This study examined the influence of word problems and individual differences on student teachers' situational interest. There is extensive research on word problems, but few studies have assessed the impact on situational interest, particularly for self-generated word problems. Using a within-subject design (N = 256), we investigated whether…

This longitudinal study tested the notion of a hierarchy of maths skill development by examining whether the development of later acquired arithmetic skills rely on development of earlier acquired arithmetic skills. The scores of 307 children on single-digit arithmetic, multi-digit calculation, arithmetic word problem-solving, and reading…

The close relationship between working memory and maths problem solving is generally accepted, but the specifics of how working memory and its subcomponents contribute to maths problem solving remain poorly understood. Tests of working memory, maths problem problem solving, calculation, and intelligence were administered to 246 university…

This study addresses the investment hypothesis of fluid on crystallised abilities onto academic achievement (Gf [right arrow] Gc [right arrow] "Achievement"), which might hold to a greater extent at earlier than at latter educational stages. We compared this prediction with two independent groups of secondary (n = 192, 113 females) and…

The study aimed to investigate the direct effect of volunteer motivation on social problem-solving ability, self-efficacy, and mental health and examine the mediating effects on volunteer motivation and mental health by testing social problem-solving ability and self-efficacy. We examined a hypothetical model that integrates the concepts of…

Little is known about whether manipulatives can support children's inferences of the mathematical structure of word problems. The objective was to test the effects of using manipulatives during problem solving on students' understanding of the additive relationships in word problems. Third and fifth graders (N = 45) solved one-step addition and…

Although it is widely known that reading plays a significant role in mathematics performance, it remains unclear how specific reading component skills and item characteristics are associated with adults' mathematics performance. The aim of this study was to investigate reading component skills (printed vocabulary, sentence processing, passage…

The worked example effect has been well documented within the framework of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), which suggests that teaching with examples would be superior to engaging in unguided problem solving, particularly for novices, as using worked examples would reduce their cognitive load, compared to solving problems, thus facilitating knowledge…

In this study, we investigated the connections among teacher-student relationships (TSRs), intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and non-routine problem solving (NPS) in mathematics with a moderated mediation model. A sample of 3,101 Chinese ninth-graders (1,654 urban students and 1,447 rural students) participated in a large-scale survey. The…

The current study assessed whether adding worked examples with self-explanation prompts focused on making connections between mathematical principles, procedures, and concepts of rational numbers to a curriculum focused on invented strategies improves pre-algebra students' fraction number line acuity, rational number concepts and procedures.…

This study aimed to investigate the extent to which WM measured in kindergarten predicts WM measured in second grade (stability of individual WM progress) and the extent to which WM measured at kindergarten predicts academic performance at second grade (N = 94). The results showed that WM skills significantly increase during the time span from…

Faded worked examples have been used to promote problem solving performance, such as mathematics performance in many laboratory studies and short-term classroom studies. However, few studies have examined the ways educators may use fading in their own classroom on more accessible platforms that do not require programming experience. Further, few…

Strategy use in single-digit addition is an indicator of young children's numeracy comprehension. We investigated Danish primary students' use of strategies in single-digit addition with interview-based assessment of how they solved 36 specific single-digit addition problems, categorised as either 'error', 'counting', 'direct retrieval' or…

The present study focuses on creating a more pleasurable learning experience for students learning maths. Participants completed two lists of maths problems, a short list of only difficult maths problems and an extended list with both difficult maths problems and moderately difficult maths problems, placed in the beginning, end, or both beginning…

The instructional effect of worked examples has been investigated in many research studies. However, most of them evaluated the overall performance of the participants in solving post-intervention problems, rather than individual step performance in multi-step problems. The two experiments reported in this article investigated the relations…