This study examines the role of spatial reasoning in learning among 5th and 6th grade students participating in a set of in-school, technology-enhanced, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) making activities. We focus our analysis on a particular type of reasoning: spatial reasoning. Prior research has shown that spatial…

Prior studies have not tested whether an instructional intervention aimed at improving metacognitive skills results in changes to student metacognition, motivation, learning, and future learning in the classroom. We examined whether a 6-hr intervention designed to teach the declarative and procedural components of planning, monitoring, and…

Social problem solving was taught to four groups of third and fourth graders: (1) control; (2) video modeling tapes; (3) tapes plus discussion; and (4) tapes plus role playing. Significant treatment effects were revealed on problem solving thinking, group interaction, and locus of control. (Author/GDC)

Tests the hypothesis that personalized messages in a multimedia science lesson can promote deep learning by actively engaging students in the elaboration of the materials and reducing processing load. Instructional messages were presented in either a personalized style or a neutral style. Results reveal that personalized messages produced better…

Interactions between levels of learner knowledge in a domain and levels of instructional guidance were investigated. Inexperienced trade apprentices were presented with either worked examples to study or problems to solve. On subsequent tests, inexperienced trainees benefited most from worked examples. With more experience in the domain, worked…

A general model for a quantitative description of individual growth in learning was developed. Published data in a variety of areas and data on learning sequences in a classroom were processed through the model. Findings suggest that the general growth model governs growth phenomena. (Author/RD)