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The complexity of the reproductive system necessitates instructional media to facilitate comprehension, as its processes unfold internally and are not readily observable. This study aims to assess the viability of booklet sub-materials on fertilization, gestation, and childbirth, derived from the inventory findings of medicinal plants for postpartum care, as educational resources. The research and development used the Borg & Gall model which included identifying potential problems, data collection, product design, design validation, and product revision. The booklet media underwent validation by five validators using validation sheets, while the evaluation criteria encompassed format, content, and language proficiency. The validation data were analyzed using CVR (Content Validity Ratio) and CVI (Content Validity Index). The results of the booklet media validation obtained a CVR value on each criterion of 1.00 with a valid category and a CVI value of 1.00 with a valid category. The booklet on the subject of gestational fertilization and childbirth from the results of the inventory of medicinal plants for postpartum is suitable for use as a learning media.

Following efforts to promote internationalization at academic institutions, the use of multiple languages on educational slides (e.g., PowerPoint) has gradually increased. Multilingualism in learning has its advantages, but having multiple languages on educational slides can lead to crowding and cognitive overload. To investigate how students perceive multilingual slides, evaluations were gathered from Japanese (N = 20) and Indonesian students (N = 20) during an eye-tracking experiment in which their visual attention distribution on the slides was assessed. The slides contained text in three languages (English, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesia) and were varied according to their layout. One group watched slides with text separated in blocks, with one text block for each language, while the other group watched slides consisting of a single, mixed block with each sentence describing the same information in a different language. The students' evaluations showed that slides with a mixed layout were judged as more crowded and required more processing effort than slides with a separated-block layout. Furthermore, while the students dwelled their gaze significantly longer on text in their native language (either Bahasa Indonesia or Japanese) on separated-block slides, for slides with a mixed layout, the gaze patterns did not significantly differ between languages. The results of a comprehension quiz taken after the slide presentation, however, showed that students performed better after having watched the slides with the mixed layout. Thus, although judged as more crowded and requiring a wider attention distribution, slides with a mixed layout may be preferable in multilingual education.

During a classroom-based study that featured wordless and almost wordless picturebooks, instruction and adult mediation communicated to Kindergarten children that elements of visual art, design, and layout are fundamental to meaning-making when transacting with this format of literature. The illustration techniques described by Ray (2010) were used as an analytical lens to analyze the transcripts from the small group interactive sessions of an almost wordless picturebook featured during the research. The descriptive analyses of the transcripts reveal the rich viewing and talking opportunities that can be afforded during children's transactions with almost wordless picturebooks when these selections of literature are situated as aesthetic objects, and when children and adult mediators understand and appreciate how meaning is individually and synergistically represented by elements of visual art, design and layout. The findings are discussed in relation to the literature reviewed, and the theoretical frameworks of social semiotics and sociocultural theory.

The impact of text length on the estimation of lexical diversity has captured the attention of the scientific community for more than a century. Numerous indices have been proposed, and many studies have been conducted to evaluate them, but the problem remains. This methodological review provides a critical analysis not only of the most commonly used indices in language learning studies, but also of the length problem itself, as well as of the methodology for evaluating the proposed solutions. Analysis of three data sets of texts produced by English language learners revealed that indices that reduce all texts to the same length using a probabilistic or an algorithmic approach solve the length-dependency problem; however, all these indices failed to address the second problem, which is their sensitivity to the parameter that determines the length to which the texts are reduced. The paper concludes with recommendations for optimizing lexical diversity analysis.

The split-attention effect posits that learning outcomes are negatively impacted when interrelated text and graphics are spatially segregated rather than cohesively integrated. This study explored how the instructional material's presentation size influences the manifestation of the split-attention effect. Based on cognitive load theory and perceptual load theory, we hypothesized that elevated information density in a compact presentation format would attenuate the advantage of integrated text and graphics, thereby diminishing the salience of the split-attention effect relative to a more expansive presentation size. University students (n = 146) studied a split-attention format or integrated format in either large or small presentation size. Results on retention and comprehension tests and extraneous cognitive load ratings revealed no effects of instructional format, presentation size or their interaction. The present results call for a more nuanced understanding of the split-attention effect and suggest additional research to explore its cognitive foundations.

