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This theoretical paper introduces a new way to view and characterize learning astronomy. It describes a framework, based on results from empirical data, analyzed through standard qualitative research methodology, in which a theoretical model for a vital competency of learning astronomy is proposed: "reading the sky," a broad description under with various skills and competencies are included. This model takes into account not only "disciplinary knowledge" but also "disciplinary discernment" and "extrapolating three dimensionality." Together, these constitute the foundation for the competency referred to as "reading the sky." In this paper, these competencies are described and discussed and merged to form a new framework vital for learning astronomy to better match the challenges students face when entering the discipline of astronomy.

This study reports the effects of using word clouds to support students' knowledge integration from online inquiry as demonstrated by blog posts, tags and concept maps. Fifty-four undergraduate students from a medium-sized university in the northwestern United States were randomly assigned into two groups and blogged for five weeks. To support students' online searching activity, the treatment group was provided a list of concepts in the format of a word cloud. The control group received the same list of concepts in an alphabetic order. Data analyses included comparing participant-attached tags and individual concept maps to the instructor's keyword list. Results revealed that the word clouds facilitated the construction of schema in a top-down deductive approach, which could be a meaningful and efficient way of learning.

Discussion forums in learning management systems (LMS) have been shown to promote student interaction and contribute to the collaborative practice in the teaching-learning process. By evaluating the postings, teachers can identify students with learning difficulties. However, due to the large volume of posts that are generated on a daily basis in these environments, manual analysis becomes impractical. This article proposes a mechanism to support teaching through the thematic relevance analysis of the posts made by students in discussion forums. For this, text mining and metrics from network science were used to process and extract characteristics of the texts. Then, the processed texts were classified through supervised learning algorithms. The results show that the use of these techniques may generate potentially useful indicators for teachers to help them improve their pedagogical practices.

This article proposes an integrated cognitive theory of reading and listening that draws on a maximalist account of comprehension and emphasizes the role of bottom-up and top-down processing. The theoretical framework draws on the findings of previous research and integrates them into a coherent and plausible narrative to explain and predict the comprehension of written and auditory inputs. The theory is accompanied by a model that schematically represents the fundamental components of the theory and the comprehension mechanisms described. The theory further highlights the role of perception and word recognition (underresearched in reading research), situation models (missing in listening research), mental imagery (missing in both streams), and inferencing. The robustness of the theory is discussed in light of the principles of scientific theories adopted from Popper (1959).

The term "cognitive tool" has been used in many areas of academic specialisation, where it has taken on multiple connotations. In this historical and systematic review, we investigate the conceptualisation of cognitive tools in the learning sciences and educational technology. First, the theory of cognitive tools vis-à-vis learning and development is traced from Vygotsky and Soviet psychology through to its use in current educational technology and learning design. Second, we present a systematic review of cognitive tools in peer-reviewed research literature. We found the term cognitive tool was often used vaguely or with extreme generality. When used more specifically, it referred to communication methods such as visualisations, metaphors, symbols, and hypermedia; or interactive interfaces and environments such as templates, databases, simulations, games, and collaborative media. We offer a definition of software-based cognitive tools founded on the attributes of "representation," "interactivity," and "distributed cognition," which commonly feature in the work of influential theorists; and we explain implications of the definition for designing, evaluating, and researching learning technologies.

The aim of this research is to introduce a method of constructing knowledge structures which represent the relationships among the knowledge items in a pedagogically useful way. A prototype, "MyTeLeMap," was implemented to support both learners and instructors. Learners could visualize the knowledge structures of different knowledge domains and obtain links to corresponding study materials. The system also offered learning paths and recommendations, for example, to related structures. Instructors could create and share their knowledge structures. An experiment compared the learning outcomes of learners using MyTeLeMap and those using a free-browsing mode. The results showed that MyTeLeMap helped learners more than free browsing. Future work includes the incorporation of a search application for learners and of management features for instructors to upload and share learning materials linked to specific knowledge domains.

