This study examined an instruction method for the improvement of information processing abilities in elementary school students. Current elementary students are required to develop information processing abilities to create new knowledge for this digital age. There is, however, a shortage of instruction strategies for these information processing…

Although elaboration has been investigated frequently, there is little evidence for the beneficial effect of elaboration in problem-based learning. A controlled experiment tested the effect of elaboration during problem-based discussion on recall. Sixty-seven students observed a video-recorded, problem-based discussion. In one experimental…

Problem-based Learning (PBL) is an alternate method of instruction that incorporates basic elements of cognitive learning theory. Colleges of pharmacy use PBL to aid anticipated learning outcomes and practice competencies for pharmacy student. The purpose of this study were to implement and evaluate a model of small group PBL for 5th year pharmacy…

Environmental Chemistry covers a range of topics within the discipline of chemistry, from toxicology to legislation, which warrants interdisciplinary study. Consequently, problem-based learning (PBL), a style of student-centered learning which facilitates the integration of multiple subjects, was investigated to determine if it would be a more…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how tutor behaviours influence learning in problem-based learning (PBL). A previous study had indicated a significant influence of the tutor's social congruent behaviour on the PBL process and this study further investigates this finding by examining two groups of tutors displaying differences in…

Doctoral students experience many challenges on the long journey towards completion. Common problems include: synthesising data, working at a conceptual level, clarifying the relationship of the parts of the thesis to the whole, finding a voice and completing a viva successfully. Few authors have addressed the use of visualisations to meet these…

This article reports on an investigation with first year undergraduate Product Design and Management students within a School of Engineering and Applied Science. The students at the time of this investigation had studied fundamental engineering science and mathematics for one semester. The students were given an open ended, ill-formed problem…

Enabling pre-service teachers to develop a critical view of their practice and to acquire the higher order inquiry skills necessary for pedagogic research has been and continues to be a challenge. The present study presents a unique intervention in the training of pre-service teachers in research literacy (RL) skills using a Problem Based Learning…

Motivated and well-trained science and mathematics teachers are a requirement for sustaining an industrialised economy. The Australian government has funded several projects to satisfy this requirement designed to improve pre-service teacher (PST) education in regional and rural Australia. One such project uses a collaboration nexus model with…

Vocational high school must change student's mind set in order to be sure that they become entrepreneurs who will be better and nobler than become employees. This research aimed to determine the effect of teacher's ability in practicing the method of Authentic Problem Based Learning (APBL) and student's attitude to the development of…

Different approaches to the use of "clickers" (also known as student response systems) were introduced to a cohort of 127 students over a two-year period with the aim of making students think more deeply in-class about their chemistry knowledge. Student performance was monitored, and individual, anonymous student feedback was frequently…

In this paper, we examine the student group discussion processes in a scenario-based assessment of engineering professional skills called Engineering Professional Skills Assessment (EPSA). In the assessment, the students were evaluated through a discussion on a scenario related to an engineering problem with no clear-cut solution. We applied…

In this paper we present data from one-on-one interviews conducted with students who have taken intermediate and advanced inquiry-based mathematics courses in a program that prepares future preK-8 teachers. Many of these students entered college with a fear of math, but then gained confidence from a required introductory math course and chose to…

It has been theorized that contextual tasks support student engagement and sense making. Yet, contradictory ideas exist about the role of these tasks in lessons, and further research is needed to explore how classroom interactions can help achieve their intended purposes. Through video observation of lessons in three eighth-grade classrooms using…

This paper looks at and assesses the development and implementation of a problem solving and creativity class for the purpose of providing a basis for a Business Informatics curriculum. The development was fueled by the desire to create a broad based class that 1. Familiarized students to the underlying concepts of problem solving; 2. Introduced…