Search

It is unknown whether and to what extent cognitive individual differences may play different roles in paper versus computer-based second language (L2) writing. This exploratory study is a first attempt to explore this issue, focusing on the effects of working memory and language aptitude on the quality of paper versus computer-based L2 writing performance. Forty-two Spanish learners of L2 English performed a problem-solving task either digitally or on paper, took a working memory n-back test, and completed LLAMA tests to measure language aptitude. The quality of their L2 written texts was assessed in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) measures. The results indicated that the role of cognitive individual differences may vary depending on the writing environment.

This study aims at understanding the role of the tools chosen throughout the processes of solving a non-routine mathematical problem and communicating its solution. In assuming that problem-solving is a synchronous activity of mathematization and expression of mathematical thinking we take our proposed Mathematical Problem Solving with Technology (MPST) model to analyze the processes of solving-and-expressing-problems. Resorting to qualitative methods for data collection and analysis, we report on the case of an 8th grader working on a covariation problem to examine the role that paper-and-pencil and digital tools play in the development of a conceptual model of the situation. We found that the resources used throughout the solving-and-expressing activity influenced the depth of the conceptual model developed, within a process of progressive mathematization. Whereas paper-and-pencil led to the emergence of a conceptual model based on exploring particular cases, the digital transformation of the solution was triggered by the process of communicating its mathematical justification and expanded the previous model. Moreover, the complexity of this activity is evidenced by its multiple sequences of processes. Finally, the integration process seems crucial as the concomitant use of technological and mathematical resources precedes major advancements in the expansion of the conceptual model.

This study aims to investigate the similarities and differences between prospective mathematics teachers' creative thinking skills in paper-pencil test and on a GeoGebra-supported environment in terms of problem-posing. This case study used purposive sampling method for determining the participants. Findings revealed that the activities carried out in the GeoGebra-supported environment were insufficient to produce creative problems, and GeoGebra's main utility to prospective teachers was in identifying their mistakes related to mathematical concepts and discrepancies among numerical values of the problems posed. The reasons for the low achievement in posing problem were discussed: These were: (1) lack of problem-posing experience; (2) the structure of problem-posing activity; and (3) prospective teachers' mathematical content knowledge.

The purpose of this research is to experimentally evaluate how the "flipped classroom" model used to deliver Business English, which is commonly an integral part to the ESP course at tertiary schools of Economics in Ukraine, to the students majoring in Economics fosters students' critical thinking skills and improved their academic performances and what students' perceptions of this model are. The learning environment used a multimedia-based textbook entitled "Business skills through English". This was experimental research which used a mixed-methods approach. Students' critical thinking skills and academic performance (learning outcomes) were the variables for this study. Placement tests, needs analysis questionnaires, Course Satisfaction Questionnaire, a test to assess the students' critical thinking skills were used to collect the statistical data. Cronbach Alpha coefficient was applied to interpret the test on critical thinking data and SPSS AMOS statistical package programme was used to analyse the consolidated data. The study found that the "flipped classroom" model used to deliver ESP and Business English to the students majoring in Economics has the potential to provide a better learning experience for the students and teaching experience for the teachers. This model fosters students' critical thinking skills by involving them in problem-solving-based learning and improves their academic performances by increasing their responsibility for learning results and stimulating them to use different learning styles. Overall, the above model substitutes a teacher-centered with a student-centered approach that engages learners in the true-to-life business world and language environment. In this way, learning Business English and ESP at higher educational institutions in Ukraine is a move from just training memory (memorizing professionalism-related English vocabulary and doing grammar drills) to applying language as a learning medium in the specifically designed vocational contexts.