Artificially intelligent tools have given us the capability to use technology to address ever more complex challenges. What are the capabilities, challenges, and hazards of incorporating and developing this technology for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)? "Artificial intelligence" (AI) can be defined as the capability of a machine to imitate human intelligence. The goal of AI is to create machines that can use characteristics of human intelligence to solve problems and adapt to a changing environment. Harnessing the capabilities of AI tools has the potential to accelerate progress in serving individuals with complex communication needs. In this article, we discuss components of AI, including (a) knowledge representation, (b) reasoning, (c) natural language processing, (d) machine learning, (e) computer vision, and (f) robotics. For each AI component, we delve into the implications, promise, and precautions of that component for AAC.

The representation of knowledge is a process widely used in education for its potential to generate deep learning, metacognition, and also in mapping the student's cognitive structure while developing a broad spectrum of thinking skills. Notwithstanding the above mentioned benefits, the development and evolution of new digital ecologies of learning is still an unexplored field for knowledge representation systems. As part of a larger study, this article shows the process and results of a systematic review of literature on knowledge representation systems, with the purpose of identifying the foundations and main applicable instruments of digital educational environments. Among the most representative findings of this review is that despite the existence of a large number of educational experiences that have incorporated both physical and digital knowledge representation tools, their use has been restricted almost entirely to the understanding of concepts and the assessment of learning in non-collaborative environments. These findings suggest the relevance of studying the representation of knowledge in digital collaborative contexts that facilitate the development of thinking skills for the digital age, and the need for co-creation and transformation of knowledge. Together these suggest a new perspective on knowledge representation for digital ecologies of learning.

Learning analytics research has used both knowledge engineering and machine learning methods to model student behaviors within the context of digital learning environments. In this paper, we compare these two approaches, as well as a hybrid approach combining the two types of methods. We illustrate the strengths of each approach in the context of a case study in building models able to detect when students "game the system", a behavior in which learners abuse the environment's support functionalities in order to succeed by guessing or copying answers. We compare the predictive performance, interpretability and generalizability of models created using each approach, doing so across multiple intelligent tutoring systems. In our case study, we show that the machine-learned model required less resources to develop, but was less interpretable and general. In contrast, the knowledge engineering approach resulted in the most interpretable and general model. Combining both approaches in a hybrid model allowed us to create a model that performed best across the three dimensions, but requiring increased resources to develop.

This article by David Aldridge concerns the promise of knowledge "insertion." The promise can be elucidated as follows: knowledge could be inserted by a less time-consuming (and possibly in many senses less expensive) technological process than traditional learning, whereby, for example, some relatively swift procedure of implanting or more radically transforming the structure of the brain could save its subject the trouble of spending several years studying for a university degree. Such a promise, if coherent and realizable, would certainly count as an instance of "cheating education" in that it would appear to circumvent or evade the learning process. Here, Aldridge develops a phenomenological account of knowing that emphasizes a background of practical understanding, which he then contrasts with an account of knowing as the possession of an internal representation that he understands as underpinning claims for the promise of knowledge insertion. The incoherence of "knowledge insertion" is not, however, the end of the story, according to Aldridge. He closes by exploring how a flawed concept of "information insertion" already pervades contemporary educational thinking and practice. It is not, that is to say, merely an impossible science fiction dream, but an example of how technological modes of thought do indeed threaten to "cheat" education -- not by helping us to "cheat" in our learning, but by cheating us of an experience that might properly be called educational.

Adult developmental mathematics students often work under great pressure to complete the mathematics sequences designed to help them achieve success (Bryk & Treisman, 2010). Results of a teaching experiment demonstrate how the ability to reason can be impeded by flaws in students' mental representations of mathematics. The earnestness of the subject's efforts and the frequent detours his learning took create a vivid portrait of what happens in the lives of students for whom "the dream stops" at developmental mathematics (Bryk & Treisman, 2010, p. 19). Results provide teachers with a clearer picture of what is needed to help their students build mathematical understanding.

Learning organization and entrepreneurship are the most important issues that are focused on different themes in management. The purpose of present research was to study the relationship between learning organization elements and entrepreneurship among academic faculty members of the West Azarbaijan State Universities. The research method was descriptive-survey. Research instruments were two questionnaires. The first one, learning organization elements' questionnaire, which was built by Park (2008), and the second survey questionnaire collected information on the entrepreneurship that was built by Kordnaiej et al. (2005). Both questionnaires validities were confirmed by Cronbach's alpha. The research results indicated that there was a positive and significant relationship between personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, the systems thinking, and the entrepreneurship. Along with these findings, some key practical suggestions are proposed: Creating a learning atmosphere and a safe environment for creative scientific competition, considering the issues and their various applications in relationship with each other and systematically that causes a deep relationship between the university academic faculty members which leads to the entrepreneurship.

