Small but robust differences in cognition exist between the sexes in adult populations. Studying sex differences in children's cognition can bring insight into when, where and how these differences might emerge in development. Here, we focus on differences in working memory because of its importance in underpinning a wide range of complex…

The study investigated the effect of an instructor's positive (vs. neutral) emotions in video lectures on student learning using either easy or difficult geography topics (i.e. easy: the Earth within the universe; difficult: understanding time and date calculations of Earth). The results showed that, first, students responded more positively…

The COVID-19 pandemic provided students a rare opportunity to use their mathematical knowledge to make sense of a top-of-mind crisis. Based on a report in a major regional newspaper, we designed tasks that require an understanding of infection rates and an interpretation of a misleading claim made in the newspaper. Our analysis of 91 undergraduate…

Background: While studies examining graduate engineering student attrition have grown more prevalent, there is an incomplete understanding of the plight faced by persisting students. As mental health and well-being crises emerge in graduate student populations, it is important to understand how students conceptualize their well-being in relation…

This book argues that mathematical challenge can be found at any level and at every age and constitutes an essential characteristic of any mathematics classroom aimed at developing the students' mathematical knowledge and skills. Since each mathematics classroom is heterogeneous with respect to students' mathematical potential, quality…

Although the TOEFL iBT Listening test is sometimes used for other purposes, it was designed primarily for use as a college entrance examination. Item difficulty in TOEFL iBT Listening tests is the product of interactions between two sets of complex relationships: 1) relationships among numerous item characteristics themselves, and 2) relationships…

The instructor's eye gaze can serve as an important social cue in video lectures. The current study used two sets of three-level meta-analyses to explore the effects of the instructor's guided gaze or the instructor's direct gaze on learning outcomes, fixation time, perception of parasocial interaction, and cognitive load. A total of eight…

We report the validity of a test instrument that assesses the arithmetic ability of primary students by (a) describing the theoretical model of arithmetic ability assessment using Wilson's (2004) four building blocks of constructing measures and (b) providing empirical evidence for the validation study. The instrument consists of 21…

Purpose: Identification of children with specific language impairment (SLI) can be difficult even though their language can lag that of age peers throughout childhood. A clinical grammar marker featuring tense marking in simple clauses is valid and reliable for young children but is limited by ceiling effects around the age of 8 years. This study…

Natural science in education can be summarized as a complex system. The professional and methodological task in the teaching of natural sciences is to convey this complexity. The terms and models of graph theory can be used to model the system approach, such as networks. Networks consist of elements and connections between them, which can be well…

Complex problem solving is one of the skills desired in the 21st century workforce. Students can improve their problem-solving skills by working on homework problems, and creating new problems can be a stimulating and inventive exercise for student as well. Our previous studies explored the impacts of a novel homework pedagogy where students…

The purpose of this study was to understand faculty perspectives of institutional change. The context for the institutional change was a shift from a largely traditional student population with a focus on the liberal arts to a range of adult and non-traditional students seeking professional degrees. The three research questions which guided the…

In online education, the appropriate choice of means of knowledge visualization can reduce cognitive load and improve cognitive efficiency. However, no universal basis for selection can cause confusion in the pedagogical context. This study used the revised Bloom's taxonomy to combine the types of knowledge with cognitive goals. We used a course…

Eyeblink conditioning is used in many species to study motor learning and make inferences about cerebellar function. However, the discrepancies in performance between humans and other species combined with evidence that volition and awareness can modulate learning suggest that eyeblink conditioning is not merely a passive form of learning that…

Students in high school tend to find genetics difficult to learn because it requires some crosslinked knowledge about subjects like genes, proteins, cells, tissues as well as organs and systems. It also becomes more difficult to connect and explain concepts such as the gene expression at the level of the cell to conceptualize the effect of the…