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Background: Socially shared regulation is a vital factor that affects students' collaborative programming performance. However, students' weak group metacognitive skills or inability to adopt shared regulation mechanisms lead to unsatisfactory collaborative programming learning. Objectives: This study proposes an approach to support socially shared regulation in collaborative programming learning in order to enhance students' programming achievements and group metacognition. Methods: A quasi‐experimental study was conducted in a junior high school over a 10‐week period to investigate the impact of the proposed approach on programming achievements, group metacognition, and cognitive load. Forty eighth‐grade students participated in the study, with the experimental group learning via the proposed approach, while the control group used the conventional collaborative programming learning approach. Results and Conclusions: The analysis included data from 38 participants. The experimental results showed that the programming achievements and group metacognition of the experimental group were significantly better than those of the control group. Additionally, the proposed approach did not increase the cognitive load of the students. Implications: This study has important implications for teachers, learners, and researchers in collaborative programming and social regulation. Our proposed collaborative programming learning approach enhances learners' social regulation and performance, providing teachers with an effective tool for improving collaborative programming learning. This study also extends the field of socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL), demonstrating its potential to improve the effectiveness of collaborative programming learning and highlighting the need for future research to explore the mechanisms of SSRL in this context. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic?: Programming learning is difficult for most learners.Collaborative programming is an effective method of programming learning.Students' weak group metacognitive skills or inability to adopt shared regulation mechanisms lead to unsatisfactory collaborative programming learning. What this paper adds?: This study proposes a method to enhance collaborative programming learning by supporting socially shared regulation among students.The study utilized a quasi‐experimental to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach in improving students' programming learning performance.The shared regulation approach was found to significantly improve students' programming achievements and group metacognition when compared to conventional collaborative programming approaches.Importantly, the shared regulation approach did not increase the cognitive load of the students, indicating its potential for practical implementation in programming education. The implications of study findings for practitioners: This study has shown that an approach that supports social shared regulation can improve student performance in collaborative programming learning, and that teachers can use this approach to help students learn programming better collaboratively.This study also contributes to the field of social shared regulated learning by demonstrating how it can support collaborative programming and improve its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the training of academic skills, digital educational games with integrated adaptivity are promising. Adaptive games are considered superior to non‐adaptive games, because they constantly assess children's performance, and accordingly adapt the difficulty of the tasks corresponding to the children's individual level. However, empirical evidence with regard to the effectivity of adaptive compared to non‐adaptive games is limited. A study was conducted with 191 children from the third year of Kinder garten who were enrolled in one of three conditions, that is, playing an adaptive version of the reading game (RG), a non‐adaptive version of the RG or training with pen‐and‐paper exercises. In all three conditions, children trained emergent reading (phonological awareness and letter knowledge) once a week for 30 min over a period of 5 weeks. Children's performance on cognitive (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, reading fluency) and non‐cognitive (motivation, self‐concept) factors was assessed. Results revealed a significant improvement in phonological awareness and letter knowledge in all conditions. However, no differences between the conditions were observed with respect to children's improvement on phonological awareness and letter knowledge or on their post‐test scores for reading fluency. With regard to motivation and self‐concept, again, no differences in these non‐cognitive factors were observed across conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the widespread use of touch screen devices, the effect of the users' fingers on information processing and learning is of growing interest. The present study drew on cognitive load theory and embodied cognition perspectives to investigate the effects of pointing and tracing gestures on the surface of a multimedia learning instruction. Learning performance, cognitive load and visual attention were examined in a one‐factorial experimental design with the between‐subject factor pointing and tracing gestures. The pointing and tracing group were instructed to use their fingers during the learning phase to make connections between corresponding text and picture information, whereas the control group was instructed not to use their hands for learning. The results showed a beneficial effect of pointing and tracing gestures on learning performance, a significant shift in visual attention and deeper processing of information by the pointing and tracing group, but no effect on subjective ratings of cognitive load. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. Lay Description: What is currently known about the subject matter? Pointing and tracing gestures enhance learning with multimediaThe effect is true for paper based and digital learning instructionsLess is known about the cause of this effect with regard to complex learningDifferent theoretical explanations are currently discussed What our paper adds to this A detailed analysis of the effect using eye‐tracking and touch screen dataEvidence that the effect of pointing and tracing is mediated by eye‐movementsRelevant information concerning the discussion about theoretical explanations The implications of study findings for practitioners Pointing and tracing gestures can guide the learners' visual focus of attentionPointing and tracing gestures can increase the learners' visual attentionPointing and tracing gestures foster information processing when learning with multimediaLearners can or even should use pointing and tracing gestures to support learning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Past research has shown that seductive details (i.e., interesting, but irrelevant adjuncts in learning materials) hamper learning in short, instructor‐paced learning sessions through impaired cognitive processing. Objectives: We integrate theory and research on multimedia learning and self‐control to test whether detrimental effects of seductive details also apply to longer and strenuous learning sessions (e.g., online lectures), in which there is greater need for self‐control. Methods: A total of N = 194 students studied five chapters in a digital learning unit about chemistry either (1) without seductive details, or (2) with seductive details but without being informed about their irrelevance for the learning goal, or (3) with seductive details while being informed about their irrelevance. To assess learning outcomes, all students completed the same posttests for recall and transfer of knowledge. Results and conclusions: For students who were uninformed about the details' irrelevance, the seductive details impeded learning outcomes not just overall, but also in the final phase of prolonged studying (i.e., when the willingness to self‐control is reduced). The latter effect was mediated through a reduced positive affect. Implications: The seductive details effect seems to generalize to prolonged learning sessions, where students may start to dislike the seductive details. