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Purpose: To date very few studies have explored how second and foreign language (SL/FL) teachers’ attitudes affect their grammar teaching expertise acquisition. To shed light on this question, this study looked at what teachers’ grammar teaching attitudes are and how these attitudes impact the frequency of explicit goals which are an integral component of expertise development through informal problem-solving. The effect of experience on explicit goal-setting was also investigated. Design/methodology/approach: Teachers’ attitudes were explored through behavioral aggregation in a sample of 15 Bulgarian public school and university SL/FL teachers, who were divided into three experience groups. The behavioral aggregation was conducted on the basis of grammar teaching activities which the teachers performed, and then post-actively reported and elaborated upon. Explicit goals were uncovered through a planning task. Both descriptive and statistical analyses were conducted for an exhaustive picture. Findings and originality/value: Two attitudes dubbed wholesale grammar teaching referring to a holistic approach to grammar teaching and high complexity task attitude involving student assignments of higher difficulty tasks significantly predicted the teachers’ explicit goal frequencies. The others did not. In contrast to previous findings, experience was not a significant factor which determined explicit goal frequencies, underscoring the fact that the grammar teaching attitude orientation played a key role in the effectiveness of grammar teaching knowledge acquisition. Although further studies with larger samples need to be conducted, these results provide direct evidence of the relationships between some groups of SL/FL teachers’ beliefs and expertise development.

The positive effects of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) on students’ learning outcomes and processes have been widely reported in individual empirical studies and meta-analyses. More specifically, in the meta-analysis by Chen, Wang, Kirschner, and Tsai (2018), the effects were found to be attributed to the three main elements of CSCL including collaborative learning, computer use, extra learning environments/tools or extra supporting strategies This study extends that meta-analysis by examining the moderating effects of educational level and subject area on the effectiveness of CSCL. The moderating effects of educational level were found not to be significant on the effectiveness of collaborative learning, computer use, extra learning environments or tools, or extra supporting strategies with respect to student knowledge achievement. Subject area, on the other hand, was found to be a significant moderator for the effectiveness of extra learning environments or tools and extra supporting strategies. When using extra learning environments or tools for CSCL, larger effect sizes were found for engineering and science courses; when using extra supporting strategies for CSCL, larger effect sizes were found for science and social science courses. The results also showed that more studies were conducted at the university level and in engineering, science, and social science disciplines. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2019.11.022

In contemporary education, students often need to use the Internet to find information for solving a problem and completing a learning task. Teachers assume that students are sufficiently skilled to do so, but research shows the skills necessary for effective information problem solving (IPS) are more often than not underdeveloped. This paper presents a study on embedded IPS training consisting of whole IPS tasks integrated in a 20-week course on vocabulary development, and its effects on student teachers' IPS skills. Skill measurements show that student teachers receiving the training search and select information more systematically in the short term, but their search queries, sources, and solutions are not of significantly higher quality than those of student teachers who received the regular course without IPS training. In addition, the improvements were no longer visible after five weeks. The training therefore succeeded in developing cognitive strategies for approaching an information problem, but did not create lasting improvements in all aspects of the IPS skill. Methodological and practical implications are discussed.

Current discussions about educational policy and practice are often embedded in a mind-set that considers students who were born in an age of omnipresent digital media to be fundamentally different from previous generations of students. These students have been labelled digital natives and have been ascribed the ability to cognitively process multiple sources of information simultaneously (i.e., they can multitask ). As a result of this thinking, they are seen by teachers, educational administrators, politicians/policy makers, and the media to require an educational approach radically different from that of previous generations. This article presents scientific evidence showing that there is no such thing as a digital native who is information-skilled simply because (s)he has never known a world that was not digital. It then proceeds to present evidence that one of the alleged abilities of students in this generation, the ability to multitask, does not exist and that designing education that assumes the presence of this ability hinders rather than helps learning. The article concludes by elaborating on possible implications of this for education/educational policy.

