The purpose of this study was to test the relationships between critical thinking, prior topic knowledge and beliefs, and multiple-document comprehension through a path analysis approach. The participants were 281 Italian undergraduate students. Participants first completed a rational-experiential inventory, a critical thinking skills test, a…

Background: Children's comprehension of single texts relies on both foundational and higher-level skills. These are also assumed to support multiple-document comprehension, but their relative importance has not been examined, to date. Multiple-document comprehension additionally requires the identification and use of information about each…

Practical implications: Designing effective literacy practices for today's adolescents requires following a basic set of guidelines that considers such factors as student's backgrounds, experiences, and prior knowledge. These factors are particularly important in determining where to begin instruction with each student, and how to proceed. [For…

Do skills protect against exclusion in adult ages, and how important are the skills acquired before the age of 16 years versus those acquired later on? We match the scores on numeracy and literacy skills from the 2011 PIAAC for young adults backwards to grade point average (GPA) data from compulsory school education, measured at the age of 16…

This research aims to explore the secondary school sixth and seventh graders' length measuring estimation skills developing activities related to the daily life objects. The study is in a qualitative multiple case study model. The universe of the research consisted of the sixth and seventh graders. The sample of the research consisted of 85…

Competency-based institutions eager to improve student outcomes would be wise to consider research-based measures, such as a course planning and learning tool (CPLT), as one step in the student life cycle. Recent research has indicated which assessment practices tend to be most successful in an online competency-based environment while hinting at…

The aim of the present study is to explore on the alternative conceptions of impetus theory and projectile motion of students with high functioning autism spectrum disorders and compare them with those of typical development. For this purpose, an experimental investigation was conducted with 19 students with high-functioning autism (age range:…

Validation of non-formal and informal learning has been gaining political momentum in Europe within the implementation of lifelong learning policies since the early 2000s. Policy documents claim a variety of education, socio-political and economic benefits from the implementation of validation, making validation a "hero" for lifelong…

This study explored associations among children's prior attitudes, prior mathematics knowledge, and frequency of digital game use, with children's perceptions of game affordances, and transfer to out-of-game performance when interacting with digital math games, with respect to gender. Participants were 187 children (ages 8-12). An SEM mediation…

The aim of this study was to verify if technological factors have an influence on persistence in online courses. A theoretical model encompassing seven variables was tested, some of them borrowed from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions,…

In-game learning supports aim to help students solve game levels (i.e., game-related supports), and connect to underlying content (i.e., content-related and hybrid supports). Students with different levels of prior knowledge may have different needs for in-game supports. In this study, we designed a 2D physics game with game-related,…

This paper is analyzing feedback collected from Greek high school teachers, in order to answer questions regarding the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as part of their teaching practices in Greek schools. Various hypothesis tests are presented, in order to focus on perceptions, look into possible problems and see how…

The purpose of the current mixed-methods study was to investigate the effectiveness of a traditional and novel knowledge activation technique for supporting fifth and sixth graders' comprehension of exposition covering unfamiliar content. For the quantitative portion, 149 rural middle-school students were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions:…

Using the 2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) datasets for geography, we explore relationships between geography achievement in the eighth grade and contextual variables related to the content and organization of the geography/social studies curriculum. Differences in student achievement are associated with grade-level…

'Recognition of prior learning' (RPL) has developed into an important instrument to support the permeability of education and training systems. Based on an extensive review of documents, this article analyses the global diffusion of RPL in vocational education and training systems (VET), with a specific focus on its diffusion through development…