The testing effect occurs when a person's memory performance is enhanced by previous tests. The current studies examined the performance effects of a classroom testing procedure on high and low performing students and their transfer of learning. Hypotheses: We predicted testing in the classroom would lead to a testing effect and transfer of learning but did not make specific predictions about the effect of student aptitude due to previously mixed findings. Study Design: Students in a psychology course completed unit exams and a final cumulative exam. Students could re-answer questions that were the most frequent incorrectly answered on the exam (Frequent Incorrectly answered Questions, FIQ) from each unit exam during an in-lass testing activity following that exam. On the final cumulative exam, students answered the FIQs and non-FIQs (Study 1) or FIQs in multiple transfer conditions (Study 2). Proportional performance change on each question type was the dependent variable. Major Conclusions: Both high and low performing students' performance on FIQs increased compared to non-FIQs (Study 1). Performance in the Near Transfer condition was significantly greater than the Same Questions and the Far Transfer condition (Study 2). The findings presented here add to the evidence that supports testing in the classroom because it both facilitates longer term retention of the learned material and transfer of learning.
In this article, a methodology for utilizing eight Thinking Maps that are linked to a cognitive taxonomy will be explored. Firstly, the various taxonomies focusing on cognitive processes will be elaborated upon, namely Bloom's Taxonomy as well as Barret's Taxonomy that is used in the education system. Following this, the article will explore the questioning strategy that links questions to either taxonomy and how this strategy is currently employed in classrooms worldwide. A section then elucidates the eight Thinking Maps and what types of thought processes are associated with each map. A methodology will be discussed that links the eight Thinking Maps to verbs that are all associated with the previously mentioned taxonomies. Finally, an adaptive systematic methodology will be elaborated upon, linking to the information processing theory.
This article addresses the problem of "education for all," and offers a research proposal that replaces procedural learning by a learning practice whereby all are engaged. Although educational research since 1990 of dialogical learning (DL) and collaborative learning (CL) have shown that it is possible to promote the learning practices that they focus on, little evidence is available on long-term effects of school achievement. Teachers also face pressure from both the UK and USA governments having produced policy documents favouring procedural teaching. An exception is CASE, Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (1984 onwards), and a 2- year course for 12-14 year-olds. This functioned by collaborative learning placed in highly structured theorybased science lessons based on Piagetian models of difficulty. Students consistently performed higher in National exams in science, maths and English at 16 (Shayer, 1999b). It is argued that a better way of changing teaching practice would be to place it in teachers' initial training. By assisting trainee science teachers, in designing their science curriculum lessons-assisted by DL and CL literature-to extract and use the same theory-base that had been used by CA staff for constructing CASE lessons, they would possess a valid theory and practice of teaching.
How much people believe that they understand information, so-called metacomprehension, is important for education. This ability to discriminate between well-learned versus not well-learned information is important to allow the student to decide which areas need further understanding. Feedback can affect metacomprehension and is important for guiding student self-regulated learning. The effects of taking an assessment and finding out the score on self-rated understanding, interest, and knowledge were measured. Participants sampled via MTurk were randomly allocated to one of three groups using Qualtrics in-built randomizer, with the restriction of equal numbers in conditions. The three groups were asked metacomprehension questions: a) after reading a passage but before taking an assessment (Pre-Test group); b) after taking an assessment but before being told their score (Post-Test group); and c) after hearing their score (Post-Feedback group). Responses for understanding and interest substantially decreased between those asked these questions before receiving the feedback versus those asked after receiving the feedback. These self-ratings were also used to predict scores on a later assessment and were similar in their diagnostic value for all conditions.
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a large-scale assessment of 15-year-old students’ achievements in three broad areas: Reading, science, and mathematics. PISA results are widely used in discussions on various educational aspects, such as educational policy, quality of education, and teaching methods. Although PISA started in 2000, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) participated for the first time in 2018. The core subject for the 2018 circle of testing was reading. Thus, the goal of the present article was to examine the effects of metacognitive strategies on the reading achievement of students in BIH. The sample for this analysis was composed of 5,482 students (2,701 female and 2,781 male students). The results showed that metacognitive strategies had a significant effect on reading achievement. We conclude the article with some remarks on how teachers can employ metacognitive strategies in their everyday practice and thus increase their students’ reading achievement.
