Creative problem-solving skills are essential for navigating complex, non-routine challenges, enabling individuals to create unique goals, execute innovative procedures and generate original outcomes. While the link between metacognitive skills and the creativity of outcomes was established only recently, further exploration is required to…

In recent years, an increasing number of studies have examined the association between mathematical abilities and executive functions (EFs). However, it remains unknown via which mechanisms' mathematical performance is associated with EFs. The current study examined the associations of overall task proficiency, strategy selection, and strategy…

This article provides a brief overview of the instructional strategy known as team-based learning (TBL). It then focuses specifically on the use of one of its integral components in a biblical studies classroom--namely, the "4S application task." The 4S application task, which is one of the fundamental pieces of the learning experience…

Existing research demonstrates that pre-decisional information sampling strategies are often stable within a given person while varying greatly across people. However, it remains largely unknown what drives these individual differences, that is, why in some circumstances we collect information more idiosyncratically. In this brief report, we…

Understanding how physicists solve problems can guide the development of methods that help students learn and improve at solving complex problems. Leveraging the framework of cognitive task analysis, we conducted semistructured interviews with theoretical physicists (N=11) to gain insight into the cognitive processes and skills that they use in…

Problem-solving activities have been studied from a diversity of epistemological perspectives. In problem-solving activities, the initial tensions of a problematic situation led to a cognitive dissonance between conflicting motives and instruments to reach the activity goal. We analyze problem-solving in the continuation of Sannino and Laitinen's…

Central elements of adaptive expertise in arithmetic problem solving are flexibility, using multiple strategies, and adaptivity, selecting the optimal strategy. Research shows that the strategies children actually use do not fully reflect the strategies they know: there is hidden potential. In the current study a sample of 147 third graders from…

While past research has demonstrated a link between the subjective "Aha" experience of insight and verbal insight problem solution activation in the right hemisphere (RH), no one has yet linked insight to long term semantic priming. We propose that through a shared process of semantic integration both of these concepts are linked and…

While contemporary mathematics education literature argues that curricular resources, such as textbooks, play a significant role guiding mathematics teachers in what and how they teach, it also shows that these resources often do not do what they say they will do, nor adhere to the standards they claim to further. When it comes to the most…

Comparative judgement is a relatively new way of facilitating peer-assessment where students are shown pairs of other students' work and judge which of the two is better. Literature on example-based learning suggests that students should be able to learn from comparative judgement. We present the case of one student, Josie, whose understanding of…

Building scientific arguments is a central ability for all scientists regardless of their specific domain. In organic chemistry, building arguments is a necessary skill to estimate reaction processes in consideration of the reactivities of reaction centres or the chemical and physical properties. Moreover, building arguments for multiple reaction…

Presenting novices with examples and problems is an effective and efficient way to acquire new problem-solving skills. Nowadays, examples and problems are increasingly presented in computer-based learning environments, in which learners often have to self-regulate their learning (i.e., choose what type of task to work on and when). Yet, it is…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM 2014) takes a clear stance that each and every student should have rich experiences in mathematics classrooms. In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act noted that Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an evidence-based, scientifically valid framework that fosters access to instruction for all…

We implemented a STEM task that highlights the engineering cycle and engages students in productive struggle. Students problem solved in productive ways and saw tangible benefits of revising their work to achieve mathematical goals.

Reaction mechanisms commonly used in organic chemistry are a great challenge for students in terms of understanding the representation and inferring the appropriate chemical concepts. In order to support the process of identifying and selecting chemical concepts, purposefully designed case comparisons are widely used. While these tasks place great…