This case study describes an "out of field" teacher's use of the Internet to teach a range of mathematical topics in a modified Year 8 mathematics class. It highlights the importance of three factors for implementing a discernible web-based teaching strategy: appropriate choice of web objects, effective "virtual" pedagogy, and technical support and expertise. Based on these findings, a framework is suggested for constructing an effective teaching strategy to support the use of virtual resources in the actual mathematics classroom. (Contains 4 figures.)

We present a new software, called Goluca (Godinho, Luengo, and Casas, 2007), based on the technique of Pathfinder Associative Networks (Schvaneveldt, 1989), which produces graphical representations of the cognitive structure of individuals in a given field knowledge. In this case, we studied the strategies used by teachers and its relationship with the perception expressed about their own abilities for mental calculation. First of all, the participants, 14 primary teachers, were asked what opinions they had about their own capabilities of mental calculation, classifying them as good, bad or moderate. Using the software Goluca, representations were obtained in the form of Pathfinder Associative Networks and the cognitive structure of these teachers concerning to the mental calculation strategies they used and calculated the consistency of such networks, denoted as "coherence". The results obtained allowed to identify which were the main strategies used by teachers and specify that teachers, who feel they have good skills in mental calculation, have more consistent cognitive structures. (Contains 2 tables and 5 figures.)

Introduction: The objective of this study is understand the information needs that businesses have while seeking Library and Information Science professionals and analyse how they formulate those needs. Method: The analysis is performed by examining the professional skills and capabilities demanded in job offers published. A total of 1,020 job offers collected from a Spanish employment agency Website have been analysed for the period between 2006 and 2008. Analysis: Knowledge representation techniques using thesauri have been used for the automatic content analysis based on natural language processing. Data extracted from the corpora have been analysed statistically. Results: Results of this study indicate a demand for skills related to technological advances and the management of electronic resources as well as to technical aspects associated with the Informatics domain. The knowledge of languages and the possession of an academic title represent essential factors in the job offers. Conclusions: This method permits the identification of changes in the information needs and the contexts inherent to the profession. The advantage of using thesauri permits other research groups to reproduce the results. The re-use of semantic categories, common to other fields, facilitates the reproduction of this method with other occupational groups or social roles. (Contains 4 tables and 10 figures.)

This study examines the specificity of information provided by structural assessment of knowledge (SAK). SAK is a technique which uses the Pathfinder scaling algorithm to transform ratings of concept relatedness into network representations (PFnets) of individuals' knowledge. Inferences about individuals' overall domain knowledge based on the similarity between their PFnets and a referent PFnet have been shown to be valid. We investigate a more fine grained evaluation of "specific links" in individuals' PFnets for identifying particular strengths and weaknesses. Thirty-five undergraduates learned about a computer programming language and were then tested on their knowledge of the language with SAK and a problem solving task. The presence of two subsets of links in participants' PFnets differentially predicted performance on two types of problems, thereby providing evidence of the specificity of SAK. Implications for the formative use of SAK in the classroom and in computer-based environments are discussed. (Contains 6 figures and 4 endnotes.)

During the past two decades, the popularity of computer and video games has prompted games to be a source of study for educational applications (Dickey, 2007). The most distinguishing characteristic of games is their capability to engage and motivate their players (Kiili, 2005). Educators started to explore game-based learning by testing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games in the classrooms directly and by developing educational games through mimicking the constructions of some popular massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs). These educational explorations of games, however, all tended to highlight their educational purposes and content, which unintentionally diminished their ability to engage and motivate players. This paper suggests the concept of domain knowledge transparency (DKT). This concept indicates that instead of emphasizing the educational content and purposes, domain knowledge should be integrated into games naturally and invisibly to keep the nature of games fun and playful. In addition, the technologies used in modern games have pushed many computer games beyond the boundaries of game genres. Therefore, this article suggests the replacement of game genres with a feature list to identify a game. Finally, this article uses a popular Chinese game, Mai-fang-zi, to illustrate these two ideas.