This article discusses the role of the three components of executive functions (EF) in geometric understanding. Discussing several examples of geometry problems, this article shows how EF are actively employed to solve geometry problems. Inhibition as the first component of EF helps the individual to suppress contextually-irrelevant information. This strengthen the degree of focus on what is relevant to the problem being solved. In some geometry problems, the individual needs to rotate or manipulate shapes in her/his mind. Working memory as the second component of EF keeps a mental image of various positions of the rotating shape before rotation, after rotation, and during rotation. Keeping a clear mental image of these positions and comparing them with each other could facilitate the process of relating inferences to each other throughout the process of solving a geometry problem. Cognitive flexibility as the third component of EF helps the individual in the process of shift of attention between various parts of geometric shapes. Finally, it is suggested that the components of EF are in active collaboration with other cognitive resources such as the motor system in the process of solving geometry problems.
One major view as to the mechanism underlying metaphor interpretation is that it is based on relational- structure consistency (a.k.a. analogy) between target and vehicle. This entails a possibility of varying levels of stringency of analogical processing by individuals. This can be viewed as metaphor literacy. The study, involving 77 Indonesian college students, investigates the extent to which metaphor interpretations made by early-adult native speakers are analogically grounded. The study used eight metaphors selected through a familiarity-rating survey of 37 metaphoric expressions taken from printed media sources. The results showed that, for each metaphor, there was an average of 12.1 different suggestions (S.D. ranging from 4.2 to 9.7) and that 72.2% of the interpretations were categorized as not being strongly grounded on relational-structure consistency. The study suggests that the looseness of the interpretations can be accounted to either the subjects' preference for not being stringent in observing analogical processing or their being unaccustomed to an analogical manner of metaphor interpretation.
The development of executive functions (EF) in bilingual children with a specific learning disorder (SLD) is a growing area of research interest. Our objective is to study the development of EF in Lebanese children with typical development (TD) and presenting SLD, in the primary grades (Grades 2, 3, and 4). Ninety TD and ninety SLD children, in Grade 2, 3, and 4, were recruited in Lebanese public and private schools. Inhibition, working memory (WM), flexibility and planning were evaluated through the following tests: Image matching test, Numbers retention test in backward order, Corsi block tapping test, Opposite Worlds test, Categorization test (Animal Sorting), and LABY 5-12 test. When comparing the two groups of children in terms of inhibition and WM, the statistical tests show significantly that SLD children are more impulsive than TD children and have a lower visuospatial and verbal WM. SLD children are also slower than TD children in the Opposite Worlds test that assesses flexibility. Similarly, the planning capacity is lower in SLD children compared to TD children. All results improved across grades. This work can explain the cognitive components related to learning, for a better management of specific learning disorders.
This qualitative study aimed to examine: 1) the manner in which kindergarten children and first graders make sense of the term "area" regarding optimization problems; 2) how this manner is manifested in their decision-making and "STEAM" (science, technology, engineering, art and math) skills; 3) how kindergarten children and first graders comprehend the concept of "cover maximal area." Six kindergarten children and six first graders participated in the study. To investigate the children's knowledge objectification, a multi-semiotic data analysis was conducted; to investigate the children's decision making an optimal model of a metacognitive process for individuals served us. Our findings indicate that all the children's knowledge objectification process included three stages: visual, contextual, and symbolic. In the visual stage, children focused on gathering data while demonstrating basic "STEAM" skills. In the contextual stage, they focused on ergotic gestures, planned how they would cover the area using strategies of symmetry and overlapping, and demonstrated engineering and mathematics skills. The symbolic stage was demonstrated by symbolic gestures, self-evaluation, self-feedback, and mathematical skills. The findings indicate that numeracy and geometric intuition underlie kindergarten children's and first graders' perception of the term "cover maximal area" and that this can and should be developed by providing geometry-based optimization activities particularly in kindergarten both when teaching mathematics in general and for STEAM subjects in particular.
