Influence of motivation on the perception of mathematics by secondary school students

Motivation, the teacher-student relationship, the use of resources, and the time spent studying, in addition to the family economic and social context, are some of the factors that affect academic performance and directly influence student failure. This paper evaluates the motivation in mathematics students' performances by analyzing indicators of the mathematics learning dimensions. A total of 2,018 secondary students were evaluated in this cross-sectional study. Motivation, teaching, resources, and study time were analyzed with a validated 20-item questionnaire. Statistical analysis revealed that student motivation appears to be significantly related to perceptions of teaching practices and the use of resources for study. Students with high motivation have positive perceptions of teaching practices. Gender differences were not observed. In addition, the motivation indicator allowed for grouping students into various motivational profiles.

Using WeChat as an educational tool in MOOC-based flipped classroom: What can we learn from students' learning experience?

Despite its importance, interaction remains limited in MOOC-based flipped classroom (MBFC) Grounded in social learning theory, we proposed an MBFC approach supported by social media to facilitate students' interaction with peers and learning performance. A quasi-experiment was conducted to compare the MBFC approach (N = 58) based on WeChat with the conventional MBFC approach (N = 52). The results revealed that the use of WeChat in an MBFC approach led to better performance in terms of watching video lectures and completing online exercises before the class; however, it did not significantly enhance student learning performance compared to the conventional MBFC approach. In addition, the study found that students were moderately satisfied with the MBFC approach supported by WeChat. According to a WeChat interaction quantity and quality analysis, students' non-substantive postings are much higher than students' substantive postings in WeChat interaction groups, but students' contributions to the postings have no significant effect on the final marks. Findings from this study could be of valuable reference for practitioners and researchers who plan to leverage social media tools such as WeChat to support student MOOC learning.

Exploring what synchronized physiological arousal can reveal about the social regulatory process in a collaborative argumentation activity

Combining physiological measures with observational data (e.g., video or self-reports) to further capture and understand the temporal and cyclical process of social regulation has become a trend in the field. Synchronized physiological arousal is a particularly meaningful situation in collaboration. However, little attention has been given to synchronized physiological arousal episodes and their relationship with the social regulatory process. In addition, only a few research utilized heart rate (HR) as a physiological measure in the current collaboration literature. More research is necessary to reveal the potential of HR to expand the diversity of physiological indicators in the field. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore what synchronized physiological arousal can further reveal about the social regulatory process. To achieve this goal, this study designed a collaborative argumentation (CA) activity for undergraduates (mean age 20.3). It developed an arousal-regulation analysis platform, which could automatically detect synchronized physiological arousal in HR and align them with coding challenges and social regulation based on the timeline. In total, 14 four-member groups were recruited. After analyzing both videos and HR data, several findings were obtained. First, only one-third of episodes were synchronized physiological arousal episodes, and the situations where four members were all in arousal states were rare during CA. Second, synchronized physiological arousal was more sensitive to socio-emotional aspects of collaboration as the shared physiological arousal more frequently co-occurred with socio-emotional challenges and socio-emotional regulation, while it happened the least under motivational challenges. Third, synchronized physiological arousal has also been found to be associated with the challenges being regulated. Finally, pedagogical implications were suggested.

Teaching the Modeling of Human-Environment Systems: Acknowledging Complexity with an Agent-Based Model

Agent-based modeling is a promising tool for familiarizing students with complex systems as well as programming skills. Human-environment systems, for instance, entail complex interdependencies that need to be considered when modeling these systems. This complexity is often neglected in teaching modeling approaches. For a heterogeneous group of master's students at a German university, we pre-built an agent-based model. In class, this was used to teach modeling impacts of land use policies and markets on ecosystem services. As part of the course, the students had to perform small research projects with the model in groups of two. This study aims to evaluate how well students could deal with the complexity involved in the model based on their group work outcomes. Chosen indicators were, e.g., the appropriateness of their research goals, the suitability of the methods applied, and how well they acknowledged the limitations. Our study results revealed that teaching complex systems does not need to be done with too simplistic models. Most students, even with little background in modeling and programming, were able to deal with the complex model setup, conduct small research projects, and have a thoughtful discussion on the limitations involved. With adequate theoretical input during lectures, we recommend using models that do not hide the complexity of the systems but foster a realistic simplification of the interactions.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10956-022-10022-z.

Assessing Metacognitive Regulation during Problem Solving: A Comparison of Three Measures

Metacognition is hypothesized to play a central role in problem solving and self-regulated learning. Various measures have been developed to assess metacognitive regulation, including survey items in questionnaires, verbal protocols, and metacognitive judgments. However, few studies have examined whether these measures assess the same metacognitive skills or are related to the same learning outcomes. To explore these questions, we investigated the relations between three metacognitive regulation measures given at various points during a learning activity and subsequent test. Verbal protocols were collected during the learning activity, questionnaire responses were collected after the learning tasks but before the test, and judgments of knowing (JOKs) were collected during the test. We found that the number of evaluation statements as measured via verbal protocols was positively associated with students' responses on the control/debugging and evaluation components of the questionnaire. There were also two other positive trends. However, the number of monitoring statements was negatively associated with students' responses on the monitoring component of the questionnaire and their JOKs on the later test. Each measure was also related to some aspect of performance, but the particular metacognitive skill, the direction of the effect, and the type of learning outcome differed across the measures. These results highlight the heterogeneity of outcomes across the measures, with each having different affordances and constraints for use in research and educational practice.

