This study sought to understand how aspects of middle school mathematics teachers' knowledge and conceptions are related to their enactment of cognitively demanding tasks. I defined the enactment of cognitively demanding tasks to involve task selection and maintenance of the cognitive demand of high-level tasks and examined those two…

Using a design-based research approach, we developed a data-rich problem (DRP) set to improve student understanding of cellular respiration at the ecosystem level. The problem tasks engage students in data analysis to develop biological explanations. Several of the tasks and their implementation are described. Quantitative results suggest that…

Optional (non-assessed) learning activities are a learning tool that may help students achieve their desired grade, or help students with lower levels of previous experience in the topic. This study examines the implementation of, and outcomes from, two optional activities, one online and one paper-based. The activities complemented the lectures…

This study aimed to seek an in-depth understanding about English collocation learning and the development of learner autonomy through investigating a group of English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' perspectives and practices in their learning of English collocations using an AWARE approach. A group of 20 PRC students learning English in…

This paper examines the effect of a podcasting task on the examination performance of several hundred first-year chemistry undergraduate students. Educational researchers have established that a deep approach to learning that promotes active understanding of meaning can lead to better student outcomes, higher grades and superior retention of…

As an important and a challenging source-based writing task, synthesizing offers rich opportunities to explore the connections between reading and writing. In this article, we report findings from a qualitative study of two Chinese students' learning experiences with academic synthesis writing in a university ESL composition course. Specifically,…

Teacher language and students' on-task behavior were examined in language arts lessons with and without classroom drama in two self-contained third grade classrooms for students with learning disabilities and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Language arts lessons that integrated classroom drama were associated with significantly higher…

Background: Pre-service teacher education (PSTE) programmes for generalist primary school teachers have limited time allocated to Physical Education, Health and Personal Development. In practice, teachers in schools are required to assess motor skills despite the fact that their training provides minimal preparation. This necessitates creative…

Voxy, an English-language-learning company, has developed a custom, in-house proficiency exam, the Voxy Proficiency Assessment (VPA), which is given to all learners at the beginning and end of their courses. Using Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR), the impact of covariates, such as total learning activities completed and total number of…

As educators of foreign and second languages debate the most efficient methods of implementing pragmatic instruction in the L2 classroom, is it possible that Spanish pragmatic instruction is not necessary if American Spanish pragmatic norms are no different than American English norms? The present investigation studies the pragmatic norms in…

One of the most challenging tasks in increasingly diverse classrooms is helping students develop the "knowledge and language of science to communicate scientific explanations and ideas" (NRC 1996, p. 144). In this article, the authors share one of their favorite methods for incorporating and reinforcing science vocabulary instruction in…

The incorporation of scientific inquiry into college classrooms has steadily risen as faculty work to move away from exclusively didactic methods. One type of inquiry structure, the design task, produces a product rather than simply a conclusion. This offers students a context to apply their understanding of content in a tangible way that has…

This article describes a project that focuses on numeracy in secondary school mathematics. During the course of the project a teacher had the chance to develop and trial new tasks and styles of teaching and learning numeracy. She became increasingly comfortable with using more extended tasks for learning mathematics. However, she believes that it…

Associations among sibling teaching strategies, learner behavior, age, age gap, gender, and social-cognitive skills (second-order false-belief and interpretive understanding of knowledge) were investigated in 63 sibling dyads in early and middle childhood. Two teaching tasks were introduced to the older sibling teacher: a teacher-directed task…

Winne and Hadwin (2008) identified four phases of self-regulated learning (SRL) including defining the task, setting goals and making plans, studying (i.e., learning), and adaptation. The vast majority of SRL research has focused on processing during the third phase, studying. In this study, we developed coding rubrics that allowed us to examine…