In order to assess the accuracy and validity of proficiency diagnostic tests in Second Language (L2), specifically regarding the linguistic (orthographic, semantic, syntactic, lexical) and cognitive (verbal reasoning, lexical decision) components for the immigrant population in Portugal, a study of cut-off points of 6 tests was conducted. This study was motivated by the unknown tests and the gap concerning the testing and rating of individuals in L2 settings, different from English as L2. The objective was to validate and inform about new tests (and how to establish rating scores and understand the proficiency level of students) in Second Language Testing (for European Portuguese) especially concerning different psychometrics for specific skills (e.g., phonemic blending). In this way, we contribute to identify new procedures for schools and professionals about testing of cognitive functions in immigrant populations. First, we examined 108 non-native students attending Portuguese schools, aged 7-17 years, speakers of mother tongues other than Portuguese and residing in Portugal for a period not exceeding eight years. Then, series of univariate analyses, non-parametric tests and the calculation of percentiles enabled the subsequent classification of the subjects' proficiency levels: With or without proficiency. Several levels were identified. The sensitivity and specificity indexes were calculated using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis to define the cut-off points for each test. The score calculation took into account the chronological age, age of immigration and gender variables. The evidence from this study suggests that all tasks are suitable to assess immigrant students. However with the ROC analysis, this assessment differs regarding degrees of proficiency between groups given the characteristics of the tasks and of the subjects. The importance of doing tests with discriminatory power of the subjects' performance to be able to intervene in the linguistic and cognitive areas with the greatest deficit is examined here.
Adaptive serious mathematical games in kindergarten were used to investigate whether kindergarteners could grasp mathematics topics. A pretest-posttest-follow up design with two conditions. (Condition 1 educational kindergarten games on the computer, focusing on counting and comparison, Condition 2 educational kindergarten games on the computer, focusing on memory, counting and comparison) and one active control group (playing educational kindergarten games without mathematical content) was set up dealing with 45 preschoolers with a mean age of 68.78 months (SD = 4.46). Children were matched in kindergarten on their early mathematical and language skills as well as on their intelligence before the interventions took place. The study revealed that playing mathematical games in kindergarten had the potential to enhance the early mathematical skills. Children with initial weak mathematical skills in kindergarten caught up with their average performing peers, pointing to the importance of serious numerical games as "opportunities" in kindergarten. Both boys and girls benefitted, with a sustained effect in grade 1, revealing promising potential effects of offering opportunities to focus on mathematics even in very young children.
This study was conducted with the aim to design a parenting training program based on cognitive-emotional mediation and evaluating the effectiveness of this program on increasing mothers' literacy of interaction and children's cognitive modifiability in the field of metacognition and theory of mind. The curriculum was designed with a combination of parenting implications of mediated learning experience theory, developmental, individual differences relationship-based approach, and metacognitive approach. Twenty-five pairs of mother and child participated in the study voluntarily. The children were in the preschool age range (4-6). Mothers learned how to use mediation in daily interactions during 12 sessions of group theoretical training and one session of individual practical training. At the end of the training program, the mothers' literacy of interaction and the children's metacognition and theory of mind were assessed. The results of repeated measures-analysis showed that mothers' participation in the training program increased their literacy of interaction in four dimensions of communication, emotional, cognitive, and sending fundamental love messages. In addition, the implementation of training programs for mothers led to children's cognitive modifiability in the areas of planning, working memory, metacognition, and theory of mind.
The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and reading skills in distinguishing gifted students from their non-gifted peers. A total of 260 third grade students participated in the study. Of these students, 144 were gifted, while the others were not. As the data collection tools, personal information form, reading text, and the RAN test were used. The RAN test scores (time for naming shapes, colors, numbers, and letters), reading speed, and rate of accuracy in reading were the main variables of the research. In the research, correlational research was used as the method, logistic regression and MANOVA were used for the data analysis. The results of the study showed that all predictive variables (reading rate, reading accuracy, time for naming shapes and time for naming numbers) are significant predictors of giftedness, except for variables related to time for naming letters and colors, and that there was a statistically significant difference between gifted and nongifted students in terms of the RAN scores regarding all sub-tests and reading variables. According to the research findings, it can be suggested that evidence on time for naming numbers and shapes, reading rate, and accuracy skills can be used as additional supporting components in distinguising gifted students from their non-gifted peers.
