Background: Engaging students in computer-assisted guided inquiry learning has great potential to scaffold their scientific understanding: Students are expected to improve their scientific problem-solving skills, and at the same time gain a deep conceptual understanding of the subject-matter. Additional generative activities such as creating video…

In honor of Jim Greer, we share our recent work--a design and development study of various learning supports embedded within the game "Physics Playground." This 2-dimensional computer game is designed to help students learn Newtonian physics and uses stealth assessment to measure, in real-time, their physics understanding. The game…

Self-assessment is essential to scientific literacy as stated by the National Research Council Committee on Conceptual Framework for the New K-12 Science Education Standards and has since been incorporated into the Next Generation Science Standards. However, little empirical evidence documents which instructional tools are beneficial in improving…

This study investigated the use of guided science inquiry methods with self-monitoring checklists to support problem-solving for students and increased autonomy during science instruction for students with moderate intellectual disability. Three students with moderate intellectual disability were supported in not only accessing the general…

Within the framework of social cognitive theory, the influence of self-efficacy beliefs and metacognitive prompting on genetics problem solving ability among high school students in Kenya was examined through a mixed methods research design. A quasi-experimental study, supplemented by focus group interviews, was conducted to investigate both the…

Presents findings of a study of scientists on the Wason four-card selection task, finding little understanding of the effect of disconfirmatory data in assessing conditionals. Found performance influenced by problem content. Explains performance as memory-cueing plus reasoning-by-analogy. (JM)

The research issue in this study is how to structure collaborative learning so that it improves solving physics problems more than individual learning. Structured collaborative learning has been compared with individual learning environments with Schoenfeld's problem-solving episodes. Students took a pre-test and a post-test and had the…

Reports long-term effects of intensive instruction in the cue attendance or hypothesis generation on open-exploration behavior of 120 ninth graders. Five dependent measures included: number of observed details; number and quality of hypotheses; and number and diversity of questions. Results suggest long-term benefits. (Author/JN)

Investigates the effect of intensive instruction in cue attendance upon the ability of preservice elementary science methods students to solve paper-and-pencil reasoning tests that require a form of formal operation thought. (Author/HM)

Testwise responses of grade-school students to multiple-choice science items and the intercorrelations between different testwiseness skills were examined in this document. A total of 134 third-grade, 133 fifth-grade, and 143 sixth-grade students from two elementary schools in a large suburban school district in Utah responded to 60 science items…