In an attempt to reveal potential threshold concepts in the field of higher education pedagogy, groups of university teachers (in the UK and in Panama) were encouraged to develop personal reflection upon their conceptions of teaching. This was initiated through concept mapping activities. It was hoped that this would help participants to address…

Three experiments were designed to examine how experience affects young children's spatio-symbolic skills over short time scales. Spatio-symbolic reasoning refers to the ability to interpret and use spatial relations, such as those encountered on a map, to solve symbolic tasks. We designed three tasks in which the featural and spatial…

Recent models in spatial cognition posit that distinct memory systems are responsible for maintaining transient and enduring spatial relations. The authors used perspective-taking performance to assess the presence of these enduring and transient spatial memories for locations encoded through verbal descriptions. Across 3 experiments, spatial…

In recent years, user stories have emerged in academia, as well as industry, as a notable approach for expressing user requirements of interactive software systems that are developed using agile methodologies. There are social aspects inherent to software development, in general, and user stories, in particular. This paper presents directions and…

A novel word learning paradigm in a reading context was employed to investigate the ability of adults with and without learning disability to learn new words. The participants were required to read a short English story. The story was based on an Indian folk tale to eliminate any confounding effect of familiarity with content. Two nouns and two…

This paper explores the occurrence of conceptual incoherence in upper secondary school textbooks resulting from the use of multiple historical models. Swedish biology and chemistry textbooks, as well as a selection of books from English speaking countries, were examined. The purpose of the study was to identify which models are used to represent…

In this report, a follow-up to the June 2013 report: "Community-Led Arts Education Models in the U.S.: Potential Lessons for Milwaukee", the authors use a case study approach to delve deeper into the underlying mechanics and structural factors of four successful models: Boston's BPS Arts Expansion Initiative, Dallas' Big Thought,…

This paper presents a genre-based conceptual framework for designing content for learning objects. Some content aggregation models are reviewed in order to stress the lack of such an approach. In this framework, learning objects are considered as multimodal macrogenres. These macrogenres are constituted of content objects which in fact are several…

Drawing on cartography, urban design and visual data modelling, we consider how people navigate, or fail to navigate, the mental, physical and social spaces of knowledge communities. Cartographically inspired critical thinking offers opportunities to re-examine the assumptions and formal maps of post-secondary institutions, visualizing…

In the present study, we investigated how two team mental model properties (similarity vs. accuracy) and two forms of monitoring behavior (team vs. systems) interacted to predict team performance in anesthesia. In particular, we were interested in whether the relationship between monitoring behavior and team performance was moderated by team…

A review of 13 years of research into antecedents of university students' grade point average (GPA) scores generated the following: a comprehensive, conceptual map of known correlates of tertiary GPA; assessment of the magnitude of average, weighted correlations with GPA; and tests of multivariate models of GPA correlates within and across…

The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of models of programmed instruction and conventional (informative-illustrative) expository teaching in terms of fulfilling the aims of the course "Human anatomy and physiology" which is included in the physiology programme and designed for undergraduate students majoring in biology…

Student retention is the field of institutional research that has (deservedly) had the most attention. Besides the models proposed by Tinto (1975, 1993), there have been many theoretical and applied papers on many aspects of student retention. These include demographic characteristics, scholastic scores, financial and residential considerations,…

This paper focuses on the development of analogical reasoning abilities in 5- and 6-year-old children. Our particular interest relates to the way in which analogizing is influenced by the provision of task-based feedback coupled with a self-explanation requirement. Both feedback and self-explanation provide children with opportunities to engage in…

In this qualitative study we used a case study approach to observe and analyse a mathematics teacher who was challenged to redesign her lessons during network meetings with colleagues. Changes in practical knowledge are described by means of concept maps and semi-structured interviews. We applied cycles of change from the Interconnected Model of…