Existing research has investigated student problem-solving strategies across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; however, there is limited work in undergraduate biology education on how various aspects that influence learning combine to generate holistic approaches to problem solving. Through the lens of situated cognition, we…

Research on student thinking facilitates the design of instructional materials that build on student ideas. The pieces framework views student knowledge as consisting of independent pieces that students assemble in fluctuating ways based on the context at hand. This perspective affords important insights about the reasons students think the way…

This study explored Indonesian prospective teachers' views on the adapted (including global socio-scientific issues) and revisited (including local socio-scientific issues) versions of the scientific habits of mind (SHOM) scale and compared their SHOM levels concerning teacher education programs and grades. The sample of the study consisted of…

The use of heuristics as an instructional strategy enable instructors to provide students with problem-solving strategies that can be adapted and modified for different contexts and experiences. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of heuristics by students and gain insight into the thought process behind their problem-solving skills.…

People can make pointing gestures and tracing actions with the index finger with little or no conscious effort. From the perspective of cognitive load theory, such "biologically primary" gestures and actions might help people learn "biologically secondary" concepts and skills requiring extended cognitive effort, such as…

The learning model is one of the critical factors in boosting student to have good learning motivation (LM) and cognitive competencies (CC). In two academic years (2016-2017), only 19.6% of Senior High School (SHS) students in Samarinda passed minimal competence in Biology subject. This research was conducted to find out a better learning model in…

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of heuristics by students and gain insight into the thought process behind their problem-solving skills. The study used an adaptive narrative as the information delivery medium. An adaptive narrative was chosen because it could be designed to simulate decision making processes encountered in real…

Research shows that collaborative work promotes student learning and improves social skills, but teachers are still exploring how to best support problem-solving in a small group context, particularly in the science classroom. This study builds on prior research to characterise teacher interactions with small groups in secondary science and…

The ability to learn in a self-regulated way is important for adolescents' academic achievements. Monitoring one's own learning is a prerequisite skill for successful self-regulated learning. However, accurate monitoring has been found to be difficult for adolescents, especially for learning problem-solving tasks such as can be found in math and…

Gesturally controlled information and communication technologies, such as tablet devices, are becoming increasingly popular tools for teaching and learning. Based on the theoretical frameworks of cognitive load and embodied cognition, this study investigated the impact of explicit instructions to trace out elements of tablet-based worked examples…

Critical thinking, problem solving, the use of tools, and the ability to consume and analyze information are important skills for the 21st century workforce. This article presents a qualitative case study that follows five undergraduate biology majors in a computer science course (CS0). This CS0 course teaches programming within a data-driven…

Science is a complex process, and we must not teach our students overly simplified versions of "the" scientific method. We propose that students can uncover the complex realities of scientific thinking by exploring the similarities and differences between solving the familiar crossword puzzles and scientific "puzzles."…

Recently, there has been growing emphasis on supporting robust learning within intelligent tutoring systems, assessed by measures such as transfer to related skills, preparation for future learning, and longer term retention. It has been shown that different pedagogical strategies promote robust learning to different degrees. However, the student…

Recent research in cognitive neuroscience has yielded a more comprehensive understanding of brain function. Some of these diagnostic techniques include the event-related potential, which depicts brain electrical activity, and magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography, which are particularly sensitive to the delineation of brain…

This paper, which analyzes the evaluative aspect of affectivity, argues that the functional internalization of organic evolution for the formation of the intellectual system of human beings required that some means of selecting behavioral variations be devised, and that the selective mechanism devised was the affective system. From this…