Using Co-Design to Explore New Trends in Future Kitchen Designs: An Exploratory Workshop Study of College Students in China

The current COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the challenges facing human society. The public is increasingly concerned about the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. To enhance human health and well-being, user expectations for the future need to be understood. The kitchen, a central area of a home, is closely related to healthy living. In this study, a series of seven exploratory workshops were held at a Chinese university using co-design to understand the expectations and thinking of Chinese college students about the future of kitchen design in terms of health and well-being. A methodological innovation was introduced in co-design workshops, where participants were asked to imagine, discuss, and sketch concepts together to stimulate creative design. A six-dimensional tentative model of future kitchen expectations, including 34 sub-themes, was constructed based on the data analysis to explore the expected characteristics of kitchens. These dimensions include intelligent technologies and interaction experiences, health and well-being, inclusivity and extensibility, ecosystem circulation and sustainability, emotional and meaningful experience, and spatial planning and aesthetic experience. The resulting model provides valuable insights into the expectations of future users, providing direction and systematic strategies for future kitchens along the six-dimensional characteristics. Future kitchens, if the younger generation is to adopt them, need to positively affect users' lives and meet their health and well-being standards.

Holistic Flexibility for Deploying Systems Thinking as a Cognitive Skill

Considering Systems Thinking (ST) as a cognitive skill can create greater acceptability of and openness to the discipline from practitioners and researchers outside operations research and management science. Rather than associating ST with frameworks and methodologies, ST as a cognitive skill can help popularize and democratize the discipline. This paper highlights how the conceptual lens of Holistic Flexibility can help practitioners deploy ST as a cognitive skill without the application of any traditional systems methodology. Holistic Flexibility is defined as the dynamic interplay between a state of mind that has the ability to absorb systemic complexity and a state of practice that has the ability to embrace flexibility, both in intent and in form. Through two case-studies, discussions in this paper highlight how Holistic Flexibility can serve as a conceptual lens for systems practitioners. The case-studies demonstrate the importance of a practitioner’s ability to seamlessly manage and work with multiple variables, stakeholders, and factors to deliver responsible outcomes with the aid of learning loops. The main contribution of this paper lies in the case-studies and analyses presented that provide use cases for Holistic Flexibility in ST, which will help address recent calls in the discipline for ST to be considered as a cognitive skill.

The Interference of Pre-Processing Software for the Numerical Simulation of Groundwater on the Cognition of Environmental Students: Model Mesh Construction as an Example

(1) Background: Software for the numerical simulation of groundwater plays an important role in studying environmental problems. However, it is still unclear whether the pre-processing software of the numerical simulation of groundwater has a negative effect on the cognition of undergraduates in the environmental field who only have basic groundwater flow and solute transport knowledge and software operation skills. (2) Methods: To explore this issue, we used software meshing as an example and selected undergraduates in the environmental field to conduct the questionnaire surveys. A total of 345 undergraduate answer sheets were received, and data analysis was carried out. The students were divided into two groups, one with and another without certain basic groundwater flow and solute transport knowledge or software operation skills. (3) Results: For undergraduate students with some basic knowledge or software operation ability, the proportion of students whose cognition was adversely interfered with by the pre-processing software was 64.3%, and the ratio of students not interfered with was 35.7%. For undergraduates without groundwater flow and solute transport knowledge and relevant software operation skills, the ratios were 63.2% and 36.8%, respectively. (4) Conclusions: Pre-processing software numerical simulation of groundwater could negatively interfere with students' cognition. The basic groundwater flow and solute transport knowledge and software operation skills did not observably reduce the interference degree (p = 0.259) but had significant influences on the undergraduates' thinking modes on the numerical simulation problems (p = 0.009). The interference was mainly caused by the significant difference between the level of knowledge possessed by the students and that represented by the pre-processing software. This paper provides basic scientific data for the optimization of students' knowledge structures and the improvement of teaching methods.

Equity in teaching science during times of crisis: a study with Portuguese science teachers

This work aims to examine how science teachers ensured equity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants are six science teachers who were teaching in different middle schools within the Lisbon district. Their classes were heterogeneous, with students from different socio-economic backgrounds and ethnicities, and with diverse levels of motivation to learn science and in their academic performance in science. Data were collected through written reflections and interviews. In a crisis context such as COVID-19, which affected schools worldwide, the study contributes to deepening our knowledge about equity during crisis, presenting several measures taken by teachers to deal with the pandemic. Teachers gave instructions to their students to attend classes through public television, which was accessible to the entire population, and developed complementary materials on it. Also, they created moments of individualized support to face situations of inequity, using distance learning platforms or other means of communication. Teachers built and implemented activities that value hands-on and problem solving, enabling their students to achieve academic success. We believe this paper allows the science education community to reflect on possibilities to ensure equity in the context of unpredictable crises.

