Students' affective status, provides an indication of the ways students are likely to act in the future. That is, students' current affective status foreshadows the ways children will act as "grown-ups" long after school is behind them. Clearly, educators should be concerned with the long-term impact of their instructional programs, so…

This commentary on the special issue, entitled "Models and Tools for Systems Learning and Instruction," highlights the accomplishments of the papers in this collection. It also points to some avenues for further strengthening research on promoting systems understanding. Collectively, the papers make advances in our understanding of how…

Minimizing the energy consumption of desalination processes is an important goal for augmenting freshwater production and mitigating water scarcity. Chemical, civil, mechanical, and environmental engineering students can derive and analyze the energy consumption of desalination processes by applying engineering fundamentals such as thermodynamics,…

Duke draws on research into how children learn to read to advise teachers on how to best prompt early readers who get stuck on a word. She notes the 5 key questions young readers face--What is that word? Did I read that word right? What does that word mean? What does the text mean? Why does that meaning matter--and the core mental processes and…

The Coronavirus outbreak allows for a number of possible applications to classroom teaching (biology, computer science, Earth science, physics, statistics), as well as student research. A number of simple models reproduce fairly well the case numbers (total confirmed cases) of the Coronavirus pandemic in specific regions. These models may also be…

When the author tells people that her research focuses on how people teach and learn with historic places, the first response is usually "Oh, I love field trips." This sensibility, that field trips are required to teach about a place, is the single greatest barrier to understanding what can be learned from Place. Every Place is an…

Innovation agencies, that is organizations with the primary focus of funding applied research and technological development, evaluate project proposals to select the most promising proposals for funding. At the moment, there is only little verified knowledge available on project evaluation and selection processes of innovation agencies. We want to…

Existing research has looked at the potentials, affordances and the productive use of educational technologies to support collaborative learning. Many of these technology tools are purportedly constructed under principles of social constructivist theory of learning. It is timely to examine whether and how these tools, their affordances, and the…

Recommender systems for technology-enhanced learning are examined in relation to learners' agency, that is, their ability to define and pursue learning goals. These systems make it easier for learners to access resources, including peers with whom to learn and experts from whom to learn. In this systematic review of the literature, we apply an…

Treatment fidelity data are critical to evaluate intervention effectiveness, yet there are only general guidelines regarding treatment fidelity measurement. Initial investigations have found treatment fidelity data collected via direct observation to be more reliable than data collected via permanent product or self-report. However, the comparison…

In this essay, Randall Curren addresses four basic questions about transformative experiences in education: Is education necessarily transformative? What must education provide for it to be personally transformative? What standard should educators use in determining whether engaging students in potentially transformative experiences is beneficial…

The use of game activities is spreading in diverse contexts, including stimulating teamwork and creativity, selecting job candidates, and as a teaching aid. Games are recognized as promoting interaction and engagement among children through an abstract challenge, which often results in emotional reactions. We investigated whether a game-based…

Experiential learning opportunities support readers in developing the background knowledge that is essential for comprehension. When authentic experiences are not feasible, virtual reality experiences serve as a vicarious approach to help readers have opportunities that promote comprehension. Rooted in experiential learning theory, virtual reality…

Background/Context: School transitions pose a variety of social-emotional and academic challenges to students, especially those who are more vulnerable due to home, health, or academic challenges (Eccles et al., 1997; Felmlee, 2018). With this awareness, a growing number of school districts have developed and implemented early warning indicator…

Earthbound manifestations of gravity in falling objects are distorted by the large mass and size of the Earth. Movement is also affected by air resistance. This article questions whether an approach based on everyday observations is necessarily the best starting point for introducing the idea of Newtonian gravity. Instead, a theoretical approach…