Research in contemporary biology has become increasingly complex and organized around understanding biological processes in the context of systems. To better reflect the ways of thinking required for learning about systems, we developed and implemented a pedagogical approach using box-and-arrow models (similar to concept maps) as a foundational…

Students often need support to optimize their learning in inquiry learning environments. In 2 studies, we investigated the effects of adding concept-map-based support to a simulation-based inquiry environment on kinematics. The concept map displayed the main domain concepts and their relations, while dynamic color coding of the concepts displayed…

This article reports the design, development, and evaluation of an online software application for assessing students' understanding of curricular content based on concept maps. This computer-based assessment program, called the Assessment Agent System, was designed by following an agent-oriented software design method. The Assessment Agent System…

A study was conducted to quantify the effectiveness of concept maps in learning physics in engineering degrees. The following research question was posed: What was the difference in learning results from the use of concept maps to study a particular topic in an engineering course? The study design was quasi-experimental and used a post-test as a…

Instructional design is an integral part of a balanced approach to teaching vocabulary instruction. This article presents several instructional procedures using research-based vocabulary strategies and explains how to design and adapt those strategies in order to reach desired learning outcomes. Emphasis is placed on research-based principles that…

The concept of liminal space has recently been applied to ways of learning: the learning journey through this space encounters difficulties and misunderstandings, that are resolved as knowledge is mastered. Since 1992 the MirandaNet Fellowship, a growing international community of educators, has investigated the ways in which this relates to the…

In April 2007, what has been incorrectly called the first cyber war and since then referred more correctly as a cyber riot, an attack on the domain name systems and the various servers of Estonia occurred. It was perpetrated by ethnic Russians living in Estonia who were incensed by the movement of a bronze war memorial for Russian soldiers to a…

Prior learning assessment (PLA) students enter academia with different types of concepts--some of them have been formally accepted and labeled by academia and others are informally formulated by students via independent and/or experiential learning. The critical goal of PLA practices is to assess an intricate combination of prior learning…

Learners, particularly lifelong learners, often find it difficult to determine the scope of their expertise. Formative feedback could help them do so. To use this feedback productively, it is essential to then suggest to them the remedial actions they need to overcome the gaps in their knowledge. This paper presents the design considerations of a…

The responsibility for knowledge acquisition is increasingly being shifted to students though the utilization of experiential learning, teamwork, online, and flipped classroom pedagogies. Students are expected to enter the classroom prepared to engage in thoughtful knowledge application activities; however, many students have not adequately…

Structured argumentation support environments have been built and used in scientific discourse in the literature. However, to the best our knowledge, there is no research work in the literature examining whether student's knowledge has grown during learning activities with asynchronous argumentation. In this work, an intelligent computer-supported…

The Brazilian Ministry of Sports organized a system of volunteers to receive the visitors during the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Football World Cup. The instructional material to capacitate these volunteers focused on environment and sustainability issues and it was developed in an integrative systemic framework…

Within the "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics" the Understanding proficiency strand states, "Students build understanding when they connect related ideas, when they represent concepts in different ways, when they identify commonalities and differences between aspects of content, when they describe their thinking mathematically and…

This article aims at reporting on the process of tutors training for the planning of distance education at the undergraduate Administration course at the Federal University of Uberlandia-Brazil. It describes a participatory research training of tutors in the use of concept mapping (CM) and concept mapping software to encourage individual…

Taiwan is currently attempting to develop itself into a twenty-first century tourist hub to take advantage of today's thriving global tourism economy. In the coming years, Taiwan anticipates an urgent demand for tour guides, and there is a clear need for training solutions that can serve a rapidly growing population. Computer-mediated virtual 3D…