Realistic details impact learners independently of split-attention effects

Realistic visualizations are considered to introduce the risk of distracting learners from relevant information. In two experiments, the interplay between realism and a known form of distraction, the split-attention effect, were investigated. This effect describes that spatially separating relevant information can have a substantial negative effect on learning. The experiments were conducted using short anatomy learning tasks to test whether a combination of realism and split attention would lead to the worst retention performance or, alternatively, whether realism can counteract the negative effects of split attention. The first experiment (n = 125) revealed that realism attenuated the cognitive load induced by split attention, suggesting a compensatory effect of realism (i.e., realism may have helped learners to deal with the detrimental influence of split attention). However, retention performance was not impacted in a similar way, indicating that this compensatory effect on subjective cognitive load may actually be the result of learners' illusion that realistic details are helpful. Split attention significantly reduced retention performance. Experiment 2 (n = 152) resulted in negative effects of realism and split attention on retention. In sum, the experiments suggest that realistic details can affect learners independently of other visual design factors as exemplified by the split-attention effect. Thus, the assumption that realism is likely to distract learners is rendered implausible by the experiments, as the distraction of split attention should have amplified any distractive potential of realistic details. However, the results also suggest that the effects of realism on learning are still somewhat unpredictable.

Toward a debugging pedagogy: helping students learn to get unstuck with physical computing systems

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a middle school science teacher, new to programming, supports students in learning to debug physical computing systems consisting of programmable sensors and data displays.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study draws on data collected during an inquiry-oriented instructional unit in which students learn to collect, display and interpret data from their surrounding environment by wiring and programming a physical computing system. Using interaction analysis, the authors analyzed video recordings of one teacher’s (Gabrielle) pedagogical moves as she supported students in debugging their systems as they drew upon a variety of embodied, material and social resources.

Findings

This study presents Gabrielle’s debugging interactional grammar, highlighting the pedagogical possibilities for supporting students in systematic ways, providing affective support (e.g. showing them care and encouragement) and positioning herself as a learner with the students. Gabrielle’s practice, and therefore her pedagogy, has the potential to support students in becoming better debuggers on their own in the future.

Originality/value

While much of the prior work on learning to debug focuses on learner actions and possible errors, this case focuses on an educator’s debugging pedagogy centered on the educator debugging with the learners. This case study illustrates the need for educators to exhibit deft facilitation, vulnerability and orchestration skills to support student development of their own process for and agency in debugging.

Climate Change and the Social World: Discourse Analysis of Students' Intuitive Understandings

With the continued unfolding of major climatic shifts, questions continue to emerge about how to approach climate change in the science classroom, at least in the USA where it is often perceived as socio-politically controversial. Broadly, research in science education has shown that the learning process around climate change is highly complex and variable, and our understanding of it remains emergent. This study argues that when designing learning experiences for issues like climate change, we must consider students' prior knowledge of the social world. Using ideology as a theoretical lens, this study then examines discourse data of several classroom elicitation discussions in two sections of a 9th grade US classroom to clarify what intuitive understandings of the social world and assumptions students bring to their classroom learning about climate change. Moment-by-moment discourse analysis shows the emergence of assumptions of a sharply divided social world and the making material of an ideology that reflects these divisions. This study considers implications for such prior knowledge on scientific sensemaking and offers implications for science teaching and future research.

The effects of sociocultural changes on epistemic thinking across three generations in Romania

When people experience abrupt social change, from less education to more, from less technology use to more, from a homogeneous to a heterogeneous social environment, can their epistemic thinking adapt? When divergent opinions suddenly come to be valued, does epistemic thinking shift from absolute to more relativistic? We investigate whether and how these sociocultural shifts have produced changes in epistemic thinking in Romania, a country that fell from communism and started democracy in 1989. Our 147 participants were from Timisoara and fell into three groups, each experiencing the shift at a different point in their development: (i) born in 1989 or later, experiencing capitalism and democracy throughout life (N = 51); (ii) 15- to 25-years-old in 1989 when communism fell (N = 52); (iii) 45 or older in 1989 when communism fell (N = 44). As hypothesized, absolutist thinking was less frequent and evaluativist thinking, a relativistic epistemological mode, was more frequent the earlier in life a cohort was exposed to the post-communist environment in Romania. As predicted, younger cohorts experienced greater exposure to education, social media, and international travel. Greater exposure to education and social media were significant factors in the decline of absolutist thinking and the rise of evaluativist thinking across the generations.

Two types of redundancy in multimedia learning: a literature review

Regarding the redundancy effect in multimedia learning environments, more consistency is needed in the theoretical assumptions and investigation of this effect. Current research lacks a comprehensive account of different redundant scenarios in which materials facilitate or inhibit learning and provides little conceptual guidance on how learning processes are affected by different types of redundancy. Theoretical assumptions refer to redundancy as a contentual overlap of information provided by the learning material; in this case, processing duplicated information strains the learners' limited cognitive capacities. Other assumptions refer to the role of processing limitations in working memory channels, including separate processing for visual and verbal information. In this case, an ineffective combination of sources leads to an overload of the limited working memory capacity. This paper reviews empirical research on the redundancy effect (63 studies) and classifies two types of redundancy: (1) content redundancy, and (2) working memory channel redundancy. From an instructional psychology perspective, the analyses reveal four different implementations of redundant scenarios: (1) adding narration to visualizations, (2) adding written text to visualizations, (3) adding written text to narration, and (4) adding written text to narrated visualizations. Regarding the effects of the two redundancy types within these scenarios, analyses indicate positive effects of content redundancy (affected by learners' prior knowledge), negative effects of working memory channel redundancy (regarding visualizations and written text), and positive effects of working memory channel redundancy (regarding narration and written text). Moreover, results point to factors that might moderate the effect of redundancy and illustrate interactions with existing multimedia effects. Overall, this review provides an overview of the state of empirical research and reveals that the consideration of both redundancy types provides further explanations in this field of research.