People use external knowledge representations (KRs) to identify, depict, transform, store, share, and archive information. Learning how to work with KRs is central to be-coming proficient in virtually every discipline. As such, KRs play central roles in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. We describe five key roles of KRs in assessment: (1) An assessment is itself an KR, which makes explicit the knowledge that is valued, ways it is used, and standards of good work; (2) The analysis of any domain in which learning is to be assessed must include the identification and analysis of the KRs in that domain; (3) Assessment tasks can be structured around the knowledge, relationships, and uses of domain KRs; (4) "Design KRs" can be created to organize knowledge about a domain in forms that support the design of assessment; and (5) KRs in the discipline of assessment design can guide and structure the domain analyses (re #2), task construction (re #3), and the creation and use of design KRs (re #4). The third and fourth roles are developed in greater detail, through an "evidence-centered" design perspective that reflects the fifth role. Recurring implications of technology that leverage the impact of KRs in assessment are highlighted, including task design supports and automated task construction and scoring. Ideas are illustrated with "generate examples" tasks and simulation tasks for computer network design and troubleshooting. (Contains 16 figures and 2 tables.)

In the present article, we articulate three assumptions underlying theories proposing that restructuring processes play a key role in insightful problem solving: representational difficulty, representational change, and discontinuity in solution processes. We argue that these assumptions need empirical validation to justify the proposition of restructuring mechanisms that are unique from those involved in classic information-processing theories of problem solving. To this end, we review some theoretical and methodological obstacles that are inherent in the investigation of the existence and nature of restructuring processes. We then offer some recommendations on how to overcome or avoid these obstacles in future studies. Finally, we discuss some questions to help motivate new research.

The object of this study is to model the level of a question difficulty by a differential equation at a pre-specified domain knowledge, to be used in an educational support system. For this purpose, we have developed an intelligent tutoring system for mathematics education. Intelligent Tutoring Systems are computer systems designed for improvement of learning and teaching processes in the domain knowledge. The developed system, which is called as MathITS, is based on conceptual map modeling. The Mathematica Kernel is used as an expert system and knowledge representation is based on "LaTeX" notation in MathITS. (Contains 5 figures and 1 table.)

Spatial ability predicts success in STEM (Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics) fields, particularly chemistry. This paper reports two studies investigating the unique contribution of mental rotation ability to spatial thinking in a STEM discipline. Using authentic disciplinary tasks from chemistry, we show that the difficulty of a spatial disciplinary task varies with the spatial complexity of the stimulus and the axis of rotation regardless of the representation used in the task. We also show that spatial thinking may depend more upon students' developing representational competence in this STEM discipline than spatial ability. These findings suggest that curriculum and assessment designers must more carefully consider how different representations are used in the STEM classroom for both learning and evaluation. We argue that educational interventions that target representational competence may be more effective at supporting spatial thinking in STEM than those that attempt to train generic spatial ability.

Seeing pictures of objects activates the motor cortex and can have an influence on subsequent grasping actions. However, the exact nature of the motor representations evoked by these pictures is unclear. For example, action plans engaged by pictures could be most affected by direct visual input and computed online based on object shape. Alternatively, action plans could be influenced by experience seeing and grasping these objects. We provide evidence for a dual-route theory of action representations evoked by pictures of objects, suggesting that these representations are influenced by both direct visual input and stored knowledge. We find that that familiarity with objects has a facilitative effect on grasping actions, with knowledge about the object's canonical orientation or its name speeding grasping actions for familiar objects compared to novel objects. Furthermore, the strength of contributions from each route to action can be modulated by the manner in which the objects are attended. Thus, evocation of grasping representations depends on an interaction between one's familiarity with perceived objects and how those objects are attended while making grasp actions.

A variety of practices and specialised representational systems are required to understand, communicate and construct molecular genetics knowledge. This study describes teachers' use of multimodal representations of molecular genetics concepts and how their strategies and choice of resources were interpreted, understood and used by students to demonstrate their conceptual understanding. Recordings of teachers' and students' discourse around representations, teacher interviews and student pre- and post-tests were used as data sources. Vignettes of students' dialogue with teachers around the form and function of representations and teacher interview responses highlight higher order conceptual understanding. Coding for cognitive domains within lesson phases where different modes of representation were utilised showed classrooms operated at higher domains compared to lessons where modalities were absent. This study shows how pedagogy that focuses on representational form and function as well as students' engagement in critical discussion around affordances and constraints of representations results in a higher cognitive engagement with molecular genetics knowledge.