Research on instructional and learning design is ‘booming’ in Europe, although there has been a move from a focus on content and the way to present it in a formal educational context (i.e., instruction), to a focus on complex learning, learning environments including the workplace, and access to learner data available in these environments. We even see the term ‘learning experience design’ (Neelen and Kirschner 2020) to describe the field. Furthermore, there is an effort to empower teachers (and even students) as designers of learning (including environments and new pedagogies), and to support their reflection on their own practice as part of their professional development (Hansen and Wasson 2016; Luckin et al. 2016; Wasson et al. 2016). While instructional design is an often heard term in the United States and refers to “translating principles of learning and instruction into plans for instructional materials, activities, information resources, and evaluation” (Smith and Ragan 1999), Europe tends to lean more towards learning design as the key for providing efficient, effective, and enjoyable learning experiences. This is not a switch from an instructivist to a constructivist view nor from a teacher-centred to a student-centred paradigm. It is, rather, a different mind-set where the emphasis is on the goal (i.e., learning) rather than the approach (i.e., instruction). Designing learning opportunities in a technology enhanced world builds on theories of human learning and cognition, opportunities provided by technology, and principles of instructional design. New technology both expands and challenges some instructional design principles by opening up new opportunities for distance collaboration, intelligent tutoring and support, seamless and ubiquitous learning and assessment technologies, and tools for thinking and thought. In this article, the authors give an account of their own and other research related to instructional and learning design, highlight related European research, and point to future research directions.

Objectives‐based instructional design approaches break down tasks into specific learning objectives and prescribe that instructors should choose the optimal instructional method for teaching each respective objective until all objectives have been taught. This approach is appropriate for many tasks where there is little relation between the objectives, but less effective for teaching complex professional tasks that require the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes and the coordination of different skills. For the latter, a task‐centred approach that starts designing instruction from whole, real‐life tasks, is more appropriate. This article describes one task‐centred instructional design model, namely the Four‐Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model and illustrates its application by reflecting on three educational programs in higher education designed with 4C/ID. The first case presents a design for a course that focuses on the development of mobile apps at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. The second case illustrates the integration of information problem‐solving skills at Iselinge University of Professional Teacher Education, a teacher training institute in the Netherlands. The third case is an example from general practice education at the KU Leuven, Belgium. Future developments and issues concerning the implementation of task‐centred educational programmes are discussed.

The aim of this process-oriented video-observation study is to explore how groups that perform differently differ in terms of the number, quality, and temporal variation of their content-level (knowledge co-construction) and meta-level (monitoring) activities. Five groups of teacher education students (n = 22) were observed throughout a 3-month course. Video recordings (33 hours) of face-to-face group interaction (n = 12,931 speech turns) and pre- and post-tests of students’ knowledge were collected. The results show that the well-performing group was more engaged in high-level knowledge co-construction and monitoring activities. The well-performing group was also capable of maintaining a higher level throughout the tasks, whereas the lower performing groups’ knowledge co-construction and monitoring activities was reduced during the course.

While most students seem to solve information problems effortlessly, research shows that the cognitive skills for effective information problem solving are often underdeveloped. Students manage to find information and formulate solutions, but the quality of their process and product is questionable. It is therefore important to develop instruction for fostering these skills. In this research, a 2-h online intervention was presented to first-year university students with the goal to improve their information problem solving skills while investigating effects of different types of built-in task support. A training design containing completion tasks was compared to a design using emphasis manipulation. A third variant of the training combined both approaches. In two experiments, these conditions were compared to a control condition receiving conventional tasks without built-in task support. Results of both experiments show that students' information problem solving skills are underdeveloped, which underlines the necessity for formal training. While the intervention improved students' skills, no differences were found between conditions. The authors hypothesize that the effective presentation of supportive information in the form of a modeling example at the start of the training caused a strong learning effect, which masked effects of task support. Limitations and directions for future research are presented. Information problem solving skills in university students are underdeveloped.A 2-h online training increased information problem solving skills.In two experiments, different types of built-in task support were compared.Students receiving no support showed performance equal to that of supported students.The form of task support did not affect reported mental effort during learning.

This paper is a qualitative study of how doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers construct their research workflows. The purpose of this study is to examine how doctoral students are constructing their scholarly workflows and to recommend best practices for supporting such early-career scholars. This study will also provide preliminary answers to these questions to help with programming, training, and identifying how academic libraries can support doctoral students and postdoc research work.