Concurrent prospective memory task increases mind wandering during online reading for difficult but not easy texts

Many prior theories have tried to explain the relationship between attentional processes and mind wandering. The resource-demand matching view argues that a mismatch between task demands and resources led to more mind wandering. This study aims to test this view against competing models by inducing mind wandering through increasing the level of demands via adding a prospective memory task to cognitively demanding tasks like reading. We hypothesized that participants with a second task still in mind (unfinished group) engage more in task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) and show less text comprehension compared to participants who think a second task is finished (finished group). Seventy-two participants had to study 24 items of a to-do list for a recall test. After a first cued recall of ten items, participants were either told that a second task was finished or that the recall was interrupted and continued later. All participants then started reading an easy or difficult version of the same unfamiliar hypertext, while being thought probed. Text comprehension measures followed. As expected, participants in the unfinished group showed significantly more TUTs than participants in the finished group when reading difficult texts, but, contrary to our assumptions, did not show better text comprehension measures when reading difficult text. Nevertheless, participants compensate for the influence of the second task by reading longer, which in turn has a positive effect on their reading knowledge. These findings support the resource-demand-matching model and thus strengthen assumptions about the processing of attention during reading.

Assessing Writing Motivation: a Systematic Review of K-5 Students' Self-Reports

For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on knowing the student's capabilities and inner drives. To date, research on writing has yet to establish a consistent framework for assessing writing motivation, and often fails to acknowledge students' self-reports, rather favoring evaluations of students' writing motivation made by others, such as teachers and researchers. This limbo state originates partly from a general skepticism towards the trustworthiness of elementary students' self-reports. Nonetheless, the validity of such self-reports has been acknowledged in adjacent fields, such as reading. Aiming to establish a knowledge base from studies addressing students' voices, the present study adopts the method of a systematic review and investigates how writing motivation has been assessed in empirical studies (1996-2020) through K-5 students' self-reports. Of the 7047 studies identified through database search, 56 met the inclusion criteria and are examined in this review. Results indicate that (a) storytelling is the genre most used to operationalize writing in the investigations, (b) surveys and interview questions measuring students' attitude towards writing are the most common type of self-report used, and (c) students' voices are weighted differently across the studies. Findings suggest that future research should (1) work to counteract existing biases in writing tasks, (2) provide a rationale for their choice/design of measure of motivation, and (3) report clearly whose voices are being heard (e.g., students', teachers', or researchers') and the appropriateness of this choice regarding study purpose, design, and findings.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10648-023-09732-6.

A comparative study of high school mathematics teachers' audible teaching language: A student satisfaction perspective

Teachers' audible teaching language is essential for organizing classroom instruction. This study used a questionnaire to compare expert, skilled, and novice high school mathematics teachers' audible teaching language from the perspective of student satisfaction. The sample was selected using a purposive sampling technique, and the participants were students from a key high school in Changsha, China. A research framework and research instrument with good reliability and validity were constructed for this study. The data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0. The results showed 263 valid questionnaires, good measurement model fit, and high reliability and validity of the questionnaire. It was found that: (1) students were highly satisfied with the audible teaching language of high school mathematics teachers; (2) student satisfaction with the audible teaching language of skilled, expert, and novice mathematics teachers declined in order, but there was no significant difference overall; (3) students were more satisfied with expert mathematics teachers than with novice teachers in terms of the tone and adaptability of the audible teaching language. The researchers discussed the study's results, suggested how pre-service and post-service mathematics teachers can improve the quality of their audible teaching language, and pointed out the value and limitations of the study.

Effects of regulated learning scaffolding on regulation strategies and academic performance: A meta-analysis

Education research is increasingly focused on fostering self-regulated learning (SRL) and socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) among students. However, previous meta-analyses have rarely focused on the specific types of regulated learning scaffolding. Therefore, this meta-analysis examines the effects of different types of regulated learning scaffolding on regulation strategies and academic performance. A total of 46 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final analysis. The findings showed that overall, regulated learning scaffolding had a moderate effect (g = 0.587). In addition, moderation analyses were performed using a random effects model that focused on four types of scaffolding. The results showed that overall, composite tools had the greatest effect, while the most useful scaffolding for SRL and SSRL were group awareness tools (g = 0.61) and composite tools (g = 0.53), respectively. In terms of learning outcomes, composite tools had the greatest effect on regulation strategies, while intelligent pedagogical agents had the greatest effect on academic performance. We also performed a meta-regression analysis to identify the moderators that had the greatest influence on the effects of regulated learning scaffolding. The results showed that grade level, academic subject, and cooperation all had a significant impact. In conclusion, these findings provide evidence for validating the effectiveness of four regulated learning scaffolding and for discovering their function for SSRL, and presented some practical implications of our findings.

Does correlation heuristic dependence reduce due to classroom teaching? A case study from India

Introduction

People worldwide have problems understanding the basic stock-flow principles (e.g., correlation heuristic), which govern many everyday tasks. Perhaps, teaching system dynamic concepts in classroom settings might reduce people's dependence on the correlation heuristic. However, limited literature exists on the effectiveness of classroom curricula in reducing reliance on the correlation heuristic. The present research aims to bridge this gap and empirically understand the effects of classroom teaching programs on reducing people's reliance on correlation heuristic and improving people's ability to understand stock-flow concepts. By taking a case from a reputed technology Institute in India, the present research examines how classroom teaching of system dynamics concepts might help students reduce their dependence on the correlation heuristic.

