Educators often seek methodologies that enhance enduring knowledge for their students if their goal is to teach effectively. Students who strive to improve their own learning often use less effective study strategies as a way to improve long-term memory or content transfer. If the goal of education is to teach students how to retrieve information…

Humans are continuously making sense of the world. One way we do this is with intuitive frameworks, which are ad-hoc, informal patterns of thinking about natural and social phenomena. However, there is mixed evidence about the utility of intuitive frameworks in formal learning settings, especially in science education. Some research has shown that…

Digital educational games have been a part of the educational landscape since the early 1970s. Since then, there has been a proliferation in the quantity, format, type, and quality of digital educational games available to classroom teachers. Despite this, the body of literature surrounding the effectiveness of these digital educational games…

The purpose of this study was to introduce an instructional technique for teaching complex tasks in physics, test its effectiveness and efficiency, and understand cognitive processes taking place in learners' minds while they are exposed to this technique. The study was based primarily on cognitive load theory (CLT). CLT determines the amount of…

Cognitive load theory (CLT) (Sweller 1988, 1998, 2010) provides us a guiding framework for designing instructional materials. CLT differentiates three subtypes of cognitive load: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load. The three cognitive loads are theorized based on the number of simultaneously processed elements in working memory.…

This dissertation examines the cognitive processes individuals use when reading organic chemistry equations and factors that affect these processes, namely, visual complexity of chemical equations and participant characteristics (expertise, spatial ability, and working memory capacity). A six stage process model for the comprehension of organic…

This study examines the effects of representational movement on long-term retention and recollection of academic content. The researcher hypothesized that students who used representational movement to elaborate on their understanding of chemical equations would demonstrate improved long-term ability to solve chemical equations. The study…