Argumentation is fundamental for many learning assignments, ranging from primary school to university and beyond. Computer-supported argument scaffolds can facilitate argumentative discourse along with concomitant interactive discussions among learners in a group (i.e., first-order argument scaffolding). However, there is no evidence, and hence no knowledge, of whether such argument scaffolds can help students acquire argumentation competence that can be transferred by the students themselves to various similar learning tasks (i.e., second-order argument scaffolding). Therefore, this conceptual article argues that the focus of argument scaffold design and research should be expanded: from the study of first-order scaffolding alone to including the study of second-order scaffolding as well. On the basis of the Script Theory of Guidance (SToG), this paper presents a guideline for second-order argument scaffolding using diagnosis of the student’s internal argumentative script and offering adaptive external support and various fading mechanisms. It also explains how to complement adaptive fading support with peer assessment, automatic response tools, and adaptable self-assessment to ensure that learners actually understand, learn, and apply targeted argumentation activities in similar situations.

This article presents the findings from a teacher intervention in Dutch kindergartens aimed at improving teachers’ differentiation practices (DP) to better anticipate student differences. The inter...

Relations between and changeability of goal orientation and learning behavior have been studied in several domains and contexts. To alter the adopted goal orientation into a mastery orientation and increase a concomitant deep learning in international business students, a sustainable feedback intervention study was carried out. Sustainable feedback implies acknowledgment of students’ need to be actively involved in their own feedback process. First, relations between and changeability of the concepts found in previous research were validated. Second, the effects of the sustainable feedback intervention were analyzed. Although sustainable feedback helped mastery-oriented learners maintain deep learning, it did not directly influence their goal orientations.

To determine if and how teachers are being educated about effective learning strategies we analysed the topical coverage of two highly effective strategies, distributed practice and retrieval practice, in introductory teacher education textbooks and syllabi. We examined 61 textbooks used in Flemish and Dutch teacher education programmes (TEPs) by inventorying descriptive and prescriptive information on these strategies therein. Also, we analysed whether the coverage referred to actual research. The results indicated that mostly textbooks fail to fully represent the strategies. Accurate textbooks are used in a minority of TEPs. Implications and challenges for authors, TEPs and policy-makers are discussed.

We all differ from each other in a multitude of ways, and as such we also prefer many different things whether it is music, food or learning. Because of this, many students, parents, teachers, administrators and even researchers feel that it is intuitively correct to say that since different people prefer to learn visually, auditively, kinesthetically or whatever other way one can think of, we should also tailor teaching, learning situations and learning materials to those preferences. Is this a problem? The answer is a resounding: Yes! Broadly speaking, there are a number of major problems with the notion of learning styles. First, there is quite a difference between the way that someone prefers to learn and that which actually leads to effective and efficient learning. Second, a preference for how one studies is not a learning style. Most so-called learning styles are based on types; they classify people into distinct groups. The assumption that people cluster into distinct groups, however, receives very little support from objective studies. Finally, nearly all studies that report evidence for learning styles fail to satisfy just about all of the key criteria for scientific validity. This article delivers an evidence-informed plea to teachers, administrators and researchers to stop propagating the learning styles myth.

Developing fluency in arithmetic facts is instrumental to mathematics learning. This study compares the effects of two practice conditions on children’s fluency in simple multiplication facts. Third and fourth graders in the Netherlands (N = 282) practised in either a conventional recall condition where they produced answers to problems, or a choice condition where they had to choose between competing answers that included common multiplication errors. Practice in the choice condition was faster and as accurate as recall practice but was not more beneficial to performance on speed tests of practised facts. For more experienced students, recall practice led to greater improvement on a conventional recall fluency test. Differential effects of practice conditions on test performance are explained in terms of practice-to-test transfer demands. The relative merits of recall and choice tasks in multiplication fact learning are discussed.

The authors explored whether a testing effect occurs not only for retention of facts but also for application of principles and procedures. For that purpose, 38 high school students either repeatedly studied a text on probability calculations or studied the text, took a test on the content, restudied the text, and finally took the test a second time. Results show that testing not only leads to better retention of facts than restudying, but also to better application of acquired knowledge (i.e., principles and procedures) in high school statistics. In other words, testing seems not only to benefit fact retention, but also positively affects deeper learning.

Collaborative learning is an extensively used instructional technique by which individuals interact in small groups to learn to solve academic problems. This study aimed to determine the impact of task-specific prior knowledge on individual learners and collaborative groups that were instructed to collaborate. A 2 (individual vs. collaborative group) × 2 (novice vs. knowledgeable learners) factorial experiment with 228 students was carried out to examine the effects of these treatments on performance and mental effort in learning and its outcomes. As expected, knowledgeable individuals and knowledgeable collaborative groups outperformed novice individuals and novice collaborative groups in learning outcomes. Less knowledgeable, collaborating learners outperformed less knowledgeable, individual learners in learning outcomes. While more knowledgeable collaborating and individual learners performed equally well in the learning phase and the delayed test, on the retention test, collaborative groups demonstrated better performance. In general, collaboration benefited learning compared to individual learning in complex tasks, but performance depended on the learner task-specific prior knowledge.

