The concept of structure and function is a fundamental example of a crosscutting concept found in the educational reform documents in multiple STEM disciplines. However, the terms structure and function are words used in everyday language, and their use in various disciplines may be a source of lexical ambiguity for students. Discipline-specific…

Today's learners can easily share their thoughts on their social networks, and this movement, undoubtedly, has been affecting their learning. However, learners in such an ad hoc social network environment need a deliberate design to support their idea sharing and concept exchange. Gaining insights into how to stimulate concept sharing in a social…

The purpose of this study was to determine the active learning and teaching methods and techniques which are employed by the social studies teachers working in state schools of Turkey. This usage status was assessed using different variables. This was a case study, wherein the research was limited to 241 social studies teachers. These teachers…

This article reports the design, development, and evaluation of an online software application for assessing students' understanding of curricular content based on concept maps. This computer-based assessment program, called the Assessment Agent System, was designed by following an agent-oriented software design method. The Assessment Agent System…

Research has documented the use of tools in computer-based learning environments as problematic, that is, learners do not use the tools and when they do, they tend to do it suboptimally. This study attempts to disentangle cause and effect of this suboptimal tool use for experienced learners. More specifically, learner variables (metacognitive and…

This article presents KnowledgePuzzle, a browsing tool for knowledge construction from the web. It aims to adapt the structure of web content to the learner's information needs regardless of how the web content is originally delivered. Learners are provided with a meta-cognitive space (e.g., a concept mapping tool) that enables them to plan…

Self-regulated learners are expected to plan their own learning. Because planning is a complex task, it is not self-evident that all learners can perform this task successfully. In this study, we examined the effects of two planning support tools on the quality of created plans, planning behavior, task load, and acquired knowledge. Sixty-five…

Nation. New. Common. Generation. These are among the most frequently used words spoken by President Barack Obama in his January 2009 inauguration speech as seen in a fascinating visual display called a Wordle. Educators, too, can harness the power of Wordle to enhance learning. Imagine providing students with a whole new perspective on…

The purpose of this thesis is to improve our understanding of sensemaking process as a basis for building better systems to assist sensemaking. Sensemaking is the task of creating an understanding of a problem or task so that further actions may be taken in an informed manner. Sensemaking is a pre-requisite for many other tasks such as decision…

As part of a math-science partnership, a university mathematics educator and ten elementary school teachers developed a novel approach to mathematical problem solving derived from research on reading and writing pedagogy. Specifically, research indicates that students who use graphic organizers to arrange their ideas improve their comprehension…

The importance of the Learner's Voice and thus of listening to students' views has been evidenced in various high profile initiatives in the UK. The work presented here is from the JISC Learners' Experiences of E-Learning Phase 2 Learners' Journeys STROLL project. The seven JISC funded projects were set up in 2007 to investigate inter alia the…

CADMOS is a graphical learning design (LD) authoring tool that helps a teacher design a unit of learning in two layers: (i) the conceptual layer, which seems like a concept map and contains the learning activities with their associated learning resources and (ii) the flow layer, which contains the orchestration of these activities. One of CADMOS'…

This study used concept maps to investigate the effect of using graphing calculators on students' understanding of the derivative at a point. The study looked for differences between the concept images that are held by students' who are using graphing calculators and the students who are not using them. Seventy one students enrolled in two…

This interdisciplinary analysis examines the use of visual images in the college classroom. The three authors--a community psychologist, a literacy specialist, and a mathematician--share examples and critical reflections that illuminate the strengths and challenges in using this medium to meet teaching and learning goals. The authors highlight one…

The rapid advance of information and communication technologies (ICT) has important impacts on teaching and learning, as well as on the educational assessment. Teachers may create assessments utilizing some developed assessment software or test authoring tools. However, problems could occur, such as neglecting key concepts in the curriculum or…