Methods

The experiment consisted of two between-subjects conditions: the experimental and the control (N = 45 in each condition). The experimental condition consisted of randomly registered students that were taught system dynamics principles over 5-months of classroom training. Though, no teaching took place in the control condition. Participants in both conditions were evaluated on their ability to solve stock-flow problems.

Results

Participants in the experimental condition were found to perform better in solving stock-flow problems than subjects in the control condition, and they also relied less on the correlation heuristic.

Discussion

We emphasize the relevance of system dynamics education in graduate curricula in alleviating reliance on the correlation heuristic.

"Where do I even start?" Recommendations for faculty diversifying syllabi in ecology, evolution, and the life sciences

Diversifying curricula is of increasing interest in higher education, including in ecology and evolution and allied fields. Yet, many educators may not know where to start. Here we provide a framework for meeting standard curriculum goals while enacting anti-racist and anti-colonial syllabi that is grounded in the development of a sustainable network of educators. In addition to highlighting this professional learning process and sharing the list of resources our group has developed, we provide suggestions to help educators highlight contributions of minoritized groups, explore multiple ways of knowing, and perform critical assessments of foundational views of life and environmental science fields. We further discuss the key classroom dynamics that affect the success of such anti-racist and anti-colonial initiatives. The retention and success of minoritized students in ecology and evolution depends on whether we address injustices in our fields. Our hope is that our fellow educators will use this paper to catalyze their own efforts to diversify their courses.

The relevance of basic numerical skills for fraction processing: Evidence from cross-sectional data

Recent research indicated that fraction understanding is an important predictor of later mathematical achievement. In the current study we investigated associations between basic numerical skills and students' fraction processing. We analyzed data of 939 German secondary school students (age range = 11.92 to 18.00 years) and evaluated the determinants of fraction processing considering basic numerical skills as predictors (i.e., number line estimation, basic arithmetic operations, non-symbolic magnitude comparison, etc.). Additionally, we controlled for general cognitive ability, grade level, and sex. We found that multiplication, subtraction, conceptual knowledge, number line estimation, and basic geometry were significantly associated with fraction processing beyond significant associations of general cognitive ability and sex. Moreover, relative weight analysis revealed that addition and approximate arithmetic should also be considered as relevant predictors for fraction processing. The current results provide food for thought that further research should focus on investigating whether recapitulating basic numerical content in secondary school mathematics education can be beneficial for acquiring more complex mathematical concepts such as fractions.

MOCCA-College: Preliminary Validity Evidence of a Cognitive Diagnostic Reading Comprehension Assessment

As access to higher education increases, it is important to monitor students with special needs to facilitate the provision of appropriate resources and support. Although metrics such as the "reading readiness" ACT (formerly American College Testing) of provide insight into how many students may need such resources, they do not specify why a student may need support or how to provide that support. Increasingly, students are bringing reading comprehension struggles to college. Multiple-choice Online Causal Comprehension Assessment-College (MOCCA-College) is a new diagnostic reading comprehension assessment designed to identify who is a poor comprehender and also diagnose why they are a poor comprehender. Using reliability coefficients, receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis, and correlations, this study reports findings from the first year of a 3-year study to validate the assessment with 988 postsecondary students who took MOCCA-College, a subset of whom also provided data on other reading assessments (i.e., ACT, n = 377; Scholastic Aptitude Test [SAT], n = 192; and Nelson-Denny Reading Test [NDRT], n = 78). Despite some limitations (e.g., the sample is predominantly females from 4-year institutions), results indicate that MOCCA-College has good internal reliability, and scores are correlated with other reading assessments. Through a series of analyses of variance (ANOVAs), we also report how students identified by MOCCA-College as good and poor comprehenders differ in terms of demographics, cognitive processes used while reading, overall comprehension ability, and scores on admissions tests. Findings are discussed in terms of using MOCCA-College to help gauge which students may be at risk of reading comprehension difficulties, identify why they may be struggling, and inform directions in actionable instructional changes based on comprehension processing data.

Deliberate Erring Improves Far Transfer of Learning More Than Errorless Elaboration and Spotting and Correcting Others' Errors

Transfer of learning is a fundamental goal of education but is challenging to achieve, especially where far transfer to remote contexts is at stake. How can we improve learners' flexible application of knowledge to distant domains? In a counterintuitive phenomenon termed the derring effect, deliberately committing and correcting errors in low-stakes contexts enhances learning more than avoiding errors. Whereas this benefit has been demonstrated with tests in domains similar to those in the initial learning task, the present set of three experiments (N = 120) investigated whether deliberate erring boosts far transfer of conceptual knowledge to dissimilar domains. Undergraduates studied scientific expository texts either by generating conceptually correct responses or by deliberately generating conceptually erroneous responses then correcting them. Deliberate erring improved not only retention (Experiment 1), but also far transfer on inferential test questions that required applying the learned concepts to remote knowledge domains (e.g., from biology/vaccines to geography/forest management techniques; Experiment 2). This advantage held even over a control that further involved spotting and correcting the same errors that one's peers had deliberately made (Experiment 3). Yet, learners failed to predict or recognize the benefits of deliberate erring even after the test. Altogether, these results suggest that the derring effect is specific to generating incorrect, but not correct, elaborations. Neither does mere exposure to others' errors nor juxtaposing these errors with the correct responses suffice. Rather, guiding learners to personally commit and correct deliberate errors is vital for enhancing generalization and far transfer of learning to distant knowledge domains.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10648-023-09739-z.

