Mathematical problem solving remains a struggle for many students today (Celebioglu et al., 2010; Englard, 2010; Gavaz et al., 2021; N. H. Lee et al., 2014; Yeo, 2011). Though intervention studies have reported measured impact on improving students' problem-solving abilities (Gavaz et al., 2021; Gidalevich & Kramarski, 2019; N. H. Lee et al.,…

Metacognition--knowledge, monitoring, and regulation of cognition--is key to learning and academic achievement. This is robustly supported for K-12 and higher education learners while empirical evidence in early childhood is encouraging but limited. To address these gaps in the literature, our first goal was to investigate early metacognition…

This study consists of a 17-year (2006-2021) systematic literature review on the effective instructional strategies for developing Computational Thinking (CT) in primary school students (K-5). The aim of this paper is to identify instructional strategies that have been implemented and evaluated by means of a pre- and post-test, with the aim of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of cognitive training (CT) using mobile applications on attentional control and impulsivity among pre-service teachers. Pre-service teachers were divided into two groups: experimental (n=25) and control (n=14) groups, they were selected from a large sample (n=718). Over 28 sessions, the…

This study investigated whether parents and kindergarten children show concurrent and time-lagged physiological synchrony during dyadic interaction. Further, we tested whether parent-child behavioral co-regulation was associated with concurrent and time-lagged synchrony, and whether synchrony varied by the type of interaction task. Participants…

Metacognitive functions are important for both teachers and students to facilitate teaching and learning. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a proven role in metacognition. As a pilot study, we evaluated the PFC activity of teachers and students using near-infrared spectroscopy devices to explore the neural mechanism of PFC underlying metacognitive…

Scientific reasoning is an important skill that encompasses hypothesizing, experimenting, inferencing, evaluating data and drawing conclusions. Previous research found consistent inter- and intra-individual differences in children's ability to perform these component skills, which are still largely unaccounted for. This study examined these…

Mastery behaviours -- seeking out challenging tasks and continuing to work on them despite difficulties -- are integral to achievement but difficult to measure with precision. The current study reports on the development and validation of the computer-based persistence, effort, resilience, and challenge-seeking (PERC) task in two demographically…

We examined individual differences and predictions of children's patterns in behavioral, emotional and attentional efforts toward challenging puzzle tasks at 24 and 35 months using data from a large longitudinal rural representative sample. Using latent transition analysis, we found four distinct task-oriented patterns in problem-solving tasks…

The present study explores the effects of parental scaffolding of children's problem solving on the development of executive function (EF). Eighty-two children were assessed at 2, 3, and 4 years of age on a variety of EF tasks and, at ages 2 and 3, on a problem-solving puzzle with which parents offered structured assistance (i.e., scaffolding).…

This study explored preschool age and gender differences in help-seeking within the theoretical framework of scaffolded problem-solving and self-regulation (Bruner, 1986; Rogoff, 1990; Vygotsky, 1978; 1986). Within-subject analyses tracked changes in help-seeking among 62 preschoolers (34 boys, 28 girls, mean age 4.22 years) solving a challenging…

In order to better understand how to design hands-on child-computer interaction, we explore how different styles of interaction facilitate children's thinking while they use their hands to manipulate objects. We present an exploratory study of children solving a spatial puzzle task. We investigate how the affordances of physical, graphical…

This analysis of solutions to the Tower of Hanoi Problem underscores the importance of subject-by-subject analysis of "What is learned" in understanding human behavior in problem-solving situations, and provides a technique for describing subjects' task performance programs in detail. (Author/BJG)

A theory is proposed of the processes which enable a subject to learn while solving a problem. One subject's protocol--including 224 steps and taking 90 minutes--is described. Adequacy of the mechanisms is guaranteed by a computer simulation of the processes in an adaptive production system. (Author/GDC)