Paper folding studies are quite effective in the development of students' visual and spatial skills. The "paper" used in these studies is a genuine tool that can support the development of geometric habits of mind as well as the visual-spatial skills. This is an action research aimed to investigate the potential of paper folding to improve students' geometric thinking skills and to enhance their achievement in national exams. The improvement in their geometric thinking was investigated based on the framework of the Geometric Habits of Mind. This study was carried out with three students studying in the 11th grade. Four geometry questions were asked to students, and they were expected to solve these questions by paper folding. The solution process was video-recorded. Video-recordings were transcribed, and the obtained data were qualitatively analyzed within the framework of the components of the geometric habits of mind. As a result of the study, it was seen that the students were able to reach solutions more easily by concretizing the intangible questions through paper folding. The students were able to comprehend the fact that the main components of triangles do not change; that is, they are preserved (the angles and the sides do not change).

The main purpose of this study is to investigate mathematics teachers' mathematical thinking process while they are constructing the length of [cube root of 2] by paper folding. To carry out this aim, two teachers--who are PhD. students--were interviewed one by one. During the construction, it was possible to observe the consolidation process of Pythagorean and Thales Theorem. All interviews were videotaped and analyzed through descriptive methods, according to abstraction in context, characteristics of consolidation and mathematical habits of mind. It was found that both two teachers constructed the knowledge of Pythagorean and Thales Theorems before the study and also these knowledges were consolidated. In addition, it was determined that these two approaches (abstraction in context and mathematical habits of mind) were close and corroborated each other. Moreover, consolidation process corroborated mathematical habits of mind.

Collaborative learning is well-established as a method to improve student learning and retention in engineering classrooms. One problem with collaborative learning is difficulty maximizing engagement of all students during group activities. We tested a change in implementation of collaborative problem solving sessions (Workshops) in a first-year Calculus for Engineers course. Previously, students sat at tables and worked together in small groups to solve provided problems, with each student ending the class period with her or his own written solution. The innovation in this study had students solving the same problems in the same small groups, but working together on the chalkboards, with each group ending the class period with a mutually agreed upon solution. Data collection to assess the innovation included student surveys, TA feedback, and observation and video recording of Workshop sections. The data support this innovation as a way to increase student collaboration and engagement during collaborative problem solving.

An understanding of acid-base reactions is necessary for success in chemistry courses and relevant to careers outside of chemistry, yet research has demonstrated that students often struggle with learning acid-base reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry. One response to this challenge is the development of educational applications to support instruction and learning. The development of these supports also creates an opportunity to probe students' thinking about organic chemistry reaction mechanisms using multiple modalities--i.e., using an app interface or the traditional paper-pencil. This study used think-aloud interviews conducted with undergraduate students in their first semester of organic chemistry to understand how they worked through two acid-base reactions using either paper-pencil or an app. Analysis of the interviews indicates that students from both groups recognize the steps of acid-base reactions, but do not always apply the underlying concepts, such as assessment of pK[subscript a] values or resonance, when determining how a reaction will proceed. The modality seemed to somewhat influence students' thinking, as the app prevented students from making chemically unreasonable mistakes. However, some students relied on the cues it provided, which could potentially be problematic when they are required to respond to assessments that do not provide these cues. Our results suggest that instructors should emphasize the conceptual grounding for the steps that govern acid-base reactions to promote chemical thinking about the relationships between the reaction components and how those influence reaction outcomes, as well as support students to think critically about the chemical information contained within the modalities they are using.

In this article we argue that in South Africa the current format of legitimised participation and practice in the examination papers for Mathematical Literacy restricts successful apprenticeship in the discipline of scientific mathematics and limits empowered preparation for real-world functioning. The currency of the subject, then, is brought into question. We further argue that the positioning of the subject as a compulsory alternative to Mathematics and the differential distribution of these two subjects to differing groups of learners facilitates the (re)production and sustainment of educational disadvantage. We draw on Dowling's theoretical constructs of differing domains of mathematical practice and positions and focus analysis on a collection of nationally set exemplar Grade 12 examination papers to identify legitimised forms of participation in the subject. We conclude by arguing for a reconceptualised structure of knowledge and participation in Mathematical Literacy and make preliminary recommendations in this regard.

