The alternative conceptions that students hold put a brake on subsequent meaningful learning, and therefore, the identification of these wrong ideas is crucial for effective teaching and academic success. Undergraduate STEM students often perceive Chemical Thermodynamics as a difficult subject, in which entropy has been pointed out as a threshold…

Clear and rigorous quantum reasoning is needed to explain quantum physical phenomena. As pillars of true quantum physical explanations, we suggest specific quantum reasoning derived from quantum physical key ideas. An experiment is suggested to support such a quantum reasoning, in which a quantized radiation field interacts with an optical beam…

Augmented Reality (AR) has become an emerging educational technology in classroom practice and science education. While most research and contemporary meta-analyses reveal benefits with regard to knowledge acquisition and motivation of Augmented Reality-based learning environments, most of the studies lack a clear and fair control condition. In…

Distance learning is expanding rapidly, fueled by the novel technologies for shared recorded teaching sessions on the Web. Here, we ask whether 3D stereoscopic (3DS) virtual learning environment teaching sessions are more compelling than typical two-dimensional (2D) video sessions and whether this type of teaching results in superior learning. The…

This questionnaire study analyzed responses of 96 first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year students of College German to the second part of a two-part question, namely, (a) what forms of German grammar are particularly difficult, and (b) why so. Response patterns show that word order, adjective endings, the subjunctive, and the gender/number/case…

In this study the effect of Discovery Learning and course evaluation based on Bloom's Taxonomy on the academic success of undergraduate students in Northern Cyprus was investigated. One demographic questionnaire was distributed to 829 students and two questionnaires were distributed to these students' instructors in order to collect information on…

Different approaches have been used to teach EFL students summary writing, including a genre-based approach (Chen & Su, 2012), implementing key words and question generation (Chou, 2012), and automatic scaffolding and concept mapping (Yang, 2015). This study aims to explore the effectiveness of another approach--one that might be more…

Despite an increased awareness of language learner performance in task-based instruction, little is known about how learners perceive and respond to different task factors. This study investigates the effects of task complexity and modality on (a) learners' perception of task difficulty, skill, and its balance, and on (b) learners' task…

Some music has been proved effectively to mitigate anxiety, beneficial to reading. However, little was known on its influence of reading behaviors and outcomes. Thanks to the advance of e-book technology, it becomes possible to track reading rate and outcomes in a real-time manner by the underlying mobile devices. This study intends to examine the…

In the past decades, various systems have been proposed to provide students with a better learning environment by taking personal factors into account. Learning styles have been one of the widely adopted factors in the previous studies as a reference for adapting learning content or organizing the content. However, very few researchers give an…

This research examined how four different animated pedagogical agent implementations, which focus on perceptual and inquiry arousal conditions of attention as defined in Keller's ARCS model of motivational design (Keller, 2009), impact English language learners' situational interest, cognitive load, and reading comprehension in online readings…

Augmented reality (AR) offers potential advantages for intensifying environmental context awareness and augmenting students' experiences in real-world environments by dynamically overlapping digital materials with a real-world environment. However, some challenges to AR learning environments have been described, such as participants' cognitive…

This article is the first of a two-part series that explores science teachers' and their pupils' experiences of using different pedagogical approaches based on understandings of how brains learn. For this case-study research, nine science teachers were interviewed and four teachers self-selected to trial a pedagogical approach, new to them, from…

This study examines the subjects and concepts in biology perceived to be difficult to learn and teach by 759 pre-service biology teachers registered in the pedagogical formation program at Uludag University Faculty of Education in the academic year of 2005-2016, as well as the associations that word "biology" first calls to their mind.…

Higher education plays a key role in national economic development. According to statistics from the Ministry of Education (MOE), there were 166 higher education institutions (HEIs) in Taiwan in 2014. This form of mass education provides more educational opportunities for students, but also causes problems like low teaching quality and…