This study examined whether instructional humor (IH) was not just another type of seductive detail when covariates such as humor pre-disposition, prior-knowledge, and working memory capacity were controlled. Participants were students (N = 228) from universities who were randomly assigned two stimuli conditions in the classic experimental design.…

Non-adult-like linguistic behavior in children is sometimes taken as evidence for endogenous factors that drive selection of grammatical features from the child's hypothesis space of possible grammars. Analyses of English-acquiring children's productions of medial "wh"-phrases exemplify this trend in particular. We provide an alternative…

In the process of measuring and assessing high-level cognitive skills, interference of rater errors in measurements brings about a constant concern and low objectivity. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of rater training on rater errors in the process of assessing individual performance. The study was conducted with a…

Despite considerable typographical innovations over the past twenty years that have enabled and facilitated typing capabilities for many Indigenous language orthographies, typographical errors continue to disproportionately affect Indigenous languages. These include errors in glyph shapes, which impact legibility, and issues with glyph…

Phonotactic patterns are generalizations that govern the order of consonants and vowels, within words and syllables. Certain second-order phonotactic patterns--those that relate multiple sounds within a syllable, such as "if the vowel is [near-close near-front unrounded vowel], then [s] can only appear at the end of the…

The present study explored 285 11th-grade students' preconceptions, misconceptions, and errors in solving mathematics tasks by graphical method. A descriptive-explorative study design was adopted. Cluster sampling was used to select students from sampled secondary schools in eastern and central Uganda. Students' paper and pen solution sketches…

Technology-enhanced peer feedback (TEPF) activity has been increasingly investigated in L2 writing education. Researchers have conducted many review and meta-analysis studies on related research and identified factors influencing the activity effectiveness. However, few reviews have been conducted based on the activity theory that may clarify…

Interventions to support children with mathematical learning difficulties typically address deficits in domain-specific knowledge. However, not all students benefit from these instructional programs. In this case, some authors suggest an even more intensive instructional program combined with other factors assumed to be relevant for learning.…

The underlying cognitive mechanisms explaining why speakers sometimes make communication errors are not well understood. Some scholars have theorized that audience design engages automatic processes when a listener is present; others argue that it relies on effortful resources, even if a listener is present. We hypothesized that working memory is…

Multiplicative thinking is widely accepted as a critically important 'big idea' of mathematics that underpins much mathematical understanding beyond the primary years. It is therefore important to ensure not only that children can think multiplicatively, but that they can do so at a conceptual rather than procedural level. This paper reports on a…

The logos of many atomic energy regulatory bodies present a paradox in that the depictions of atomic structure that they portray tend to be 'wrong' in relation to the rules that govern pictorial representations of atomic structure that we teach. These logos present chemistry educators with excellent classroom resources to enhance critical thinking…

Background: Spelling is a vital component of literacy. This is because spelling includes multiple metalinguistic components, such as phoneme-grapheme awareness, orthographic awareness and morphophonemic knowledge. Despite this, there remains, to date, insufficient literature on spelling in the Southern Bantu languages and, more specifically, in…

Writing is a major language skill that should be the concern of teachers and students. Some first-year English language students seem less interested in writing correct sentences and paragraphs because of the lack of grammar and writing practice in the classroom. They mostly encounter grammar use difficulties, which impede their written…

In this study, preservice preschool teachers' pedagogical content knowledge about geometric shapes was examined in the context of children's mistakes. A total of 84 preservice teachers, who were studying in preschool teacher education program at a state university in Turkey, participated in this study. Of the preservice teachers, 34 were sophomore…

In two experiments we examined the extent to which musicians identify discrepancies between their intentions and their playing during individual practice. In the first experiment, 60 musicians representing four levels of skill development practiced a familiar piece from their own repertoire for 5 min while being audio recorded. They then listened…