The need for supporting student writing has received much attention in writing research. One specific type of support is feedback—including peer feedback—on the writing process. Despite the wealth of literature on both feedback and academic writing, there is little empirical evidence on what type of feedback best promotes writing in online environments. This article reports on research that tries to determine what type of feedback best improves the quality of collaborative writing and what the effects of feedback are on student learning in an environment based on asynchronous written communication. The results reveal that concerning the type of feedback, epistemic feedback or epistemic and suggestive feedback best improve the quality of collaborative writing performance. The nature of the feedback-giver (whether teacher feedback or teacher and peer) makes a difference to the final text only when the feedback is epistemic, or epistemic and suggestive.

A number of factors can influence learning from lectures such as students' prior knowledge, their motivation, the instructional design, the lecturer and so forth. Instructional aid techniques such as preparing class notes, giving quizzes (either planned or spot quizzes) and the like can be used to maximise learning. This study uses two well-documented tools for learning from text—advance organisers and higher order questions—adapted for use with podcasts. Student evaluations of their experience of being primed for lectures with podcasts are described. The findings show that audio advance organisers and questions experienced by students have a positive influence on learning, because they help students bridge the conceptual distance between new and prior knowledge, better understand the topics in the lectures and stimulate thinking more deeply about the lecture's content and the possible applications of the subject of the lecture.

Contains fulltext : 176251pub.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) This paper reports on the findings in the first phase of a design-based research project as part of a large-scale intervention study in Dutch kindergartens. The project aims at enhancing differentiated instruction and evaluating its effects on children's development, in particular high-ability children. This study investigates relevant intervention fidelity factors based on [Fullan, M. (2007). The New Meaning of Educational Change. New York: Teachers College Press]. A one-year intervention in 18 K-6 schools was conducted to implement the screening of children's entry characteristics, differentiation of (preparatory) mathematics and language curricula, and a policy for the differentiation and teaching high-ability children. The intervention fidelity and implementation process were scored for each school using data from observations, field notes and log books. Self-report questionnaires measured participants' perceptions of the intervention (n = 35 teachers, 18 principals). Quantitative results showed that intervention fidelity differed between schools. Qualitative analyses of perceptions and cross-case analyses of three kindergartens showed that a strong need, pressure from parents, an involved principal, and teacher time and motivation contributed to successful implementation. Implementation barriers were the innovation’s complexity, teacher beliefs, an absent principal and low teacher motivation (which was partly due to communication problems). Implications for interventions in general and differentiated instruction for high-ability children in particular are discussed. 19 p.

Assessment matters. Indeed, scientific progress largely depends on the extent to which assessments can provide reliable and valid measures of variables – be it well-defined and observable variables in the natural sciences or complex and unobservable variables in the social sciences (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015). With the rapid development of information and communication technologies, new potentials arise for assessing complex psychological skills and human behavior (Mayrath, Clarke-Midura, & Robinson, 2012; Shute & Rahimi, 2017). Computer-based assessments (CBAs), for example, now allow researchers to capture complex constructs, such as collaborative problem-solving and computational thinking skills, that have recently gained importance across domains and contexts (Greiff, Holt, & Funke, 2013; Grover & Pea, 2013; Scherer, 2015), and assess constructs that have been considered essential skills for decades with more innovative and perhaps more authentic item formats (e.g., mathematical, reading, and scientific literacy; OECD, 2016). Besides the core testing purposes of distinguishing between students of different knowledge, skills, and performance levels, CBAs can also be used to assess student learning – without any high-stakes consequences based on a single, final score. In this sense, CBAs are powerful tools for both assessment of learning (i.e., summative) and assessment for learning (i.e., formative assessment; Shute & Rahimi, 2017). The potential of CBA is widely recognized, especially in the areas of educational and psychological testing (Drasgow, 2016). Even further, international large-scale assessments in education, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), and the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS), have shifted from paper-and-pencil towards CBA approaches of educationally relevant constructs. These constructs comprise not only “traditional” skills (e.g., mathematical, reading, scientific literacy) but also “new” skills that have become relevant for students in the 21st century (e.g., complex and collaborative problem solving, ICT literacy, computational thinking). The core potential of CBAs lies in the provision of novel, interactive tasks (OECD, 2013), and the possibilities to obtain information on test-taking behavior (Goldhammer, Martens, Christoph, & Lüdtke, 2016; Greiff, Wüstenberg, & Avvisati, 2015). Taking an educational measurement perspective, Zenisky and Luecht (2016) summarize the core innovations of computer-based assessment and highlight the assessment and psychometric modeling of complex constructs, the automated scoring and test assembly (Gierl, Latifi, Lai, Boulais, & De Champlain, 2014; Veldkamp, 2015), and the availability of process data to describe not only performance (for example, by the correctness of item responses) but also strategic behavior, sequences, and patterns of actions (Greiff, Niepel, Scherer, & Martin, 2016). It is the designated aim of this special issue to present both the core innovations of CBAs in various domains and contexts and the challenges associated with them.

