Many studies report information overload as one of the main problems that students encounter in online learning via computer-mediated communication. This study aimed to explore the sources of online students' information overload and offer suggestions for increasing students' cognitive resources for learning. Participants were 12 graduate students…

This study assessed the development of spontaneous analogical transfer from story problems to physical tasks by examining the effects of practice alone, without intervention or explicit prompting. Participants were 216 children aged 5-8 years. The microgenetic technique was incorporated with each age group by following them for six consecutive…

Using the model of domain learning as a theoretical framework, the study was designed to examine the extent to which learners' initial learning profiles based on previously acquired knowledge, learning strategy application, and interest-based motivation were distinctive in learning softball. Participants were 177 sixth-graders from three middle…

The purpose of many animal studies at early grades is to build observation skills, develop a knowledge base, and practice age-appropriate science skills like comparing, describing, and drawing. While these are important learning experiences, the National Science Education Standards also recommend that students engage in scientific inquiry (NRC…

Possible selves and education are oriented toward future goals. This chapter surveys the literature that links possible selves achievement with motivation toward academic achievement.

Museum educators often think about what they want children to take away with them from museum visits. But at least as important is what children bring to these visits. Research in developmental psychology shows that children and adolescents progress through a sequence of ways of understanding knowledge and knowing--understanding that lies at the…

"Working Smarter, Not Harder: Reaching the Tough to Teach" is the topic of an exclusive four-part series by Sylvia Rockwell for the "Kappa Delta Pi Record." Part I describes the characteristics of students at risk of school failure, provides an overview of research-based principles found to be effective with all students and essential for students…

This study sought to improve students' comprehension of scientific graphs by adapting scaffolding techniques used to aid text comprehension. In 3 experiments involving 121 female and 88 male college students, some students were shown cognitive aids prior to viewing 4 geography graphs whereas others were not; all students were then asked to write a…

Abduction is a method of reasoning that people use under uncertainty in a context in order to come up with new ideas. The use of abduction in this exploratory study is twofold: (i) abduction is a cross-disciplinary analytic tool that can be used to explain certain key aspects of human-computer interaction in advanced Information Society Technology…

It is easy for intermediate students to get the wrong ideas about the purpose of reading. Educators pay so much attention to decoding and fluency in the early years that children sometimes come to believe that flawless and rapid word recognition is the point. As texts get more demanding or unfamiliar, some of the "good readers" in classes begin to…

These experiments explored the role of prior experience in 12- to 18-month-old infants' tool-directed actions. In Experiment 1, infants' use of a familiar tool (spoon) to accomplish a novel task (turning on lights inside a box) was examined. Infants tended to grasp the spoon by its handle even when doing so made solving the task impossible (the…

Since prior knowledge is positively linked with reading comprehension, methods of measuring prior knowledge are important. A word association test is a useful technique for evaluating topic familiarity and enables the teacher to make decisions about how much additional information is needed for students to process a text successfully. (SRT)

Describes a study done to determine if foreign language students are at a disadvantage when their teachers assume that the students have a working knowledge of English grammar terminology, which they may never have learned. Attempts to document the extent of students' knowledge of traditional English grammar terminology. (SED)

This paper describes a study aimed at expanding research on the interactive effect of readers' prior knowledge and text coherence on learning by introducing a third variable, topic interest, which is, the readers' relatively stable affective orientation toward a topic. The hypothesis was that the inferential processes required to fill in…

A retrospective questionnaire administered to 97 women found that the more knowledgeable a girl was prior to menarche, the more adequate she perceived her preparation for menarche to have been; and the older she was at the time of menarche, the more likely she was to report a positive initial experience. (Author/PN)