Critical thinking and problem solving skills are included in the IS curriculum as foundational skills. IS education researchers recognize the importance of these skills for future IS practitioners given the complexity of the technology based society and economy of the future. However, there is limited work on how these skills are best taught in IS. This research reports on a course focusing on the explicit development of critical thinking and problem solving skills of first-year IS students at the University of Pretoria. The critical thinking part of the course focuses on the analysis, evaluation of, and response to arguments. Class discussions and assessments are based on local, authentic arguments. In the problem solving skills component of the course, students are taught to understand the nature of a problem and to classify it as belonging to one of three categories: puzzles, problems, and messes. For each category, appropriate problem solving approaches are suggested and practiced. To illustrate the role of design and creativity in problem solving, students have to create an artefact using the Maker Space of the university. They have to apply the five phases of design thinking as suggested by the Stanford d.school design thinking approach. The course has been presented since 2016, and feedback is collected from students annually. Based on a feedback questionnaire that the students complete at the end of each course, we have reason to believe that they find the course valuable and consider those skills to be applicable to other courses as well as elsewhere in their lives. They also point out the value it holds for their future as IS practitioners. As part of our ongoing research, we are investigating ways to develop a critical disposition amongst students, an important component of critical thinking.

This paper discusses the design of a digital Chinese character composition game with the paper-interface named as ARC (Augmented Reality-based Chinese Characters) and its implementation in a Singapore primary school. The ARC game is designed to help beginning Chinese as second language (L2) learners to develop Chinese orthographic knowledge and improve quality of collaboration. Underlying sociocultural perspectives of learning, it seeks to enable learners to complete the game collaboratively in classrooms, and in this process to build a deep understanding of linguistic knowledge in solving in-situ language-related problems that emerge in language use. The results of a quasi-experiment indicate that ARC is an effective system for improving Chinese character learning performance and collaborative learning quality. It suggests that the augmented paper, enabling natural interactions, allow more and potentially young students to engage with educational content and collaboration. The problematizing scaffold should be embedded in the game design to elicit more opportunities for collaborative dialogue.

This paper investigates whether paper and video triggers stimulate different social and cognitive processes during PBL. The study focused on how medical students identified and described problems, and how they built shared cognitions that lead them to diagnose and solve problems. The results showed that students who used video triggers put more effort into communicating their understanding of the problem and relevant knowledge than students who used paper triggers. The findings contribute to discussions on how to evaluate the effectiveness of different PBL triggers in order to better integrate them into the curriculum.

This research addresses the issue of how to support students' representational fluency--the ability to create, move within, translate across, and derive meaning from external representations of mathematical ideas. The context of solving linear equations in a combined computer algebra system (CAS) and paper-and-pencil classroom environment is targeted as a rich and pressing context to study this issue. We report results of a collaborative teaching experiment in which we designed for and tested a functions approach to solving equations with ninth-grade algebra students, and link to results of semi-structured interviews with students before and after the experiment. Results of analyzing the five-week experiment include instructional supports for students' representational fluency in solving linear equations: (a) sequencing the use of graphs, tables, and CAS feedback prior to formal symbolic transpositions, (b) connecting solutions to equations across representations, and (c) encouraging understanding of equations as equivalence relations that are sometimes, always, or never true. While some students' change in sophistication of representational fluency helps substantiate the productive nature of these supports, other students' persistent struggles raise questions of how to address the diverse needs of learners in complex learning environments involving multiple tool-based representations.

Purpose: This study was conducted to reveal the views of academicians, working in the Faculty of Education, on the 2023 Vision Document of the Ministry of National Education. Method: Qualitative research method was used in this study. The study group consisted of six faculty members. In the determination of participants, easily accessible situation sampling, which is one of the purposive sampling methods, was used. A descriptive qualitative research design was used in this study; interview technique and semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools. Findings: The findings showed that the views of academicians, who participated in this study, about the education system were based on a philosophical foundation that continues from individuality to sociality, from material dimension to spiritual dimension, and emphasizes an original national and spiritual thought system extending from local to universal. Also, results indicated that, firstly, students should gain national and universal values and then should be equipped with 21st-century skills and competencies if the courses are satisfactory concerning quality, the reduction of the course hours can be positive; emphasis can be given on the necessity of giving the pedagogical formation education rather than giving it. Implications for Research and Practice: The findings obtained from this study suggest that the views of the academicians may contribute to the successful implementation of the document. Studies should be carried out to reveal the opinions of teachers and school administrators, which are important components of education programs, within the framework of the document.

