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Background: There are only few guidelines on how instructional videos should be designed to optimize learning. Recently, the effects of social cues on attention allocation and learning in instructional videos have been investigated. Due to inconsistent results, it has been suggested that the visual complexity of a video influences the effect of social cues on learning. Objectives: Therefore, this study compared the effects of social cues (i.e., gaze & gesture) in low and high visual complexity videos on attention, perceived cognitive load, and learning outcomes. Methods: Participants (N = 71) were allocated to a social cue or no social cue condition and watched both a low and a high visual complexity video. After each video, participants completed a knowledge test. Results and Conclusions: Results showed that participants looked faster at referenced information and had higher learning outcomes in the low visual complexity condition. Social cues did not affect any of the dependent variables, except when including prior knowledge in the analysis: In this exploratory analysis, the inclusion of gaze and gesture cues in the videos did lead to better learning outcomes. Takeaways: Our results show that the visual complexity of instructional videos and prior knowledge are important to take into account in future research on attention and learning from instructional videos. Lay Description: What is already known about the topic: Instructional videos are widely used in education.Learners need to timely attend to relevant content to learn successfully.Learners' attention might be guided towards relevant content with social cues (gaze and gesture of a presenter or instructor) but findings regarding learning outcomes are inconclusive. What does this paper add: This paper is the first to examine the role of the visual complexity of an instructional video in the interplay between social cues (gaze and gesture), learners' attention allocation, and learning outcomes. Implications for practice: The results show that visual complexity influences the learners' attention allocation and learning outcomes.Social cues (i.e., gaze & gesture) improved learning outcomes when controlling for learners' prior knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate children's potential for reasoning by analogy utilizing a newly‐developed computerized dynamic test, and the potential differential influence of executive functions (cognitive flexibility, attention, and planning) on static and dynamic measures of analogical reasoning. Participants included 64 children (mean age = 7.55). The study employed a two‐session experimental test‐training‐test design. Based on randomized blocking, half of the children received a graduated prompts training between pre‐test and post‐test, and the other half did not. Trained children improved more than control children in both their accuracy scores and number of accurately applied transformations from pre‐test to post‐test. It was further found that cognitive flexibility, attention and planning, is associated with successful solving of analogies. Training children in analogical reasoning seemed to reduce the effect of executive functions. It was also found that that children who were more cognitively flexible needed more prompts during the training. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Analogical reasoning is of great importance to scholastic performance and everyday learning.Computerized dynamic tests are promising for measuring children's potential for analogical reasoning.Executive functions have been found to influence analogical reasoning performance.Dynamic testing compensates for the influence of executive functions What this paper adds: A newly developed computerized dynamic test of analogical reasoning can detect individualized learning paths and instructional needs of children of various ability levels.Training children in analogical reasoning as part of a computerized dynamic test seems to reduce the effect of executive functioning.Children's instructional needs are related to cognitive flexibility. Implications for practice and/or policy: Computerized dynamic testing of analogical reasoning is a useful instrument for identification purposes.These tests provide information about children's problem‐solving behaviour, and the type and number of instructions they need when solving new tasks, offering insights relevant for individualized education plans.Individual differences in children's (improvements in) analogical reasoning seem to be related to their executive functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eye movement modelling examples (EMMEs) are instructional videos of a model's demonstration and explanation of a task that also show where the model is looking. EMMEs are expected to synchronize students' visual attention with the model's, leading to better learning than regular video modelling examples (MEs). However, synchronization is seldom directly tested. Moreover, recent research suggests that EMMEs might be more effective than ME for low prior knowledge learners. We therefore used a 2 × 2 between‐subjects design to investigate if the effectiveness of EMMEs (EMMEs/ME) is moderated by prior knowledge (high/low, manipulated by pretraining), applying eye tracking to assess synchronization. Contrary to expectations, EMMEs did not lead to higher learning outcomes than ME, and no interaction with prior knowledge was found. Structural equation modelling shows the mechanism through which EMMEs affect learning: Seeing the model's eye movements helped learners to look faster at referenced information, which was associated with higher learning outcomes. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Modelling, which involves an expert model showing learners the completion of a task, is an important form of teaching.Learning from modelling examples can be enhanced by showing eye movements of the model, so‐called eye movement modelling examples (EMMEs).Results regarding the effectiveness of EMMEs are mixed, which could be caused by differences in learners' prior knowledge.Eye‐tracking technology can be used to investigate how EMMEs enhance learning from modelling examples. What this paper adds: EMMEs effectively guide attention: Students follow the models' gaze better and look faster at relevant information.No differences in learning were found between EMMEs and a modelling example without eye movements.We manipulated prior knowledge but found that it did not moderate the effectiveness of EMMEs.The working mechanism of EMMEs seems to be that it helps learners to attend to relevant information faster. Implications for practice and/or policy: A video of a model's gaze can help learners attend to relevant information.Such videos are particularly useful if learners need to quickly look at relevant information (e.g., in learning from animations).For some tasks, EMMEs and regular modelling examples are equally effective.Training task‐specific picture–word correspondences before presenting a modelling example supports learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Task solving processes and changes in these processes have long been expected to provide valuable information about children's performance in school. This article used electronic tangibles (concrete materials that can be physically manipulated) and a dynamic testing format (pretest, training, and posttest) to investigate children's task solving processes and changes in these processes as a result of training. We also evaluated the value of process information for the prediction of school results. Participants were N = 253 children with a mean age of 7.8 years. Half of them received a graduated prompts training; the other half received repeated practice only. Three process measures were used: grouping behaviour, verbalized strategies, and completion time. Different measures showed different effects of training, with verbalized strategies showing the largest difference on the posttest between trained and untrained children. Although process measures were related to performance on our dynamic task and to math and reading performance in school, the amount of help provided during training provided the most predictive value to school results. We concluded that children's task solving processes provide valuable information, but the interpretation requires more research. