In this paper we report on the impact of a year-long teacher professional development (PD) workshop on student problem-solving skills. The PD workshop was held in Chile and promoted the use of collaborative problem-solving activities in the classroom, through monthly sessions during the school year. Participant teachers met with a monitor to solve…

Although collaborative learning is becoming a widely popular instructional method, little research has been undertaken considering human cognitive structures and their influence on the design of collaborative learning tasks. Using cognitive load theory as a theoretical framework in this study, forty-five undergraduate students were assigned to…

The integration of computational modelling in science classrooms provides a unique opportunity to promote key 21st century skills including computational thinking (CT) and collaboration. The open-ended, problem-solving nature of the task requires groups to grapple with the combination of two domains (science and computing) as they collaboratively…

This study discusses the development of a basic electronics knowledge (BEK) assessment as a pretest activity for undergraduate students in engineering and related fields. The 28 BEK items represent 12 key concepts, including properties of serial circuits, knowledge of electrical laws (e.g., Kirchhoff 's and Ohm's laws), and properties of digital…

Students in a fully online learning environment have limited opportunities to talk about math problem solving. While discourse is an effective pedagogical model, less is known about how it translates to online math learning. We analyzed online platform data from two fully online virtual elementary schools in the United States to address the…

Changes in engineering practices have spawned changes in engineering education and prompted the use of distributed learning environments. A distributed collaborative engineering design (CED) course was designed to engage engineering students in learning about and solving engineering design problems. The CED incorporated an advanced interactive…

Examined whether motivational goals influence the participation and performance of low-achieving students during collaborative problem solving with a high achieving partner. Results for 35 pairs of fourth and fifth graders indicate that low-achieving students for whom results were more salient learned more than low achievers who showed no such…