Planning and conducting experiments require the application of the control of variables strategy (CVS). Research indicates that older children can learn the CVS by engaging in guided-inquiry activities. It has not been studied yet whether this is also the case for children as young as 6- to 7-years. 145 children aged 6–7 years participated in a study with a pre-, post-, follow-up test design comprising two experimental groups (EG 1, EG 2) and a control group (CG). EG 1 and EG 2 received a structured-inquiry lesson, thus, carrying out six predetermined experiments with an adult's implicit guidance. While the lesson in EG 1 was in the same physics domain as the test's physics domain, in EG 2 the lesson's physics domain differed from the test's domain. The CG did not experiment. We assessed children's CVS ability with a multiple-choice test. Results suggested that some children in the EGs learned the CVS, whereas in the CG, no learning effects occurred. However, most children in the EGs did not gain in the CVS ability, indicating that the small dose of six experiments in one physics domain was insufficient for learning the CVS.
In this quasi-experimental study we examined how the Count How Many (CHM) intervention program can support multilingual children's early numeracy and oral language skills. The program is aimed at promoting spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) and early numeracy skills in 3- to 5-year-old children who attend day care. We examined the effects of the CHM intervention with existing, but unanalyzed data, of16 multilingual children who participated in the intervention, which consists of 6 weeks of intensive training followed by a 5-month rehearsal phase. We matched two monolingual participants with each multilingual participant by age, SFON, and cardinality-related skills for each multilingual child. One of the matched children participated in the CHM intervention, while the other took part in an early literacy program, Let's Read and Talk. Children's early numeracy and oral language skills were measured at pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest. Multilingual children's SFON tendency, cardinality skills, number sequence production abilities, and story comprehension skills developed at a similar rate as monolingual participants during the follow-up period. The results suggest that it is possible to enhance SFON tendency and cardinality-related skills in multilingual children before school age. Furthermore, the time spent supporting early numeracy skills does not take away from language learning. However, more research is needed in larger populations to determine the applicability to broader segments of national and global societies.
The objective of this study was to examine in what ways and to what extent preschoolers (5–6 years of age) manifest early Engineering Habits of Mind (EHoM) while engaging in an open-ended problem-solving construction task. The study comprised 228 children (120 boys and 108 girls). The study implemented a quantitative approach. The main research tool was an open-ended LEGO problem-solving play-like construction task (bridge building). All participants and their problem-solving processes were video-recorded. Micro-analysis of videos was conducted using a detailed coding scheme. The results of this study revealed evidence of all six EHoM during participants' execution of the open-ended Bridge Task. Most EHoM were performed by participants to a medium-low extent, based on the coding scheme. Significant positive correlations were found among five EHoM measures: systems thinking, problem-finding, creative problem-solving, visualizing, and improving. The children's scores on the adapting measure did not correlate with any of the other EHoM measures. Significant correlations were found between four of the EHoM and the three measures of the quality of the construction product (length, height, stability) and the time-on-task. To conclude, young children demonstrate nascent EHoM with great enthusiasm. They invent, design, construct, and evaluate like young engineers.
The study focuses on the effect of the lexical-syntactic structure on the patterns of errors by Arab first graders in tasks involving reading two-digit number and writing two-digit numbers to dictation. Children made few change or omission errors, indicating that they had little problem with the lexical aspects of the counting system. However, they made frequent substitution errors (e.g., 23 for 32), especially in the number reading task, and especially for numbers that depended strongly on the numerical syntactic structure. Such errors were less common for decade numbers and for the 11–19 number range than for other two-digit numbers. The results suggest particular difficulty with the syntactic rather than lexical aspects of the counting system. The syntactic aspects may be particularly difficult for Arabic-speaking children, due to the inversion feature of the Arabic counting system.
The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of an intervention in which mathematics e-book (EB) activities were supported by metacognitive scaffolding on kindergarten children's mathematics knowledge and mathematics reasoning. Participants were 60 Israeli children who studied in three intact kindergarten classrooms in the Arab sector (age 5–6 years old). The kindergarten students were randomly assigned to three research groups, 20 children in each group, as follows: (a) using a mathematics EB; (b) using the same EB supported with metacognitive scaffolding (EBM); and (c) a control group who studied with no EB and no metacognitive scaffolding. Results indicated that the EBM group significantly outperformed the EB and control group on both mathematics reasoning and mathematics knowledge; the EB group significantly outperformed the control group on mathematics reasoning, but the differences between the EB and control groups on mathematics knowledge were not significant. Educational implications of the study are discussed.
