To aid in teaching dialogue skills a virtual simulator called "Communicate!" was developed at Utrecht University. Teachers can build scenarios for students to practice dialogues with a virtual character. In two experiments (n = 128 and 133, a year apart), we investigated if and how "Communicate!" can be an effective aid to…

Going beyond simply measuring the effectiveness of a teaching approach with computer simulations during whole-class science instruction, we investigated the interaction between teachers and their students as well as searched for mechanisms in the pedagogical context related to teachers' implementation of the intervention. Our quasi-experimental…

Although self-regulated learning is considered as a characteristic of individual students, the question may be raised as to whether a community of learners with its emphasis on inquiry learning in teams of students provides an appropriate environment to acquire and develop active and dynamic self-regulation strategies. Two cases of communities of…