In on-demand education, learners are required to plan their own learning trajectory by selecting suitable learning tasks. A positive effect on learning is expected when learners select tasks that help them fulfil their individual learning needs. However, the selection of suitable tasks is a difficult process for learners with little domain knowledge and suboptimal task-selection skills. A common solution for helping learners deal with on-demand education and develop domain-specific skills is to give them advice on task selection. In a randomized experiment, learners (N = 30) worked on learning tasks in the domain of system dynamics and received either advice or no advice on the selection of new learning tasks. Surprisingly, the no-advice group outperformed the advice group on a post-test measuring domain-specific skills. It is concluded that giving advice on task selection prevents learners from thinking about how the process of task selection works. The advice seems to supplant rather than support their considerations why they should perform the advised task, which results in negative effects on learning. Implications for future research on giving advice in on-demand education are discussed.

Feedback has been shown to substantially influence students' learning. However, not everything characterized as feedback is effective. Sustainable feedback places students in an active role in which they generate and use feedback from peers, self or others and aims at developing lifelong learning skills. First-year higher education students and tutors received sustainable feedback during their problem-based learning. To gain insights into how they perceived the sustainable feedback, students were probed via structured, open-ended questionnaires. While all participants positively valued the feedback, their personal characteristics, previous experience with feedback and concomitant perceptions appeared to have greatly influenced both tutors' and students' specific, individual behavior and responses. Conclusion is that sustainable feedback requires an evolving role of students and tutors with respect to sharing their perceptions of what feedback is, understanding the value and importance of feedback contributions of all participants, and developing the necessary skills to ask questions and give feedback. Keywords: Sustainable Feedback, Perceptions, Individual Characteristics, Asking and Seeking, Self-Efficacy, Goal Orientation During their studies in higher education students are preparing themselves for entering the labor market successfully after they graduate. It can be questioned what and how they should learn in order to become lifelong learners. Lifelong learning skills, such as monitoring and evaluating one's own learning process, should be developed while studying in higher education. From previous research it is known that feedback can have a significant effect on learning, however, not everything that is called feedback contributes to learning positively. In this study it investigated how feedback, directed at becoming lifelong learners is perceived by students and tutors. Sustainable Feedback While teachers in higher education spend much time and effort providing their students with feedback, the quality of this feedback can be improved (Arts, Jaspers, & Joosten-ten Brinke, 2015). One way to do this, according to Boud and Molloy (2013), is to have the feedback be sought and asked for by students instead of having teachers give the feedback without prior solicitation. This type of feedback is known as sustainable feedback (Carless, 2006). Hattie and Timperley (2007) define feedback as "information provided by an agent (e.g., teacher, peer, book, parent, self) regarding aspects of one's performance or understanding" (p. 81). This information should address the gap between what a person has mastered about a task, process, or their self-regulation and what is aimed or required to be mastered (Sadler, 1989). Feedback, as an educational approach or intervention has been found to have a considerable positive effect on learning, with Hattie (2013) reporting an overall effect size of 0.75. However, not everything that is characterized as feedback effectively leads to learning (Boud & Molloy, 2013). Traditionally, feedback is seen as a one-way activity initiated by the teacher (i.e., someone with more knowledgeable in a position of authority and power), who sends feedback messages to learners about the quality of their work with the objective of improving it. It can be questioned whether this provided feedback of the teacher contributes most effectively to the needs of the students in higher education. For example, feedback that is given as a one-way activity might place students in a passive role and might prohibit them to decode and internalise the feedback message. Society and the students' future working environment are in continuous, fast-paced change which requires corresponding learning outcomes (Nijhuis, Segers, & Gijselaers, 2005). This dynamic needs to be reflected in the intended learning outcomes of higher education such that students are equipped to become self-initiating seekers and users of information necessary for ongoing learning throughout their working lifetime (Boud, 2000). …

