Example-based learning is a well-known instructional method for effective cognitive skill acquisition in complex domains. "(Contrasting) erroneous examples" are a promising extension that embed errors in instructional material, potentially fostering not only positive but negative knowledge. However, the mechanisms and conditions for…

Background: Although the generation of errors has been thought, traditionally, to impair learning, recent studies indicate that, under particular feedback conditions, the commission of errors may have a beneficial effect. Aims: This study investigates the teaching strategies that facilitate learning from errors. Materials and Methods: This 2-year…

Motivated by the benefits of repeated deliberate practice, we created an interactive exercise system for use in an undergraduate engineering mechanics class that focuses on practicing learned fundamental concepts. These exercises take the form of traditional word problems commonly found in mechanics courses, involving things like selecting and…

Large Language Models (LLMs) hold promise as dynamic instructional aids. Yet, it remains unclear whether LLMs can replicate the adaptivity of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS)--where student knowledge and pedagogical strategies are explicitly modeled. We propose a prompt variation framework to assess LLM-generated instructional moves' adaptivity…

Background: Providing students with worked out problem solutions is a beneficial instructional technique in STEM disciplines, and studying examples that have been worked out incorrectly may be especially helpful for reducing misconceptions in students with low prior content knowledge. However, past results are inconclusive and the effects of…

The present study examines the difficulties novice data modelers face when asked to provide a data model addressing a given problem. In order to map these difficulties and their causes, two short data modeling problems were given to 82 students who had completed an introductory course in database modeling. Both problems involve three entity sets…

Feedback in educational technologies can teach and engage students in math, but questions remain on how to present failure feedback that supports positive learning behaviors. We explore how error- and reward-based feedback influenced students' choices to replay completed problems in "From Here to There!," a math game-based educational…

Feedback on student answers and even during intermediate steps in their solutions to open-ended questions is an important element in math education. Such feedback can help students correct their errors and ultimately lead to improved learning outcomes. Most existing approaches for automated student solution analysis and feedback require manually…

Hypothesis testing involves a complex stepwise procedure that is challenging for many students in introductory university statistics courses. In this paper we assess how feedback from an Intelligent Tutoring System can address the logic of hypothesis testing and whether such feedback contributes to first-year social sciences students' proficiency…

This article presents a checklist of 10 evidence-based practices for educators to apply in mathematics instruction for students with learning disabilities. The checklist is "actionable," meaning the items on the checklist can be put into action immediately. It provides practical strategies teachers can adopt to fit their lessons…

This study examined proposed teacher responses to students' work to investigate how they respond, what characteristics of a good response are more difficult than others to achieve, and whether particular student error types are more difficult to respond to appropriately. Sixteen preservice secondary mathematics teachers' proposed responses to five…

Although error avoidance during learning appears to be the rule in American classrooms, laboratory studies suggest that it may be a counterproductive strategy, at least for neurologically typical students. Experimental investigations indicate that errorful learning followed by corrective feedback is beneficial to learning. Interestingly, the…

Problems faced by engineering students involve multiple pathways to solution. Students rarely receive effective formative feedback on handwritten homework. This paper examines the potential for computer-based formative assessment of student solutions to multipath engineering problems. In particular, an intelligent tutor approach is adopted and…

We demonstrate how the re-marker and reporter facility of the DEWIS e-Assessment system facilitates the capture, analysis and reporting of student errors using two case studies: logarithms and indices for first-year computing students at the University of the West of England, and Sturm-Liouville problems for second-year mathematics students at…

When solving a scientific problem through experimentation, students may have the responsibility to design the experiment. When students work in a conventional condition, with paper and pencil, the designed procedures stay at a very general level. There is a need for additional scaffolds to help the students perform this complex task. We propose a…