This study explores how first-year seminar (FYS) instructors at four-year institutions in New England create meaningful adult learning environments for traditional-aged college students and apply adult learning principles. The research examines classroom practices and teaching philosophies using qualitative methods grounded in andragogy and…

We explored primary pre-service teachers' beliefs about challenging mathematical tasks and the role they perceived their initial teacher education played in influencing those aspects. Fifty-seven pre-service teachers completed an online questionnaire, and four participants were individually interviewed. Results showed that most participants…

The integration of teaching and learning technologies has been crucial catalysts for undergoing teaching and learning innovations. However, in many higher education institutions, these integration potentials have neither been consistently nor systematically used. The implementation of innovative teaching-learning technological change in higher…

The goal of the paper is to understand to what degree the student success depends on teaching practices and materials, and to what degree it is due to differences in background, including prior knowledge, skills, preparation, abilities, etc. We analyzed the existing research on outcomes of the SAT and ACT in the United States and the Unified…

Physical phenomena and relations can be described mathematically by functional dependencies. These are represented in the form of tables, graphs, algebraic expressions or verbal descriptions. Only the combination of different representations enables students to experience a physical phenomenon or concept in a holistic way. Therefore, students have…

We investigated the effects of proximal grouping of numbers, problem-solving goals to make 100, and prior knowledge on students' solution strategies in an online mathematics game. Logistic regression on 857 problem-level data points from 227 middle-school students showed that students were more likely to use productive solution strategies on…

Problem-solving is one of the 21st-century skills. However, students still have difficulty solving sequences and series word problems. The purpose of this research is to analyze students' errors in solving sequences and series word problems based on problem-solving steps of Polya. The research method is descriptive qualitative. The research…

This paper presents a case study of an experienced and competent mathematics teacher's classroom instructional practice in a Normal Technical Mathematics course. The topic that was observed was Volume and Surface Area of a Pyramid, a subtopic within the mensuration topic in Secondary Two syllabus. The teacher used a video clip on the Egyptian…

The variability effect occurs when learners' exposure to highly variable tasks results in better learning. It was hypothesised that learners who studied high variability worked examples would obtain higher post-test scores compared to learners who studied low variability examples, and learners who self-generated problem solutions for the same high…

Prior research shows that self-explanation promotes understanding by helping learners connect new knowledge with prior knowledge. However, despite ample evidence supporting the effectiveness of self-explanation, an instructional design challenge emerges in how best to scaffold self-explanation. In particular, it is an open challenge to design…

This study was conducted to investigate how to teach velocity and speed effectively, with which activities and examples. Although they are different quantities, they are generally used in the same meaning. Study data and the quantities discussed were obtained from the examination of documents such as scientific articles and books about the…

Previous research has shown that providing video recommendations to students in virtual learning environments implemented at scale positively affects student achievement. However, it is also critical to evaluate whether the treatment effects are heterogeneous, and whether they depend on contextual variables such as disadvantaged student status and…

Many studies have shown that visual representations can enhance student understanding of STEM concepts. However, prior research suggests that visual representations alone are not necessarily effective across a broad range of students. To address this problem, we created a novel, scaffolded form of diagrammatic self-explanation in which students…

While scientific argumentation has been a robust topic in the research literature, much of the evidence from this area has been on learning science through text. This study was designed to analyze how individuals generated scientific evidence following engagement in a web-based global climate change simulation. Prior to engagement in the…

Previous research suggests that activating background knowledge immediately prior to read-alouds in Kindergarten is an important strategy for improving children's learning (e.g. Cervetti & Hiebert, 2015). But, because children's background knowledge varies considerably at the individual level, teachers are also often providing relevant…