The design process is full of judgment, especially around successes and failures that occur through each iteration. Decisions about how to proceed when ideas do not work can be especially challenging for beginning designers. Yet, experts are able to demonstrate more natural regulation of the process. This research focused on the experiences of…

This study employs the Experiential Learning Theory framework to investigate students' use of a wildfire simulation. We analyzed log files automatically generated by middle and high school students (n = 1515) as they used a wildfire simulation and answered associated prompts in three simulation-based tasks. We first analyzed students' log files to…

Educational bodies are weighing up the extent to which generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is embedded within educational settings. Although researchers have examined how (generative) AI can be used for effective teaching and learning, less is known about how genAI was being integrated within teachers' practice shortly after the wide-scale…

Successful adoption of proven effective practice strategies such as distributed practice may contribute to much-needed improvement in mathematics performance. However, it is not yet fully understood if distributed practice is beneficial for long-term retention of complex procedural knowledge and, if so, for which initial practice performance level…

Cognitive load occurs when the demands of a task surpass the available processing capacity, straining mental resources and potentially impairing performance efficiency, such as increasing the number of errors in a task. Owing to its ubiquity in real-world scenarios, the existence of offloading strategies to reduce cognitive load is not new to…

In response to calls for an assessment tool that provides a separate performance dimension from the linguistic quality-oriented measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) and guided by systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theories, this study introduces a set of fine-grained objective measures of communication/content/function…

Empathy deficits in autism, particularly cognitive empathy, have been a long-held, but much debated assumption. An alternative perspective challenging this deficit model is the 'double empathy problem', proposing that empathy difficulties are bidirectional between autistic and non-autistic people. Despite this view gaining popularity, there has…

This study examines how task instruction and task appraisals predict engagement and disaffection in classroom moments. We assessed 2,560 momentary survey responses from 124 Finnish 7th grade students using a within-person analytical approach. The results showed that students were more engaged during active instruction and when they had choice in…

The "relevance effect" refers to the influence that instructions have on readers' attention and learning. The present study examined whether relevance influences elementary school students' reading comprehension and cognitive engagement. To measure the latter, eye movements and postural sway were recorded in 42 French speaking students…

Procedural fidelity is defined as the extent to which the independent variable is implemented as prescribed. Research using computerized tasks has shown that fidelity errors involving consequences for behavior can hinder skill acquisition. However, studies examining the effects of these errors once skills have been mastered are lacking. Thus, this…

Purpose: The purpose of this research note was to examine the sample representation, feasibility and completion, and data quality when using an unmoderated remote study (i.e., conducted without direct contact with a researcher) for a listening comprehension task with 4- to 11-year-old children. Method: Thirty-five participants met inclusionary…

Cognitive interviews play an important role in articulating the intended construct of educational assessments. This paper describes the iterative development of protocols for cognitive interviews with kindergarten through second-grade children to understand how their spatial reasoning skill development aligns with intended constructs. We describe…

Language comprehension requires a complex series of decisions under uncertainty. This is especially obvious when one string may have multiple different interpretations, whether due to lexical ambiguity, or the potential for an inference beyond literal content. This dissertation profiles how the human system for language comprehension times those…

Student veterans are often viewed in popular culture with a deficit mindset. They are "wounded warriors" who are navigating mental health challenges, academically underprepared, and non-traditional students balancing other responsibilities beyond college. Despite potential lingering effects of military service, student veterans bring…

Designing and implementing purposefully developed tasks have been linked to students' understanding of mathematical topics. We report on design principles and intentions that guided the development of "inquiry-oriented tasks." Through a qualitative analysis of the tasks, we identified seven themes that encapsulated these design…