Information Architects: Using Community-Engaged and Qualitative Methods to Design a Technology-Based Nutrition and Cancer Risk Intervention for Rural Adults

BACKGROUND

Nearly half of all cancer deaths are preventable through modification or avoidance of key risk factors. As such, there is a growing urgency to identify effective, low-resource, and scalable technologies that support clinical care and patient self-management of health behaviors.

PURPOSE

Informed by theories of cognitive load and user-centered design approaches, we develop a culturally tailored, multicomponent digital intervention to engage rural adults between 50-73 years old with their personalized nutrition risk factors for colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention.

METHOD

A total of 48 adults tested a Virtual Health Assistant (VHA) prototype during focus groups in individual think-aloud interviews to facilitate iterative adaptations to a web-based CRC prevention intervention. Qualitative data was analyzed to identify user needs and preferences related to information and with a focus on avoiding cognitive overload.

RESULTS

The VHA serves as a conceptual pre-training for users helping them understand CRC prevention key concepts and engendering motivation to act on the promoted behavior. A website was identified as a strategy to fill information gaps and present actionable information, after the VHA interaction. Cognitive load reducing strategies were used including segmenting where information is presented in learner-controlled segments rather than continuously.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicate potential benefits of designing CRC prevention information technologies with the rural older adults. Integrating patient-centered needs before launching health information web content will be important as the rapid growth of telemedicine aims to reach traditionally marginalized and underserved populations. Theoretically informed considerations for potential adverse outcomes (eg, information overload) are discussed.

"Everything That's Hard Got Harder": Preservice Teachers' Attempts at Rigorous and Responsive Instruction During Pedagogical Rehearsals in the COVID Pandemic

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our teacher preparation program shifted to an online setting, disrupting a key feature of practice-based teacher preparation: preservice science teachers' (PSTs) approximation of rigorous and responsive instruction during extended pedagogical rehearsals, called macroteaching. Given this unplanned shock to their preparation, we examined how PSTs viewed macroteaching and their evolving participation in the teaching rehearsal. Using a situative perspective, we collected multiple forms of data. We found that although PSTs wanted to enact rigorous and responsive instruction, their participation was deeply affected by the sudden shift to an online setting. Our analysis of video-recorded lessons confirmed PSTs' observations that their instruction became less rigorous and responsive over time. We conclude with questions about teacher preparation during the pandemic.

Different aspects of fraction understanding are associated selectively with performance on a fraction learning game

Fraction understanding seems a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is an important predictor of later mathematical achievement. On the other hand, it is also one of the topics students struggle most in secondary math education. To complement traditional instruction, digital learning games were developed and found to successfully foster fraction understanding. However, so far, it is not known to what degree different aspects of fraction understanding (e.g., part-whole relations, fraction magnitude, fraction arithmetic) may be conveyed by such games. The current study evaluated selective associations of in-game performance of the fraction learning game Semideus with specific aspects of fraction understanding assessed using a comprehensive paper-pencil test. In Semideus, seventh graders (M_age=12.3years) from academic track secondary schools in Germany estimated the location of fractions on a number line and compared fractions according to their magnitude. Results replicated previous findings showing that in-game performance was significantly associated with mathematics achievement (i.e., math grades) and basic, whole number arithmetic skills. Moreover, we observed significant associations for aspects of fraction understanding closely matching mechanics of the learning game such as fraction number line estimation, fraction magnitude comparison and fraction ordering. These associations were observed for accuracy on the game's fraction learning tasks (e.g., estimation accuracy on the number line) but also generalized to game-based metrics such as virtual incentives (i.e., stars awarded in the game). This implies that the actual game mechanic may help to convey aspects of fraction understanding, substantiating ideas of intrinsic integration in game design.

Individual Differences and Skill Training in Cognitive Mapping: How and Why People Differ

Spatial ability plays important roles in academic learning and everyday activities. A type of spatial thinking that is of particular significance to people's daily lives is cognitive mapping, that is, the process of acquiring, representing, and using knowledge about spatial environments. However, the skill of cognitive mapping shows large individual differences, and the task of spatial orientation and navigation poses great difficulty for some people. In this article, I look at the motivation and findings in the research into spatial knowledge acquisition from an individual differences perspective. I also discuss major implications of the existence of large individual differences, particularly the possibility of improving cognitive mapping by training and adjusting navigation assistance to the wide variations in spatial aptitudes and preferences among people.

Awareness of Universal Design for Learning among anatomy educators in higher level institutions in the Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom

There is an increasing need to facilitate enhanced student engagement in anatomy education. Higher education students differ in academic preferences and abilities and so, not all teaching strategies suit all students. Therefore, it is suggested that curricula design and delivery adapt to sustain learner engagement. Enhanced learner engagement is a fundamental feature of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The aim of this study is to determine if anatomy educators in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and United Kingdom (UK) are aware of UDL and to assess if, and to what extent, it has been implemented in the design and delivery of anatomy curricula for healthcare students. An anonymous online questionnaire was administered to anatomy educators in higher level institutions in the ROI and UK. Inductive content analysis was used to identify the impact of UDL on student learning, engagement, and motivation, as perceived by the participants. The response rate was 23% (n = 61). Nineteen participants stated they knew of UDL. Of these, 15 had utilized UDL in their teaching of anatomy. Analysis indicated that the perception of UDL was mixed. However, the majority of responses relating to UDL were positive. The majority of the respondents were unaware of UDL but identified the frameworks' checkpoints within their curriculum, suggesting they have unknowingly incorporated elements of UDL in their curriculum design and delivery. There is a lack of information on the benefits of explicit utilization of UDL for engagement and motivation to learn anatomy in healthcare programs in the ROI and UK.