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Dynamic testing provides information on a child's ability to learn.Solving process information provides indications for intervention.Computerized testing can be of great help in recording process information. What this paper adds: Process‐oriented dynamic testing provides explanatory information beyond traditional tests.The use of a tangible user interface (TUI) console uncovers valuable information on solving processes.Process measures are related to series completion performance, math, and reading.Need for instruction is the best predictor of math and reading ability.Implications for practice and/or policy: A framework for interpreting process information is necessary in dynamic testing.Process‐oriented dynamic testing may be more suitable to inform education.TUIs provide a more natural testing environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, almost everyone uses the World Wide Web (WWW) to search for information of any kind. In education, students frequently use the WWW for selecting information to accomplish assignments such as writing an essay or preparing a presentation. The evaluation of sources and information is an important sub-skill in this process. But many students have not yet optimally developed this skill. On the basis of verbal reports, eye-tracking data and navigation logs, this study investigated how novices in the domain of psychology evaluate Internet sources as compared to domain experts. In addition, two different verbal reporting techniques, namely thinking aloud and cued retrospective reporting, were compared in order to examine students' evaluation behaviour. Results revealed that domain expertise has an impact on individuals' evaluation behaviour during Web search, such that domain experts showed a more sophisticated use of evaluation criteria to judge the reliability of sources and information and selected more reliable information than domain novices. Furthermore, the different verbal reporting techniques did not lead to different conclusions on criteria use in relation to domain expertise, although in general more utterances concerning evaluation of sources and information were expressed during cued retrospective reporting. Lay Description What is already known about this topic: When searching the Web, students assess the reliability of information and sources in a spontaneous manner., Students tend to use superficial criteria when judging the trustworthiness of web-based information and sources., Little is known about the differences between domain experts and novices in terms of the ways they spontaneously evaluate web-based information and sources., What this paper adds: Domain knowledge influences evaluation behaviour, with greater domain knowledge leading to more reliable selection of sources., A comparison of techniques for measuring evaluation behaviour when searching the Web for information reveals that different techniques, such as thinking aloud and cued retrospective reporting, have different pros and cons whose implications depend on the research questions being addressed., Implications for practice and/or policy: In formal education, more attention should be paid to equipping students with the requisite skills in searching for and evaluating web-based information. Embedded process-oriented instructional designs are needed that foster the appropriate evaluation behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study aims to investigate secondary school students' reading comprehension and navigation of networked hypertexts with and without a graphic overview compared to linear digital texts. Additionally, it was studied whether prior knowledge, vocabulary, verbal, and visual working memory moderated the relation between text design and comprehension. Therefore, 80 first‐year secondary school students read both a linear text and a networked hypertext with and without a graphical overview. Logfiles registered their navigation. After reading the text, students answered textbased multiple choice questions and drew mindmaps to assess their structural knowledge of each text content. It was found that both textbased and structural knowledge were lower after reading a networked hypertext than a linear text, especially in students with lower levels of vocabulary. Students took generally more time to read the hypertext than the linear text. We concluded that networked hypertexts are more challenging to read than linear texts and that students may benefit from explicit training on how to read hypertexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study addressed the effectiveness of an educational math game for improving proportional reasoning in prevocational education, and examined the added value of support in the form of reflection. The study compared four conditions: the game with reflection prompts, the game with reflection prompts plus procedural information, the game with procedural information only and the game without additional support. It was found that students' proportional reasoning skill improved after playing the game. The game managed to target prevocational students with low prior knowledge, a group that has the potential to understand proportional reasoning but has not yet encountered the right learning situation to live up to their potential. However, it was also found that students need to be computational fluent to profit from the game. Furthermore, no added value of the support was found. The way the support was structured may have been too demanding for most of the students. The fact that the prevocational students (and specifically those with low prior knowledge) improved by playing the game is noteworthy, because the topic of proportional reasoning is demanding for this group of students who often have lower abilities as well as in some cases a high resistance to learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports on the effects of the combined use of an interactive whiteboard ( IWB) and a virtual learning environment ( VLE) on mathematics performance and motivation. Lessons taught with an IWB were made available on the VLE, so that they could be consulted regardless of time and place. Students' mathematics performance was monitored during one school year and their motivation for mathematics was followed for 3 years. There was no relation between frequency of being taught with an IWB and mathematics performance. However, students' motivation for mathematics appeared to be positively related to the combination of lessons made for the IWB and availability of these lessons on the VLE. This availability was also the main reason for students' appreciation of the VLE. Students appeared to use the VLE mostly to prepare for tests and examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]