Asking surface-level questions is a common practice among educators. Delva Daines's (1986) pilot study indicated that 93 percent of the questions asked during lessons were at the literal level of comprehension and that it was very common for the teachers to restate, rephrase, or answer their own questions before the student had an opportunity to…

We present an analysis of several characteristics of examples in 10 college algebra textbooks used in community colleges or 4-year institutions. We analyzed the examples along four dimensions: cognitive demand, the responses expected, the use of representations, and the strategies available for verifying the correctness of the solutions. We found…

Learning analytics has been as used a tool to improve the learning process mainly at the micro-level (courses and activities). However, another of the key promises of learning analytics research is to create tools that could help educational institutions at the meso- and macro-level to gain better insight into the inner workings of their programs…

This research article is based on a pilot study that we carried out to gain preliminary insights into how English is taught at "Sekolah Agama Rakyat" ("SAR" or literally translated as "People's Islamic Religious Schools") in a state in northern Peninsula Malaysia. In the process of carrying out the study, we tested…

Optimizing the usability of e-learning materials is necessary to reduce extraneous cognitive load and maximize their potential educational impact. However, this is often neglected, especially when time and other resources are limited. We conducted a randomized trial to investigate whether a usability evaluation of our multimedia e-learning…

Young learners' use of instructional games in foreign language learning is not yet well understood. Using games that were part of the learning tools for an online assessment, Jido-Eiken, a standardized English proficiency test for young learners in Japan, we examined young learners' game-playing behaviours and the relationship of these behaviours…

Students at the College of Languages and Translation (COLT) take an Islamic Translation course in which they practice translating different kinds of Islamic texts (genres) including excerpts from the Holy Quran and the Prophet's Sayings. The aims of the present article are to introduce the students to the history of the translation of the Holy…

In this study, the effects of the use of peer tutoring in Effective and Good Speech Course on students' success, perception of speech self-efficacy and speaking skills were examined. The study, designed as a mixed pattern in which quantitative and qualitative research approaches were combined, was carried out together with 57 students in 2014 to…

Simulation games are becoming increasingly popular in education, but more insight in their critical design features is needed. This study investigated the effects of fidelity of open patient cases in adjunct to an instructional e-module on students' cognitive skills and motivation. We set up a three-group randomized post-test-only design: a…

Organic Chemistry is recognized as a course that presents many difficulties and conceptual challenges for students. To combat the high failure rates and poor student attitudes associated with this challenging course, we implemented a "flipped" model for the first-semester, large-enrollment, Organic Chemistry course. In this flipped…

Mixed visuals of numbers and graphs are available in various financial reports that demonstrate the financial status and risks of a firm. GWN (graphs with numbers) and TWG (table of numbers with graphs) were used as two alternative visuals derived from the actual data of two large public companies, one from food manufacturing industry (food) and…

Negative priming (NP) refers to the finding that people's responses to probe targets previously presented as prime distractors are usually slower than to unrepeated stimuli. Intriguingly, the effect sizes of tactile NP were much larger than the effect sizes for visual NP. We analyzed whether the large tactile NP effect is just a side effect of the…

This article reports research into the nature and functioning of school governing bodies in different socio-economic and performance contexts. The research analysed 5000 responses from a national questionnaire-based survey and undertook 30 case studies of school governing. The research confirmed that school governing in England is a complex and…

The present study investigates the direct and indirect influence of motivation for learning, as understood by the self-determination theory, on students' approaches to learning. Concerning the direct influence of motivation, results show that autonomous motivation is positively related to a deep approach to learning and negatively to a surface…

The following paper represents review of the literature examining the current research related to cognitive load theory and more specifically the negative aspects of the redundant on-screen text. The authors describe working and long-term memory and how both factor into human learning through the facilitation of knowledge transfer. Limited working…