Relationships between task awareness, comprehension strategies, and literacy outcomes

Reading is typically guided by a task or goal (e.g., studying for a test, writing a paper). A reader's task awareness arises from their mental representation of the task and plays an important role in guiding reading processes, ultimately influencing comprehension outcomes and task success. As such, a better understanding of how task awareness arises and how it affects comprehension is needed. The present study tested the Task Awareness Mediation Hypothesis. This hypothesis assumes that the strategies that support reading comprehension (e.g., paraphrasing, bridging, and elaborative strategies) also support a reader's task awareness while engaged in a literacy task. Further, it assumes that the reader's level of task awareness partially mediates the relationship between these comprehension strategies and a comprehension outcome. At two different time points in a semester, college students completed an assessment of their propensity to engage in comprehension strategies and a complex academic literacy task that provided a measure of comprehension outcomes and an assessment of task awareness. Indirect effects analyses provided evidence for the Task Awareness Mediation Hypothesis showing that the propensity to engage in paraphrasing and elaboration was positively predictive of task awareness, and that task awareness mediated the relationships between these comprehension strategies and performance on the complex academic literacy task. These results indicate that task awareness has complex relationships with comprehension strategies and performance on academic literacy tasks and warrants further consideration as a possible malleable factor to improve student success.

Leveraging Math Cognition to Combat Health Innumeracy

Rational numbers (i.e., fractions, percentages, decimals, and whole-number frequencies) are notoriously difficult mathematical constructs. Yet correctly interpreting rational numbers is imperative for understanding health statistics, such as gauging the likelihood of side effects from a medication. Several pernicious biases affect health decision-making involving rational numbers. In our novel developmental framework, the natural-number bias-a tendency to misapply knowledge about natural numbers to all numbers-is the mechanism underlying other biases that shape health decision-making. Natural-number bias occurs when people automatically process natural-number magnitudes and disregard ratio magnitudes. Math-cognition researchers have identified individual differences and environmental factors underlying natural-number bias and devised ways to teach people how to avoid these biases. Although effective interventions from other areas of research can help adults evaluate numerical health information, they circumvent the core issue: people's penchant to automatically process natural-number magnitudes and disregard ratio magnitudes. We describe the origins of natural-number bias and how researchers may harness the bias to improve rational-number understanding and ameliorate innumeracy in real-world contexts, including health. We recommend modifications to formal math education to help children learn the connections among natural and rational numbers. We also call on researchers to consider individual differences people bring to health decision-making contexts and how measures from math cognition might identify those who would benefit most from support when interpreting health statistics. Investigating innumeracy with an interdisciplinary lens could advance understanding of innumeracy in theoretically meaningful and practical ways.

Epistemic Emotions and Observations Are Intertwined in Scientific Sensemaking: A Study among Upper Secondary Physics Students

This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between emotions and development of scientific understanding by examining (1) how students perform in scientific sensemaking in the context of a three-cycle predict-observe-explain (POE) activity, (2) what kind of trajectories of situational epistemic emotions students show when making sense of the phenomenon, and (3) how students' performance in sensemaking is related to their emotional trajectories. Data from 109 participant students were collected in six upper secondary physics classes. Students' performance in sensemaking was evaluated based on their answers on POE items and categorised through qualitative content analysis. Situational epistemic emotions (surprise, curiosity, confusion, and boredom) were measured using a four-point Likert scale after each POE cycle. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify groups of students with distinctive emotional trajectories. The relationship between the performance in POE activity and emotional trajectories was explored by a chi-square test. The results indicate that students' inability to make relevant observations is significantly related to experienced boredom. Furthermore, students who perform better in making sense of the phenomenon are more likely to experience surprise, curiosity, and confusion. This implies that engaging students to be curious when they observe and test predictions is an important mission for curriculum designers and teachers in practice. The findings underline the importance of epistemic emotions in educational settings and the complexity of the interplay between cognitive and affective factors in learning situations.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10763-022-10310-5.

The number line estimation task is a valid tool for assessing mathematical achievement: A population-level study with 6484 Luxembourgish ninth-graders

The number line estimation task is an often-used measure of numerical magnitude understanding. The task also correlates substantially with broader measures of mathematical achievement. This raises the question of whether the task would be a useful component of mathematical achievement tests and instruments to diagnose dyscalculia or mathematical giftedness and whether a stand-alone version of the task can serve as a short screener for mathematical achievement. Previous studies on the relation between number line estimation accuracy and broader mathematical achievement were limited in that they used relatively small nonrepresentative samples and usually did not account for potentially confounding variables. To close this research gap, we report findings from a population-level study with nearly all Luxembourgish ninth-graders (N = 6484). We used multilevel regressions to test how a standardized mathematical achievement test relates to the accuracy in number line estimation on bounded number lines with whole numbers and fractions. We also investigated how these relations were moderated by classroom characteristics, person characteristics, and trial characteristics. Mathematical achievement and number line estimation accuracy were associated even after controlling for potentially confounding variables. Subpopulations of students showed meaningful differences in estimation accuracy, which can serve as benchmarks in future studies. Compared with the number line estimation task with whole numbers, the number line estimation task with fractions was more strongly related to mathematical achievement in students across the entire mathematical achievement spectrum. These results show that the number line estimation task is a valid and useful tool for diagnosing and monitoring mathematical achievement.

