Theories on learning with Multiple External Representations (MER) claim that low prior knowledge learners in science have difficulties using MER, which are seen as necessary to achieve a conceptual understanding. In two experiments, we analyze the mechanisms underlying the learning of chemistry with MER. Our first experiment focuses on how MER can…

This study examined the use of student notebooks in three fifth-grade science classrooms during a unit on electric circuits to determine the extent to which notebooks might serve as a tool for monitoring teaching and learning. Analyses of classroom contexts indicated that teachers promoted notebook writing through explicit instructions and…

Current efforts to improve literacy teaching and learning are directed at replacing task-oriented approaches to teaching isolated skills with an integrated language arts curriculum, focusing on the cognitive and social processes the learner engages in to write. This new approach requires fundamental changes in the classroom, and computer-based…