Intuitive Sources of Probabilistic Thinking in Children;" (2) nine abstracts of research studies in mathematics education; (3) a list (by EJ number) of mathematics education research studies reported in the January to…

Describes a study that provided innercity fourth grade African-American students in Texas with hardware to participate in a telecommunications network to determine whether participation would increase their scores on statewide fifth grade math tests. Time online, content of programs, connections between math and language arts, and student…