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Abstract This study aims at extending current research on how the interaction between cognitive processing and topic interest shapes the online learning process of students when learning from expository texts. We used eye tracking to monitor the reading and learning behaviour of 31 students in higher education. In addition, we used self-report questionnaires to map students' general disposition towards deep and surface processing and their topic interest. Cued retrospective think-alouds were conducted to capture students' levels of processing during learning from text. We examined the interaction between levels of processing and topic interest on eye movement measures. Results indicate that high-interested students who use more deep processing reread key sentences longer than detailed sentences and thus process these sentences more deeply. This study advances present knowledge in the field by focusing on the online learning process and stresses the importance of giving students learning contents that spark their interest. Highlights • Students using more deep levels of processing do not reread key sentences longer than details. • Highly interested students using more deep levels of processing reread key sentences longer than details. • There is an important interplay between topic interest and deep processing during the online learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In highly procedural problem solving, procedures are typically taught with context-independent expository text that conceptually describes a procedure and context-dependent worked examples that concretely demonstrate a procedure. Subgoal labels have been used in worked examples to improve problem solving performance. The effect of subgoal labels in expository text, however, has not been explored. The present study examined the efficacy of subgoal labeled expository text and worked examples for programming education. The results show that learners who received subgoal labels in both the text and example are able to solve novel problems better than those who did not. In addition, subgoal labels in the text appear to have a different, rather than an additive, effect on learners compared to subgoal labels in the example. Specifically, subgoal labels in the text appear to help the learner articulate the procedure, and subgoal labels in the example appear to help the learner apply the procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sentence recognition task, we investigated whether elementary school children's (N = 92; M age = 9.3 years, SD = 1.1 years) memory of the text surface, the textbase, and the situation model differed depending on whether the same information was embedded in an expository or a narrative text. Previous research with children that used narrative and expository texts dealing with different topics indicated beneficial effects narrative over expository texts regarding various indicators of processing on the levels of the textbase and the situation model. In contrast, our results did not indicate differences between narrative and expository texts for any of the levels of representation. Thus, the role of text topic in studies investigating the effect of genre on text comprehension should be investigated further. • We investigated whether children's text comprehension differed between genres. • We created pairs of narrative and expository texts with the same topic. • A sentence-recognition task indicated memory of three levels of representation. • The results did not indicate differences between narrative and expository texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The profiles and performance of three 11-year-old students are detailed as the basis for discussing the practical implications of inserting contexts of well-developed and less-developed individual interest into expository text and mathematical word problems. First, the theoretical framework informing the study of individual interest is overviewed — where individual interest refers to the relatively enduring predisposition of a person to re-engage particular classes of objects, events, or ideas, and includes two inter-related components: stored knowledge and stored value. Following this, the cases of three students who vary in both ability and individual interest for working in the domains of reading and mathematics are described. Discussion centers on the potential of well-developed interest to provide students with a scaffold for working with assigned tasks. Inserted contexts for which students have a well-developed interest appear to enable students to focus on meaning in tasks and provide a basis for focusing students on task demands. These contexts can also mask difficulties or feel more difficult to students than passages or problems with contexts for which they have less-developed interest. The implications and importance of teacher support as students work with contexts of well-developed individual interest are described. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]