This study examined how, and under what conditions, teacher clarity (i.e., structure/signaling) impacts student learning. One hundred and forty eight students reported their propensity to approach their studies with a mastery orientation and were randomly exposed to a lesson on persuasion that was either signaled or not. After the lesson, students…

Learning progressions represent a set of skills or pieces of knowledge ordered sequentially from least to most complex. This sequence can guide instruction as well as assessment content. This paper describes several useful methods for validating learning progressions including validating the relationship between the progression and student…

Ascertaining changes in cognitive correlates of learning as students advanced through hierarchical instruction, 24 individual difference measures were obtained from 166 Navy trainees who had completed a computer-managed mastery course in electricity and electronics. Three types of cognitive characteristic measures were used in the study--tests of…