We investigated the effect of conceptual transparency in the physical structure of manipulatives on place-value understanding in typically developing children and those at risk for mathematics learning disabilities. Second graders were randomly assigned to one of three manipulatives conditions: (a) attachable beads that did not make the…

The unit factor method, a generic strategy for solving any proportion-related problem, is known to be effective at reducing cognitive load through unit-cancellation providing step-by-step guidance. However, concerns have been raised that it can be applied mindlessly. This primarily quantitative prepost study investigates the efficacy of…

Student performance in general organic chemistry courses is determined by a wide range of factors including cognitive ability, motivation and cultural capital. Previous work on cognitive factors has tended to focus on specific areas rather than exploring performance across all problem types and cognitive skills. In this study, we have categorized…

The main purposes of this study were to identify Taiwanese university students' physics learning profiles in terms of their critical conceptions of learning physics and to compare their physics learning self-efficacy with the different learning profiles. A total of 250 Taiwanese undergraduates who were majoring in physics participated in this…

Augmented reality (AR) is currently considered as having potential for pedagogical applications. However, in science education, research regarding AR-aided learning is in its infancy. To understand how AR could help science learning, this review paper firstly has identified two major approaches of utilizing AR technology in science education,…

This conference presentation examines concept development for congenitally blind students. It presents current research on best-practice for teaching this population. Examples of strategies to reinforce understanding of body concepts, spatial awareness, and positional language, while promoting mirroring, self regulation, and purposeful movement to…

The internal/external frame of reference model (I/E model; Marsh, 1986) is a highly influential model of self-concept formation, which predicts that domain-specific abilities have positive effects on academic self-concepts in the corresponding domain and negative effects across domains. Investigations of the I/E model do not typically incorporate…

The thesis presents a literature review of selected characteristics of learning disabled children and the relationship between these characteristics and reading. Thirty-three characteristics are discussed, divided into three categories: selected cognitive abilities, speech and language development, and selected behavioral and emotional-social…

The development of psychological methods for assessing the abilities of deaf students could aid in the formation of educational programs and the provision of vocational guidance. A battery of tests designed to measure a wide range of functions was administered to all eighth grade students, average age 15, in schools for the deaf in Sweden. All…

Article considers the purposes of social studies instruction and focused on the transmission of knowledge and societal processes. (Author/RK)

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effects of two factors - number of defining attributes and the degree to which a student has learned those attributes (level of conceptualization) - on the difficulty of a concept. (Author)

Reported is a study of the relationships between concrete and formal operational science subject matter and the intellectual level of the learner. During the last month of instruction in the academic year, 51 biology students, 54 chemistry students, and 33 physics students were interviewed with four Piagetian tasks: Conservation of Weight,…

Experiment I was designed to demonstrate that young children fail to abstract the positive cue as the relevant stimulus event in a restricted concept-learning task. Sixteen kindergarten and 16 fourth grade subjects were trained to criterion on a Kendler-type task, whereupon each subject was presented a pair of new instances which contrasted only…

Examines how understanding of the concept of an electrical circuit depends upon age, sex, non-verbal ability, reading ability, and spatial ability among 192 eight to 11 year old students in two English elementary schools. Findings indicated performance differences by all factors except sex. (Author/DB)

Describes student difficulties with understanding quantitative concepts as presented in selected third grade social studies textbooks. Test results of student accuracy in understanding of quantitative concepts are presented and discussed, and teaching methods for quantitative reinforcement are provided. (Author/DB)