Abstract electronics concepts are difficult to develop because the phenomena of interest cannot be readily observed. Visualisation skills support learning about electronics and can be applied at different levels of representation and understanding (observable, symbolic and abstract). Providing learners with opportunities to make transitions between these representations and levels can enhance learning. This case study research explores the use of multiple representations in the development of electronics concepts. It focuses on the close observation of learning in context and draws on the findings from semi-structured interviews. The findings show that applying appropriate modelling and simulating strategies enhance the procedures of learning through the learner's active agency. Four emergent cognitive profiles, which were shown to characterise learning, describe the different ways participants understood electronics concepts.

This paper summarizes key stages in development of the Structural Learning Theory (SLT) and explains how and why it is now possible to model human tutors in a highly efficient manner. The paper focuses on evolution of the SLT, a deterministic theory of teaching and learning, on which AuthorIT authoring and TutorIT delivery systems have been built. It explains how SLT differs fundamentally from other theories used to motivate adaptive tutor development and how AuthorIT and TutorIT technologies differ from others used in developing adaptive learning systems. Implicitly, the paper also makes clear why it has been possible using AuthorIT to develop so many TutorIT tutorials in record time at minimal cost.

In the area of technology-enhanced learning reusability and interoperability issues essentially influence the productivity and efficiency of learning and authoring solutions. There are two basic approaches how to overcome these problems--one attempts to do it via standards and the other by means of the Semantic Web. In practice, these approaches meet and many existing solutions are based on ontologies that take into account the available specifications and try to integrate them. Moreover, these ontologies can help us to achieve a certain kind of consensus and to contribute to the harmonization of the existing standards. This paper aims at addressing the issues of leveraging the Semantic Web to improve mechanisms for knowledge representation in the area of adaptive education. We attempt to view adaptive education from different perspectives and consider relationship of various aspects that often appear not to be connected. (Contains 2 figures.)

This paper covers an experiment designed to investigate the relationship between the didactical setting and learning effects with animations. We investigated whether the cognitive load imposed by animations could be reduced when the students could control the flow of the animation. We did not find an effect due to the fact that the students did not actively use this feature to take more control of the presentation. Further, by applying differentiated knowledge measures, we investigated if the characteristics of the acquired knowledge were related to the characteristics of the multimedia presentation. We found that media do not influence knowledge acquisition homogeneously. The multimedia effects found in this study are in line with known principles of didactical multimedia design. This study sheds light on some theoretical aspects involved in the complex interaction between learning content, presentation, learning, and resulting knowledge. (Contains 5 tables.)

Greenfield Center School (GCS) students have a long history of engaging in meaningful projects as the culmination of their studies. Once students have completed these projects, they own their learning; they understand it deeply and can explain how it relates to themselves as well as to their community. The process of showing one's understandings begins with the practice of representing work, which commences in kindergarten and occurs regularly in all content areas. At GCS "representing" means translating one's learning into a different medium, and then reflecting in writing or orally on this translation. The process of representing is not complete until students share their work. In this article, the author describes how students represent their understandings. Presentations can occur in the context of the classroom, or to peers in other classrooms. They can take place during the weekly All School Meeting, to parent and school community audiences and to other audiences authentically interested in the students' work.

Advances in computers and multimedia technology have changed traditional methods for learning and skills training. Online learning continues to play a major success of any academic program. Such learning can personalize learning needs for students, it can provide an environment where virtual reality techniques are used to create interactive interfaces and real-time software can monitor every response made by the user. This paper presents an attempt to introduce the concepts of fuzzy set theory in the design of an online educational module. Such a module can deal with uncertainties in the knowledge acquisition, representation and decision making. The fuzzy logic principles are used in creating the learner model and to provide the appropriate teaching material to each learner according to his/her learning level.

Addresses the issue of quality within inquiry which uses narrative forms of representing human experience. Focuses on environmental education research. (Contains 101 references.) (DDR)