Generic statements are a fundamental linguistic tool for efficiently passing along information. Yet they can leave a lot unsaid, such as how broadly they apply. In this dissertation, I examine how generic statements work as a pedagogical tool. To do so, I use the esport "League of Legends" as a naturalistic experimental setting in which…

Prospective graduate students are usually required to have attained an undergraduate degree in a related field and high prior grades to gain admission. There is consensus that some relatedness between the students' undergraduate and graduate programs is required for admission. We propose a new measurement for this relatedness using cosine…

Survey data from students in Grades 9-12 at L High School (a pseudonym) in an urban district in the southeastern United States suggested that students lack social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies. Efforts to address SEL at the study site have been ineffective. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore secondary teachers'…

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…

The ability to reason about how things were made is a pervasive aspect of how humans make sense of physical objects. Such reasoning is useful for a range of everyday tasks, from assembling a piece of furniture to making a sandwich and knitting a sweater. What enables people to reason in this way even about novel objects, and how do people draw…

When students learn, they activate, use, revise, and acquire knowledge. As such, knowledge is a fundamental asset. We advocate for an asset-based approach which capitalizes on students' knowledge through prompts and activities that invite learners to leverage what they already know. Considering knowledge as an asset means that educators must…

In today's technology, there are rapid advances in the field of artificial intelligence. With the increasing involvement of artificial intelligence in daily activities, great changes are taking place in our habits. At this point, the necessity of educating students in accordance with the age of artificial intelligence emerges. Students'…

Organic reaction mechanisms lie at the heart of developing an understanding of how the molecular world functions. However, many students simply try to memorize mechanisms, or use their knowledge of the reagent and product to create a mechanism that "works". This is not helped by the content-heavy organic chemistry curriculum which…

This study aimed to analyze second-semester organic chemistry students' problem-solving strategies, specifically focusing on the resources activated while solving problems on E2, E1, and E1cB elimination reactions. Using the theoretical framework by Elby and Hammer, we defined a resource as a unit of information used in the problem-solving…

Low-educated adults participate less in adult education than higher-educated adults. In this study, we analyze psychosocial barriers to learning while acknowledging that barriers for low-educated adults may be different from those of medium- and high-educated adults. An extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior is used to study training…

While computational thinking arises as an essential skill worldwide, formal primary and secondary education in Latin America rarely incorporates mechanisms to develop it in their curricula. The extent to which students in the region acquire computational thinking skills remains largely unknown. To start addressing this void, this article presents…

An effective system of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) requires assessment processes that are appropriate for the nature of the experiential learning being assessed. Otherwise, potential candidates may be discouraged from engaging in RPL applications and therefore not benefit from the lifelong learning opportunities available. It has been…

The use of investigations in science teaching is both common and commonly advocated for in science education literature. We suggest that the use of investigations should differ depending on the complexity of the subject matter. That complexity can vary depending on both the nature of the information and students' expertise levels. The present…

The importance of studies showing the impact of students' epistemic beliefs on their conceptual learning and academic progress is increasing. This study investigated pharmacy students' domain-specific epistemic cognition and topic-specific beliefs related to their level of conceptual prior knowledge, learning and study progress during the first…

This report explores policies and practices on validation of non-formal and informal learning in the ETF's partner countries and presents the results of studies carried out in 16 countries in the period 2021-23. Countries increasingly invest in validation schemes (also known as recognition of prior learning) in an effort to give visibility to all…