Supplemental instruction, also known as Peer Assisted Study Sessions (SI-PASS), is a well-established form of peer learning that has been implemented in higher education institutions across the globe and that coincides with learning gains for participants. While the effects on learning gains have been extensively studied with quasi-experiments,…

Many students use ineffective learning strategies. They tend to start too late and learn in a superficial way, without integrating different parts of the study materials. To help students in "Psychological Assessment in Youth" overcome these problems, we designed online study-aids to spread their learning over the semester (distributed…

The importance of psychological factors is manifested in the ability of students to acquire knowledge, gaining skills, perception of educational information, attitude to others, mutual understanding with people around. Taking this into consideration, the purpose of the academic paper is to study the basic aspects of the development of teachers'…

The authors explored whether a testing effect occurs not only for retention of facts but also for application of principles and procedures. For that purpose, 38 high school students either repeatedly studied a text on probability calculations or studied the text, took a test on the content, restudied the text, and finally took the test a second…

The "testing effect" refers to the finding that after an initial study opportunity, testing is more effective for long-term retention than restudying. The testing effect seems robust and is a finding from the field of cognitive science that has important implications for education. However, it is unclear whether this effect also applies…

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into determinants of knowledge growth among first-year psychology students in a curriculum that uses the Progress Test (an assessment method for long-term retention of knowledge and knowledge growth) as its main assessment tool. To that end, the relation between the level of initial learning, prior…

Recently, more students have entered Dutch higher education. This is a consequence of the possibility to offer students to enter higher education, with a certificate from senior secondary education (SSVE). In earlier days most students in higher education had passed senior general secondary education (SGSE), or even pre-university education. It is…

The use of embedded support devices (ESDs) has been studied in previous research that has unfortunately demanded introspection and reflection on one's own cognitive functioning. In contrast, eye movement registration measures the attentional focus of students on specific text parts regardless of whether or not the student is conscious of this…

An attempt is made to elaborate a theoretical base about the functions and effects of embedded support devices (ESDs), considering the extent to which students actually use ESDs. ESDs are a set of activating, structuring, and motivating extras in study materials that are designed to support the individual study process. The report describes the…

The key question in the research reported is whether a high investment in the design of written materials for use in distance education is worth the effort. Specifically, the study investigated the actual use of embedded support devices (ESDs) by 25 students at the Open University of the Netherlands in a distance education governmental law course.…

The relationship between embedded support devices (ESDs) and study results was examined to determine whether ESDs have a positive effect on study outcome. Two versions of a learning unit of a governmental law course at the Open University of the Netherlands were constructed. One represented the original text and the other was about 40% shorter as…