The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the education system worldwide, which was forced to respond with a sudden shift to distance learning. While successful distance teaching requires careful thinking, planning, and the development of technological and human resources, there was no time for preparation in the current situation. Various…

Prompting students to construct multiple solutions for modelling problems with vague conditions has been found to be an effective way to improve students' performance on interest-oriented measures. In the current study, we investigated the influence of this teaching element on students' performance. To assess the impact of prompting multiple…

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly prevalent psychiatric disorder in adolescence and results severe impairment. Few psychosocial interventions aim at ADHD in adolescence and are rarely evaluated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Therefore, an intervention combining adolescent-directed problem-solving and…

This article investigates the participating students' evaluation of a teacher training seminar about heterogeneity in the classroom at Bielefeld University, Germany. The evaluation made use of a short questionnaire and an end-of-term test of the students' knowledge on the subject matter. The questionnaire is tested for objectivity, reliability,…

Conceptions of learning are seen as an important factor in shaping students' patterns of learning. However, conceptions are often implicit and difficult to assess. Metaphors have been proposed as a method to assess conceptions, because metaphors are closely linked to the conceptual system. Therefore, in our study we assessed which conceptions of…

The application of mathematics to real-world problems is moving more and more in the focus of attention of mathematics education; however, many learners experience huge difficulties in relating "pure" mathematics to everyday contents. In order to solve "modeling problems", it is first necessary to find a transition from a…

Encouraging students to develop multiple solutions for given problems is an important way to improve mathematical knowledge. However, the influence of this teaching element on students' interest-related motivational orientations is an open question. In this article, we report the results of an experimental study (N = 145) that was carried out to…

Very little research has been conducted on the contribution of political education to learning progress in Germany. Hence, there is a need for intervention studies measuring performance against the theoretical background of a political competence model. This model comprises three constructs: subject knowledge, motivation and attitudes. According…

Contemporary office work is becoming increasingly challenging as many routine tasks are automated or outsourced. The remaining problem solving activities may also offer potential for lifelong learning in the workplace. In this study, we analyzed problem solving in an office work setting using an Internet-based, semi-standardized diary to collect…

This paper reports on the results of an observational parallel study conducted simultaneously at 2 universities--one each in New Zealand and Germany. It deals with university engineering students' difficulties in the formulation step of solving a typical application problem from a first-year calculus course. Two groups of students (54 in New…

A case is described of the development of a lesson plan for 10th grade (age range 15-16) chemistry classes on the chemistry of shower gels. The lesson plan follows a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to chemistry teaching. This means that, aside from learning about the basic chemistry of the components making up modern shower gels in…

The Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will establish technical standards and guidelines to ensure that the survey design and implementation processes of PIAAC yield high-quality and internationally comparable data. This document provides a revised version of the technical standards and guidelines originally…

To foster medical students' diagnostic knowledge a case-based worked example approach was implemented in the context of a computer-based learning environment. Thirty medical students were randomly assigned to the condition "with erroneous examples", and 31 students learned with correct examples. Diagnostic knowledge was operationalised…

This paper discusses a chemistry lesson plan on potato crisps for 10th grade (age range 15-16) chemistry classes in Germany. The lesson plan focuses on the discussion about low-fat and low-carb diets as they are presented in everyday media such as TV or newspapers in Germany. The discussion follows a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to…

In this study, the authors compared four multimedia learning arrangements differing in instructional approach on effectiveness and efficiency for learning: (a) hypermedia learning, (b) observational learning, (c) self-explanation-based learning, and (d) inquiry learning. The approaches all advocate learners' active attitude toward the learning…