There is growing interest in the field of education for leveraging emerging digital technologies to support teachers' learning in online or blended settings. This paper builds on Clarke and Hollingsworth's (2002) "Interconnected Model of Professional Growth" by investigating an alternative instantiation of "professional…

Online participation in collaborative online learning environments is instrumental in motivating students to learn and promoting their learning satisfaction, but there has been little research on the technical supports for motivating students' online participation. The purpose of this study was to develop a visualization tool to motivate learners…

The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of mathematical practices evident during children's interactions with touchscreen mathematics virtual manipulatives. Researchers analyzed 33 Kindergarten children's interactions during activities involving apps featuring mathematical content of early number sense or quantity in base ten, recorded…

Earth and space science deserve the same level of inclusion in early childhood curriculum as the other science disciplines, and research shows that the sooner children are introduced to concepts like those presented in planetarium programs, the stronger their lifelong interest in science will be. Much astronomy visualization outside of…

Multiple studies report that Computer Science (CS) instructors face problems on how to integrate visualizations in their teaching. This problem gets compounded for instructors in technology-constrained classrooms that are common in developing countries. In these classrooms, students are not able to interact with visualization directly; instead,…

This paper attempted to make explicit some of the underlying characteristics of spatial visualisation using the concept of area of composite shapes. By engaging students with metric-free tasks, we identify the type of perceptual and visual/spatial manoeuvres that they deploy in such situations. Interview data collected from three students in Grade…

For many years, students have been taught to visualise data by drawing graphs. Recently, there has been a growing trend to teach statistics, particularly statistical concepts, using interactive and dynamic visualisation tools. Free down-loadable teaching and simulation software designed specifically for schools, and more general data visualisation…

Interactive Virtual Environments (VEs) have the potential to increase student interest in soil science. Accordingly a bespoke "soil atlas" was created using Java3D as an interactive 3D VE, to show soil information in the context of (and as affected by) the over-lying landscape. To display the below-ground soil characteristics, four sets…

The ripple tank is one of the physics education devices most appreciated by teachers and students. It allows one to visualize various phenomena related to wave physics in an effective and enthralling way. Usually this apparatus consists of a tank with a transparent bottom that is filled with a thin layer of water. A source of light illuminates the…

This case study contrasts the strategies used by two students in solving bilateral symmetry and reflection tasks, based on the differential properties they attended to. The ninth grader focussed on congruence of sides as the main property of reflection whereas the eighth grader focussed on perpendicularity and equi-distance, as is the normative…

In many situations people need to mentally adopt the (spatial) perspective of other persons, an ability that is referred to as "Level 2 perspective taking." Its underlying processes have been ascribed to mental self-rotation that can be dissociated from mental object-rotation. Recent findings suggest that perspective taking/self-rotation…

Relative to abstract words, concrete words typically elicit faster response times and larger N400 and N700 event-related potential (ERP) brain responses. These effects have been interpreted as reflecting the denser links to associated semantic information of concrete words and their recruitment of visual imagery processes. Here, we examined…

The growth of education systems and the construction of the state have always been connected. The processes of governing education systems always utilized data through a range of administrative records, pupil testing, efficiency surveys and international projects. By the late twentieth century, quantitative data had gained enormous influence in…

This paper explains the design of a graphics-based virtual environment for instructing computer hardware concepts to students, especially those at the beginner level. Photorealistic visualizations and simulations are designed and programmed with interactive features allowing students to practice, explore, and test themselves on computer hardware…

This study examines graphing calculator affordances in learning mathematics among college precalculus students. The study draws from the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and the "Intelligent Technology" theoretical framework proposed by Salomon, Perkins, and Globerson (1991). From these perspectives the effects "with" the graphing…