In genetics education, symbols are used for alleles to visualize them and to explain probabilities of progeny and inheritance paradigms. In this study, we identified symbol systems used in genetics textbooks and the justifications provided for changes in the symbol systems. Moreover, we wanted to understand how students justify the use of…

The topic of function transformations is a difficult mathematical topic for school and college students. This article examines how students conceive function transformations after working with GeoGebra, when this conceiving relates to the algebraic representation. The research participants were 19 ninth grade high achieving students who learned,…

The goal of the study was to reconstruct and dismantle a sequence of events that preceded an insight solution to a challenging problem by a ninth-grade student. A three-week long solution process was analysed by means of the theory of shifts of attention. We argue that concurrent focusing on what, how and why the student attends to when working on…

Students at the junior high school (JHS) level often cannot use their knowledge of physics for explaining and predicting phenomena. We claim that this difficulty stems from the fact that explanations are multi-step reasoning tasks, and students often lack the qualitative problem-solving strategies needed to guide them. This article describes a new…

This exploratory study investigated 100 Israeli 9th graders who used two different group-metacognitive support methods in online mathematical inquiry--group feedback guidance (GFG) and self-explanation guidance (SEG)--compared to a control group (CONT). The study evaluated each method's effects on students': (a) mathematical inquiry ability:…

This study compares two E-learning environments: E-learning supported with IMPROVE self-metacognitive questioning (EL+IMP), and E-learning without explicit support of self-regulation (EL). The effects were compared between mathematical problem-solving and self-regulated learning (SRL). Participants were 65 ninth-grade students who studied linear…

This study explored student mathematical activity in open problem-solving situations, derived from the work of Polya on problem solving and Skemp on intelligent learning and teaching. Assignment projects with problems for ninth-grade students were developed, whether they elicit the desired cognitive and cogno-affective goals was investigated, and…

Information on the content of the intended science curriculum, what science was actually taught by the teachers, and how that science was taught is presented. Student achievement and attitudes were assessed using tests and questionnaires. Data were obtained from teachers regarding whether the content had been taught to the students (n=657) who…