Children's literature scholars, specifically picturebook theorist and researchers, need to better understand the complicated nature of the separation and coming together of textual matter (words) and visual matter (images) and the range of relations between these entities. Various scholars have conceptualized the relations between word and image in vastly different ways, advocated for a range of analytical frameworks to understand these relations, and subsequently have provided a theoretical foundation for exploring the roles and functions of words and images in narrative picturebooks. More attention focusing on how picturebooks are instantiated as meaningful multimodal ensembles across technological, sensory, material, semiotic, modal, mediational, as well as ideological dimensions is necessary if we are to fully understand the ways words and image work in picturebooks and the educational potential of available and future multimodal ensembles.

People regularly read multi-line texts in different formats and publishers, internationally, must decide how to present text to make reading most effective and efficient. Relatively few studies have examined multi-line reading, and fewer still Chinese multi-line reading. Here, we examined whether texts presented in single or double columns, and either left-justified or fully-justified affect Chinese reading. Text format had minimal influence on overall reading time; however, it significantly impacted return-sweeps (large saccades moving the eyes from the end of one line of text to the beginning of the next). Return-sweeps were launched and landed further away from margins and involved more corrective saccades in single- than double-column format. For left- compared to fully-justified format, return-sweeps were launched and landed closer to margins. More corrective saccades also occurred. Our results showed more efficient return-sweep behavior for fully- than left-justified text. Moreover, there were clear trade-off effects such that formats requiring increased numbers of shorter return-sweeps produced more accurate targeting and reduced numbers of corrective fixations, whereas formats requiring reduced numbers of longer return-sweeps caused less accurate targeting and an increased rate of corrective fixations. Overall, our results demonstrate that text formats substantially affect return-sweep eye movement behavior during Chinese reading without affecting efficiency and effectiveness, that is, the overall time it takes to read and understand the text.

This study examines international and intercultural issues in the English for Palestine textbook series, specifically evaluating intercultural comparisons, mutual representations, and relations in terms of their effectiveness in enhancing students' cross-cultural communication skills. The examination of the textbooks employed a qualitative methodology, enriched by the inclusion of quantitative components. The findings show that the textbooks under investigation comprise an insufficient and inadequate amount of international and intercultural issues, consisting of celebratory topics of surface culture with very little attention paid to conflictive aspects of deep culture. This study is a reminder of the importance of appropriate intercultural components in developing students' critical thinking skills and minimizing intercultural misunderstandings. Hence, it aims to sensitize stakeholders and teachers to the potential losses associated with poor representations of international and intercultural issues in English teaching textbooks. Consequently, it urges them to take action by either amending the textbooks or using supplementary material to compensate for the identified lapses.

Metamemory judgments, defined as predictions of memory performance, are often influenced by misleading cues, such as fluency. However, how fluency cues compete to influence retrospective metamemory judgments is still unclear. The present study investigated how multiple fluency cues concurrently influence immediate feeling of knowing (FOK) judgments with two fluency manipulations--font size (large vs. small font size) as a perceptual cue and level of processing (deep vs. shallow processing) as a conceptual cue. In Experiment 1, participants studied large or small unrelated word pairs and were either directed to process the conceptual aspects of each word pair (deep) or to focus on the perceptual aspects of the word pairs (shallow). Then participants were presented with a cued recall test and asked to make an FOK judgment. Lastly, participants received a five alternative- forced-choice recognition test. Experiment 2 was similar except the deep condition was replaced with a no-processing (no instruction) condition. Results revealed that perceptual fluency (large font size) influenced FOK judgments only when word pairs were processed in the shallow condition in both experiments compared to no-processing condition. This interaction of multiple cues suggests that, participants rely on information which is easily accessible to them (perceptual fluency) for FOK judgements in presence of certain secondary cues despite those cues being less diagnostic of future memory performance. These new insights inform how people integrate different sources of information in metamemory decisions and have broad implications for settings including academic learning and everyday decision making.

We develop the notions of "resistance" and "points of entry" in the context of alternative written textual formats used in physics teacher education. Studies point out that textbooks have played an important role in undergraduate physics courses, which can be part of the initial training of physics teachers. On the foundation of theories in the philosophy of science, it is possible to verify that there are philosophical reasons for the privileged use of this textual format in physics undergraduate courses. However, alongside the transformation of the educational field in terms of its theoretical-methodological approaches, there is a growing body of research and educational practices that highlights the importance and possibilities of incorporating others written textual formats in all levels of physics education. The notions of "resistance" and "points of entry" can enhance the awareness of these dynamics of physics education. To produce such an understanding, we put the philosophy of science in dialogue with the philosophy of action, which provides an overview of the interactions of life, including physics pedagogy - in which actions promote transformations.