The research paradigm invented by Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon in the late 1950s dominated the study of problem solving for more than three decades. But in the early 1990s, problem solving ceased to drive research on complex cognition. As part of this decline, Newell and Simon's most innovative research practices--especially their method for…

Creative achievements are the basis for progress in our world. Although creative achievement is influenced by many variables, the basis for creativity is held to lie in the generation of high-quality, original, and elegant solutions to complex, novel, ill-defined problems. In the present effort, we examine the cognitive capacities that make…

We developed an intervention based on the learning by teaching paradigm to foster self-regulatory processes and better learning outcomes during complex mathematics problem solving in a technology-rich learning environment. Seventy-eight elementary students were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: learning by preparing to teach, or learning for…

Earlier research has found that it is useful to distinguish situations in which students construct external representations on their own from situations in which they are expected to interpret already provided external representations. One type of representations that is particularly important for teaching mechanics is the free-body diagram. In…

The general purpose of the study was to promote the research on effects of physical activity on mathematical performance and brain functions, which is of particular interest regarding children's education as well as for all adults. Several studies have identified an influence of cycling on cognitive processes and brain activity. In the present…

As the use of educational technology becomes more ubiquitous, an enormous amount of learning process data is being produced. Educational data mining seeks to analyze and model these data, with the ultimate goal of improving learning outcomes. The most firmly grounded and rigorous evaluation of an educational data mining discovery is whether it…

Semantic studies on diagrammatic notations (Barwise & Etchemendy,; Shimojima,; Stenning & Lemon, ) have revealed that the "non-deductive," "emergent," or "perceptual" effects of diagrams (Chandrasekaran, Kurup, Banerjee, Josephson, & Winkler,; Kulpa,; Larkin & Simon,; Lindsay, ) are all rooted in the…

The article discussed the issue of the diagnosis with the use of task-support-task procedure. A theoretical model of diagnosis based on the concepts by L. S. Vygotski, R. Case, and A. Bandura was described and developed. The model was tested on a group of non-disabled preschool children, and children with mild and moderate intellectual disability…

Empirical evidence on the way in which expert designers from different domains cognitively connect their internal processes with external resources is presented in the context of an extended cognition model. The article focuses briefly on the main trends in the extended design cognition theory and in particular on recent trends in information…

A perspective is presented on how the representation mapping framework by Hahn and Chater (1998) may be used to characterize reasoning during problem solving in chemistry. To provide examples for testing the framework, an exploratory study was conducted with students and professors from three different courses in the middle of the undergraduate…

Central to equation solving is the maintenance of equivalence on both sides of the equation. However, when the process involves an interaction of multiple elements, solving an equation can impose a high cognitive load. The balance method requires operations on both sides of the equation, whereas the inverse method involves operations on one side…

This study investigated the effects of gender, academic performance and preschool education on mental rotation skills among Turkish prospective teachers. A total of 525 undergraduate students (364 female) from a government university located in western Turkey completed the Mental Rotation Test (MRT). A three-way [2 (gender) × 5 (academic…

The objectives of this research were to study and analyze the characteristics of computational thinking about the estimation of the students in mathematics classroom applying lesson study and open approach. Members of target group included 4th grade students of 2011 academic year of Choomchon Banchonnabot School. The Lesson plan used for data…

Several studies in recent years have demonstrated that upper-division students struggle with the mathematics of thermodynamics. This paper presents a task analysis based on several expert attempts to solve a challenging mathematics problem in thermodynamics. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we highlight the importance of cognitive task…

Over the course of her teaching career, this author learned to create environments in which both the teacher and learners embrace understanding. She introduced new concepts with a general question or word problem and encouraged students to find solutions with a strategy of their choice. By using this instructional method, she allowed her students…