Evidence for the superiority of guided instruction is explained in the context of our knowledge of human cognitive architecture, expert–novice differences, and cognitive load. Although unguided or minimally guided instructional approaches are very popular and intuitively appealing, the point is made that these approaches ignore both the structures that constitute human cognitive architecture and evidence from empirical studies over the past half-century that consistently indicate that minimally guided instruction is less effective and less efficient than instructional approaches that place a strong emphasis on guidance of the student learning process. The advantage of guidance begins to recede only when learners have sufficiently high prior knowledge to provide "internal" guidance. Recent developments in instructional research and instructional design models that support guidance during instruction are briefly described.

Writing is an important, complex skill which could be enhanced through the effective use of writing tools that are incorporated in word processors. The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of (repeated) electronic outlining on the quality of students’ writing products and perceived mental effort. The study also investigated how students appropriate and appreciate the outline tool. Data were collected from 58 ninth-grade students who wrote two argumentative texts about a topic they had previously discussed during several class sessions, meaning that ideas were generated and clustered beforehand. Students’ writing products were scored for Total Text Structure, Structure Presentation, and Hierarchical Elaboration of Arguments. Results reveal that first-time tool-use had no significant effect on students’ writing products and perceived mental effort. However, repeated use positively affected Structure Presentation and led to decreased perceived mental effort, but no significant effect was found on Total Text Structure and Hierarchical Elaboration of Arguments. Answers to a retrospective questionnaire showed that students quickly appropriated the tool with tool appreciation increasing with repeated use. This study suggests that in order to profit from electronic outlining, it is important to practice using the outline tool and to use it for complex tasks, requiring idea generation and organization.

Kirschner, F., Paas, F., Kirschner, P. A., & Janssen, J. (2011). Differential effects of problem-solving demands on individual and collaborative learning outcomes. Learning and Instruction, 21, 587-599.

In this special issue, five teams of researchers discuss different aspects of the teacher as designer of technology enhanced learning situations. This final contribution critically discusses if and how teachers as designers of technology enhanced learning might (not) be feasible or even desirable. The premise underlying this critical view is that technology enhanced learning should not be seen as ‘special’ in comparison to other forms of learning in the teacher’s arsenal. Both practicing professionals and institutions for teacher education must understand and embrace the role of design in professional competencies if technology enhanced learning is ever to be fully integrated into teaching and learning processes.

Troubleshooting in a practice situation requires two types of information, namely for reasoning about the problem-cause and for finding an adequate solution (declarative information) and for manipulating the environment (procedural information). It is hypothesized that presenting this information piece-by-piece during practice (i.e., presentation of declarative and procedural information separately) frees up working memory and facilitates learning. Moreover, this effect is augmented when both information types are presented just-in-time (i.e., declarative information before practice and procedural information during practice). This should yield highest test performance and instructional efficiency, which is defined as higher test performance combined with lower mental effort during practice. Eighty-five students (49 male, 36 female; M = 15.2 years, SD = .59) participated in a 2 · 2 factorial experiment with the factors timing of declarative information and timing of procedural information, both before or during practice. Transfer test scores and transfer efficiency scores support the first hypothesis; the second hypothesis was not supported.

Authenticity is an important element of new modes of assessment. The problem is that what authentic assessment really is, is unspecified. In this article, we first review the literature on authenticity of assessments, along with a five-dimensional framework for designing authentic assessments with professional practice as the starting point. Then, we present the results of a qualitative study to determine if the framework is complete, and what the relative importance of the five dimensions is in the perceptions of students and teachers of a vocational college for nursing. We discuss implications for the framework, along with important issues that need to be considered when designing authentic assessments.

Barbera, E., Gros, B., & Kirschner, P. A. (2012). Temporal issues in e-learning research: A literature review. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(2), E53-E55. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01255.x.