Exploring the impact of interactive movement-based anatomy learning in real classroom setting among kinesiology students

Descriptive and functional anatomy is one of the most important sciences for kinesiology students. Anatomy learning requires spatial and motor imagery abilities. Learning anatomy is complex when teaching methods and instructional tools do not appropriately develop spatial and motor imagery abilities. Recent technological developments such as three-dimensional (3D) digital tools allow to overcome those difficulties, especially when 3D tools require strong interactions with the learners. Besides interactive digital tools, embodied learning or learning in motion is an effective method for a wide variety of sciences including anatomy. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of combining movement execution with 3D animation visualization on anatomy learning in a real classroom teaching context. To do so, the results of two groups of kinesiology students during three official assessments were compared. The experimental group (n = 60) learned functional anatomy by combining movement execution with traditional knowledge acquisition (e.g., 3D animations visualization, problem-based learning exercises). The control group (n = 61) had the same material but did not execute the movements during problem-solving exercises. Although no differences were found between both groups on early and mid-semester examinations, significant difference appeared at the end of the semester with an advantage for the experimental group. This exploratory study suggests that embodied learning is beneficial in improving functional anatomy learning. Therefore, it would be interesting to integrate such type of pedagogical approach within the kinesiology curriculum.

Multimedia Instructions for Motor Control Exercises in Patients With Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain

BACKGROUND

Low back pain (LBP) is one of the top 3 diseases that may lead to disability. Current treatment guidelines define exercise as a first-line treatment for nonspecific LBP (NSLBP). There are various evidence-based exercise approaches for treating NSLBP, and many of them include motor control principles. Motor control exercises (MCEs) are better than general exercises that do not include motor control principles. Many patients find learning these exercises complex and challenging, in that MCE exercises have no standard teaching method. The researchers of this study developed multimedia instructions for an MCE program to make teaching MCE easier; thus, more effective.

METHODS

The participants were randomized into multimedia or standard (face-to-face) instruction groups. We applied the same treatments to both groups at the same dosage. The only differences between groups were the exercise instruction methods. The multimedia group learned MCE from multimedia videos; the control group learned MCE from a physiotherapist with face-to-face instructions. Treatment lasted 8 weeks. We evaluated patients' exercise adherence with Exercise Adherence Rating Scale (EARS), pain with the Visual Analog Scale, and disability with Oswestry Disability Index. Evaluations were made before and after treatment. Follow-up evaluations were carried out 4 weeks after the end of treatment.

RESULTS

There was no statistically significant interaction between the group and time on pain, F2,56 = 0.068, P = .935, partial η2 = .002 and Oswestry Disability Index scores, F2,56 = 0.951, P = .393, partial η2 = .033. Also, there was no statistically significant interaction between the group and time on Exercise Adherence Rating Scale total scores F1,20 = 2.343, P = .142, partial η2 = .105.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that multimedia instructions for MCE have similar effects to standard (face-to-face) instructions on pain, disability, and exercise adherence in patients with NSLBP. To our knowledge, with these results, the developed multimedia instructions became the first free, evidence-based instructions that have objective progression criteria and a Creative Commons license.

Science in stories: Implications for Latine children's science learning through home-based language practices

There is growing interest in stories as potentially powerful tools for science learning. In this mini-review article, we discuss theory and evidence indicating that, especially for young children, listening to and sharing stories with adult caregivers at home can make scientific ideas and inquiry practices meaningful and accessible. We review recent research offering evidence that stories presented in books can advance children's science learning. Nonetheless, most of this work focuses on middle-class European-American U. S. children and involves narrative story books. Given the national imperative to increase Latine representation in STEM education and career pursuits in the U. S., we argue that it is vital that we broaden the definition of stories to include oral narrative storytelling and other conversational routines that Latine families engage in at home. Cultural communities with firmly rooted oral traditions, such as those from Latin American heritage, rely frequently on oral storytelling rather than book reading to convey world and community knowledge to young children. Therefore, we advocate for a strengths-based approach that considers Latine families' everyday practices around science and storytelling on their own terms instead of contrasting them with European-American middle-class practices. We offer support for the view that for young children in Latine communities, culturally relevant oral practices, including personal narrative storytelling, can engender significant opportunities for family science learning at home.

Developing the Metacognitive Awareness of Grit Scale for a better understanding of learners of English as a foreign language

The prominent impact of metacognition on learners' academic achievement is widely discussed. Learners armed with appropriate metacognitive strategies should witness enhancement in learning performance. Similarly, the concept of grit is also valued as a crucial factor contributing to the improvement of academic achievement. Nevertheless, discussion of the relationship between metacognition and grit or their collective influence on other educational and psychological variables is limited, not to mention that an instrument measuring learners' metacognitive awareness of grit is a desideratum. Hence, by incorporating the constructs of metacognition and grit, the present research developed a measurement scale to address this need, named the Metacognitive Awareness of Grit Scale (MCAGS). The MCAGS consists of four components and initially included 48 items. It was later distributed to 859 participants for the purpose of scale validation. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to evaluate the scale's validity and explore the factor-item relationship. A final model containing 17 items was retained. Implications and future directions were discussed.