This article presents a possible framework for the cooperation of mathematics and physics education research domains. Moreover, the potential topics for such a scientific collaboration are explained by means of a structuring qualitative content analysis of current handbooks and conference proceedings in Germany and Vietnam. These topics can form a basis for further projects on the connection of subject-related didactics. One of these projects is an interdisciplinary course in teacher training at the Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE) as part of the Inter TeTra project between the HNUE and the University of Siegen.

Gestures-hand movements that accompany speech and express ideas-can help children learn how to solve problems, flexibly generalize learning to novel problem-solving contexts, and retain what they have learned. But does it matter who is doing the gesturing? We know that producing gesture leads to better comprehension of a message than watching someone else produce gesture. But we do not know how producing versus observing gesture impacts deeper learning outcomes such as generalization and retention across time. Moreover, not all children benefit equally from gesture instruction, suggesting that there are individual differences that may play a role in who learns from gesture. Here, we consider two factors that might impact whether gesture leads to learning, generalization, and retention after mathematical instruction: (1) whether children see gesture or do gesture and (2) whether a child spontaneously gestures before instruction when explaining their problem-solving reasoning. For children who spontaneously gestured before instruction, both doing and seeing gesture led to better generalization and retention of the knowledge gained than a comparison manipulative action. For children who did not spontaneously gesture before instruction, doing gesture was less effective than the comparison action for learning, generalization, and retention. Importantly, this learning deficit was specific to gesture, as these children did benefit from doing the comparison manipulative action. Our findings are the first evidence that a child's use of a particular representational format for communication (gesture) directly predicts that child's propensity to learn from using the same representational format., (© 2024 Cognitive Science Society LLC.)

Research on problem solving typically does not address tasks that involve following detailed and/or illustrated step-by-step instructions. Such tasks are not seen as cognitively challenging problems to be solved. In this paper, we challenge this assumption by analyzing verbal protocols collected during an Origami folding task. Participants verbalised thoughts well beyond reading or reformulating task instructions, or commenting on actions. In particular, they compared the task status to pictures in the instruction, evaluated the progress so far, referred to previous experience, expressed problems and confusions, and--crucially--added complex thoughts and ideas about the current instructional step. The last two categories highlight the fact that participants conceptualised this spatial task as a problem to be solved, and used creativity to achieve this aim. Procedurally, the verbalisations reflect a typical order of steps: "reading"--"reformulating"--"reconceptualising"--"evaluating." During reconceptualisation, the creative range of spatial concepts represented in language highlights the complex mental operations involved when transferring the two-dimensional representation into the real world. We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of problem solving as a multilayered process involving diverse types of cognitive effort, consider parallels to known conceptual challenges involved in interpreting spatial descriptions, and reflect on the benefit of reconceptualisation for cognitive processes.

Research has shown the importance of helping students, especially those with mild-to-moderate learning disabilities, to offload information during problem-solving. When students can get their thoughts onto paper, number line strategies can help them develop a firm foundation in mathematical problem-solving while understanding the relationships between mathematical operations. These strategies are helpful for the development of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and later, fractional mathematics. In this article, we describe the progression of number lines as a supportive strategy for elementary students and those with developmental delays in mathematics to improve mathematical understanding. This strategy is based on students being able to show their work and think about what they have written on paper or how they have used manipulatives.