This section looks at some popular thoughts about learning, relating to “theories” surrounding learning and the paradigms (behaviorist, cognitivist and constructivist) that people use to justify their actions. The idea of adapting education to different styles of learning is investigated, along with learning pyramids and informal versus formal learning. We ask whether knowledge is really necessary in the Internet era, and how stable knowledge is. Could discovery learning allow us to learn more effectively? Is problem-based education the best way to learn to solve problems? Perceived gender differences in mathematics and the notion that school kills creativity are investigated, along with theories of multiple intelligences and non-verbal communication. Research on human memory shows that our memories are never wholly accurate. Effective learning methods include providing feedback, learning through concrete examples and taking breaks from learning.

Education is the subject of intense policy debates. Schools are compared at regional, national and international levels, although it is difficult to compare the results of different countries without understanding the context. The quality of teachers seems to be more important than class size, and the size of a school also affects children’s learning. Many people believe that separate education for boys and girls is more effective than mixed education, but there is little evidence of improved learning in separate classes, or of boys doing better with male teachers. Grade retention, or resitting a year, seems to help most students initially, but quickly has a negative effect. Increased spending can deliver better education, but money alone cannot buy a good education system. It is essential to believe that all children can succeed in school. Education does change, but only slowly.

At the start of preschool, four-year-old pupils differ in their development, including the capacity to self-regulate their playing and learning. In preschool and primary school, educational processes are generally adapted to the mean age of the pupils in class. The same may apply to ICT-based pupil-monitoring systems. This norm-based factor undermines the potential of ICT to support the educational differentiation needed for pupils and increases the amount of daily work for teachers. A theoretical framework is sketched in which pedagogical-didactical, organisational, and ICT guidelines enhance differentiated, self-regulated playing and learning for each pupil within preschool and primary school. To develop and check such optimal education and ICT conditions in practice, a pilot and a randomised intervention study are carried out in integrated Dutch preschools/primary schools for pupils aged 4 – 12. Pilot results support the use of a procedure to screen each child’s characteristics at the start of preschool by parents and preschool teachers, and also the immediate relevance of criterion-based and norm-based ordering (‘double diagnostics’) of playing and learning materials. Intermediate results of the longitudinal intervention study empirically support the hypothesis regarding the positive effects of optimal education on the cognitive and emotional functioning of both cognitively gifted and other pupils. The discussion emphasises the need to assist schools in realising optimal education including learners’ self-regulation and adequate ICT to enhance optimal learning. Final attention is given to further development of optimal education in a European context.

This study investigated what types of learning patterns and strategies elementary school students use to carry out ill- and- well-structured tasks. Specifically, it was investigated which and when learning patterns actually emerge with respect to students’ task solutions. The present study uses computer log file traces to investigate how conditions of task types that might affect strategic learning. Elementary school students (N = 12) participated in two science study lessons. During these lessons the students were asked to solve well- and ill-structured tasks. For both of these tasks, the students used the gStudy learning environment designed to support strategic learning. In addition, gStudy records traces of each student’s strategic actions as they proceed with tasks. First, the students’ task solutions was rated according to three categories, namely “on track”, “off track” and “partial solution”. Second, learning patterns in terms of learning strategies that emerged throughout these tasks were investigated. Third, detailed cross case analysis was used to explore in depth how and when these learning patterns were used with respect to the students’ task solutions. The results show that young students’ can provide in-depth task solutions, but also adapt to the task complexity. However, despite the task types being different, the students had same types of learning patterns. The detailed cross-case comparison of the students’ task solutions with respect to learning patterns indicates that there are intra individual differences concerning how students allocate their learning strategy use. Especially if the task is ill-structured, it can also mislead the students to focus on irrelevant aspects and hinder strategic learning.

Three worlds of ID are distinguished. The Worldof Knowledge stresses the analysis of learningoutcomes in knowledge structures and theselection of instructional strategies forparticular outcomes; the World of Learningfocuses on particular learning processes andthe synthesis of strategies that support thoseprocesses; the World of Work focuses onreal-life task performance and strategies thatsupport learners while they work on authenticproblems. Contributions to this Special Issueare discussed within the three-world framework.Implications for future research are discussed,stressing the promise of mental models as atheoretical construct that may help to buildbridges between the three worlds.