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic?: Seductive details (i.e., interesting, but irrelevant adjuncts) hamper learning in short instructor‐paced learning sessions through impaired cognitive processing.However, they also have beneficial effects on affective factors.These benefits did not translate to better learning outcomes in past research.It is unknown whether the affective benefits could translate to better learning outcomes in longer, more self‐paced learning sessions (e.g., digital learning sessions), with higher self‐control demands. What this paper adds?: The harmful effect of seductive details on learning also appears in extended and self‐paced digital learning sessions.However, seductive details hampered learning only when students perceived them as relevant. The implications of study findings for practitioners: Seductive details should be used very cautiously or even be excluded from instructional material.If it is impossible to dismiss the seductive details in actual learning materials, students should be informed about the details' irrelevance for learning to avoid their potential negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As immersive virtual reality (IVR) systems proliferate in classrooms, it is important to understand how they affect learning outcomes and the underlying affective and cognitive processes that may cause these outcomes. Proponents argue that IVR could improve learning by increasing positive affective and cognitive processing, thereby supporting improved performance on tests of learning outcome, whereas opponents of IVR contend that it could hurt learning by increasing distraction, thereby disrupting cognitive learning processes and leading to poorer learning outcomes. In a media comparison study, students viewed a biology lesson either as an interactive animated journey in IVR or as a slideshow on a desktop monitor. Those who viewed the IVR lesson performed significantly worse on transfer tests, reported higher emotional arousal, reported more extraneous cognitive load and showed less engagement based on EEG measures than those who viewed the slideshow lesson, with or without practice questions added to the lessons. Mediational analyses showed that the lower retention scores for the IVR lesson were related to an increase in self‐reported extraneous cognitive load and emotional arousal. These results support the notion that immersive environments create high affective and cognitive distraction, which leads to poorer learning outcomes than desktop environments. Lay Description: What is already known about the topic: IVR is gaining popularity in classrooms, and it is important to understand its effects on learning.Some theories suggest IVR could help learning because it may increase motivation.Other theories suggest IVR could hurt learning because it causes distraction. What this paper adds: The biology lesson displayed in IVR led to less learning than a PowerPoint lesson.Viewing the IVR lesson caused higher emotional arousal than viewing the PowerPoint lesson.The IVR lesson led to more distraction based on self‐report and EEG measures than the PowerPoint lesson.These results suggest that IVR creates high emotional and cognitive distraction, which leads to less learning. Implications for practice: Using IVR to replace traditional classroom lessons may not yet be useful.However, because students report enjoying IVR, it may be useful to use in addition to conventional lessons.Future research should determine how specific factors of the technology and the learners affect learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promising method to support game‐based learning is to facilitate learners' externalization of cognitive and metacognitive processes. Externalizing Problem Representation (EPR) refers to a cognitive behaviour in which a learner constructs her own representations overtly. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether learning supports promoting EPR enhance qualitative understanding and quantitative proficiency in ratios and proportional relationships in a learning game (i.e., E‐Rebuild) context. Specifically, this study investigated the effects of representation format in problem representation on qualitative understanding and quantitative proficiency in a learning game context. The results of this study indicate that (a) symbolic learning supports better facilitate comprehension of math concepts and their relations than iconic learning supports in video game contexts, (b) symbolic learning supports better facilitate players' reflection for implicit understanding and promote their math problem‐solving skills, (c) participants in the symbolic learning support group increased significantly in qualitative understanding but not in quantitative proficiency after gameplay, and (d) participants in the iconic learning support group experienced significant growth in quantitative proficiency but not in qualitative understanding after gameplay. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Video games potentially facilitate implicit qualitative understanding more than quantitative knowledge test performance.Educational game designers lack a good understanding of the design and development of effective learning supports in educational games. What this paper adds: Symbolic learning supports for problem representation better facilitate comprehension of math concepts and their relations than iconic learning supports in video game contexts.Participants experienced significant growth in quantitative proficiency after they processed the iconic in‐game learning supports in game‐based math tasks.Participants' qualitative understanding in the symbolic learning support group increased significantly after playing E‐Rebuild‐based math game task. Implications for practice and/or policy: This study informs scholars and designers of game‐based learning about designing learning support and its properties in video game contexts: Learning support design to promote math problem representation across problem translation and problem integration.This study provides design principles for learning supports in math learning game; symbolic learning supports facilitate qualitative understanding whereas iconic learning supports facilitate quantitative proficiency in math learning game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ample evidence that multimedia learning is challenging, and learners often underutilize appropriate cognitive processes. Previous research has applied prompts to promote the use of helpful cognitive processing. However, prompts still require learners to regulate their learning, which may interfere with learning, especially in situations where cognitive demands are already high. As an alternative, implementation intentions (i.e. if‐then plans) are expected to help regulate behaviour automatically due to their specific wording, thereby offloading demands. Accordingly, this study aimed at investigating whether implementation intentions compared with prompts improve learning performance, especially under high cognitive load. Students (N = 120) learned either in a control condition without instructional support, with prompts, or with implementation intentions. Within each condition, half of the participants studied the multimedia instruction under conditions of either high or low cognitive load, which was experimentally manipulated by instructing them to perform one of two secondary tasks. In line with our hypotheses, the results showed that under low cognitive load, both prompts and implementation intentions led to better learning than the control condition. By contrast, under high cognitive load, only implementation intentions promoted learning. Thus, implementation intentions are an efficient means to promote learning even under challenging circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]