Learning statistics can be challenging for many students, due to their inability to engage in statistical reasoning and application of techniques. This challenge becomes compounded in online learning contexts where students are spatially and temporally separated from the teacher. This paper describes and explains a case of theory-driven interventions designed to enhance the learning experiences of students enrolled in two similar business statistics units, one for undergraduate and the other for postgraduate programs. The paper based its claims primarily on the analysis of data from a student evaluation of teaching survey. This study affirmed the importance of a pedagogy-first approach. It argued that the interventions, which were effective in enhancing the student learning experience, were underpinned by a robust pedagogical analysis of the teaching and learning issues using both constructive alignment and transactional distance theory lenses.

This paper reflects on the process of designing and implementing an update to the "Introduction to Information Technology" course at Bentley University, a business university in New England. Driven by a university-wide curriculum reform initiative and following best practices from digital literacy frameworks and IS model curricula, the new CS 100 course, entitled "Solving Business Problems with Information Technology," shifted emphasis from a personal computing context to exploring small business applications of technology. Students networked with university alumni at "Topics in Tech" presentations, where they learned about career options as information technology professionals. The authors describe the pilot courses that led to proposing a new CS 100 course and reflect its challenges and successes. Challenges included meeting the university's goal of transfer friendliness, scaling from a few pilots to multiple sections, consistency of course delivery, and evaluating assessment. Successes include placing course topics in a business context, introducing current technologies, and providing opportunities for students to learn about career opportunities and experiences from university alumni. The paper also describes how CS 100 aligns with the university's student learning goals for the new curriculum. These include developing future-focused skills, encouraging curiosity and critical analysis, communicating and collaborating in different settings, and demonstrating understanding of issues related to ethical use of technology.

This paper describes and compares primary school students' perceptions of science learning skills in a teacher-centered approach (TCA) and in inquiry-based science fieldwork (IBSF). This comparison was prompted by primary school students' perceptions of science learning skills, which has recently gained momentum, and the Namibian primary schools' recent curriculum shift from TCA to IBSF. The study utilized quantitative cross-sectional data (n = 237) collected from two primary schools in the Oshana region of Namibia. The data were gathered via an online survey and were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the TCA and IBSF groups. The results revealed that the students had positive to fairly positive perceptions of science learning skills in IBSF and very negative to negative perceptions of science learning skills in TCA, with the difference between the two perceptions being statistically significant. This may indicate that Namibian primary school students find it hard to develop science learning skills under TCA. Therefore, the current study provided evidence for the need to focus more on supporting students' science learning skills, particularly problem-solving, communication and teamwork skills. This implies that the IBSF teaching approach, which allows students to become aware of the importance of science learning skills, must be adopted in Namibian primary schools. The paper also discusses the benefits of IBSF of science learning skills in students.

This study investigated the effects of integrating a university's core value messages into the curriculum of a basic communication course on student recall of the messages, adjustment to college, and learning. A quasi-experimental design was used to examine differences between students (n = 302) assigned to one of three conditions: control group, message-only group, and message and experience group. The message and experience group learned about the university's core value messages as part of their course curriculum, engaged in an out-of-class experience focused on these value messages, and completed a group problem-solving project related to these messages. The message only group learned about the university's value messages and completed the same group problem-solving project, but did not engage in the out-of-class experience. The control group did not learn about the university's messaging and completed the group problem-solving project related to a campus-based problem of their choice. Results reveal significant differences in student recall of the messages and student learning. No differences emerged in student adjustment to college based on experimental groupings. The results suggest communicating these messages solely in the basic communication course may not be a sufficient condition for facilitating student adjustment to the university's culture.

The paper examines critically the dimension of empowerment in the European discourse, starting from some operational definitions used in official documents. The author analyses the shift in the European documents from 2000 to recent years, from a lifelong learning vision to an adult education approach, basically labour market-oriented, thus leaving aside the social cohesion and self-emancipatory dossiers. Against this background, a theoretical approach derived from the categories of transaction and reflexivity is suggested, setting out from the works of John Dewey. This paper investigates whether the categories of experience, problem posing and emancipation are more suitable for a long-term project on adult learning than the categories of activation, problem solving, and empowerment.