Practical (laboratory) work in science education has traditionally been used to allow students to rediscover already known concepts and ideas, to demonstrate concepts taught in the classroom or, in the case of inquiry‐based science curricula, to teach concepts. Often, these laboratory practicals do not achieve their goals and may even confuse or demotivate students. It is not that using ‘wet’ practicals is intrinsically wrong; rather, it is that they are often used for the wrong reasons. They do have a place in science curricula ‐ for the conveyance of tacit knowledge that can only be achieved in the laboratory setting. In our view, their use should be restricted to that. Non‐laboratory practicals ('dry labs'), and especially multimedia practicals, tend to be used for completely different reasons. They are best used to help students achieve specific cognitive skills (such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation) needed to practise science and to carry out scientific inquiry. This article sketches the proble...

Education has come to recognise the importance of the development of learning ability, that is, the acquisition of self-directed learning (SDL) skills and self-regulated learning (SRL) skills, because these skills equip students for functioning in our constantly changing society as life long learners. To give students the opportunity to develop these skills a flexible learning environment is needed. Such an environment enables learners to determine more or less personalised learning trajectories for themselves. Moreover, a flexible learning environment should be designed in such a way that the acquisition of SRL and SDL skills is supported. In this chapter after addressing the concept of learning ability or more specifically the concepts of SRL and SDL and the way the two are intertwined, the basic elements needed in the design of a flexible learning environment are discussed. The need for well-structured learning materials, assessment criteria, portfolios, advisory models and instructional support for acquiring SRL and SDL skills is discussed.

Achieving practical objectives in an open distance educational system is a real challenge. Its philosophy requires self-instructional materials that students can study at their own time, place, and pace. Practical work, in particular laboratory work, can test the limits of this philosophy. A new way of thinking about practical work and modern electronic media make it possible to develop a natural sciences degree program with a minimum amount of laboratory sessions and, hopefully, to pursue practical aims which are useful in the student's later profession. The way the Open University of the Netherlands has been developing a practical program according to these starting points is discussed in the first part of this paper. Examples of alternatives for traditional practical work are described in more detail in the second part. Advantages and disadvantages with regards to traditional practical work are discussed.

The research reported on here is concerned with the (mis)conceptions of students with respect to the objectives which can be achieved by different types of practicals. Students taking part in four different Natural Science practicals were questioned prior to the practical as to the objectives they anticipated encountering. Three of the practicals were traditional laboratory practicals, one was an interactive videodisc practical. These same students were questioned subsequent to the completion of the practicals as to the objectives they felt they encountered. The expectations and experiences of the students were compared with the objectives that experts said were actually present in the practicals. The most important conclusion which can be drawn from this research is that expectations of students with respect to the objectives of what they are about to study unequivocally influence what they encounter, independent of what actually is present. Specifically the findings are: what is anticipated significantl...

This study is designed to determine whether, and to what extent, the perceived importance of objectives of undergraduate practicals in the Natural Sciences is dependent upon the type of institute at which practicals are given. The two dimensions used in this research to discriminate between types of institutes are type of education offered (face‐to‐face versus correspondence) and type of programme offered (monodisciplinary versus interdisciplinary). For this reason, distance universities throughout the world (DUs) and more traditional, residential universities (RUs) in The Netherlands were compared. Special attention has been paid to the Open university of The Netherlands (OuN). The results show that RUs and DUs approach practicals in a very similar manner with both of them differing in a number of respects with the OuN. Implications of this research for the use of practicals in a curriculum in the Natural Sciences are presented.

This mixed-methods study investigates the effects of student attitudes and behaviours on the outcomes of learning mathematics with computer tools. A computer tool was used to help students develop the mathematical concept of function. In the whole sample (N=521), student attitudes could account for a 3.4 point difference in test scores between individuals on a 10-point scale. General attitude towards mathematics positively predicted test scores. However, more able students who were well-disposed towards mathematical computer tools achieved lower scores. Self-reported behaviours were unrelated to test scores. Detailed observation of a small number of students (N=8) revealed that positive attitudes towards mathematics and mathematical computer tools augmented exhibited learning behaviours, and that both a positive attitude to mathematical computer tools and exhibited learning behaviours benefited tool mastery. Although tool mastery and test scores are intimately related, reflective processes appear to mediate this relationship. Promoting learning with mathematical computer tools needs to take several factors into account, including improving student attitudes, raising levels of learning behaviours, and giving sufficient opportunity for constructing new mathematical knowledge within meaningful mathematical discourse.