The present study investigated the effects of instructor presence in a multimedia learning situation where seeing the instructor was deemed relevant to the learning content and requirements, in this case a language learning setting. Fifty Japanese university students were asked to learn from two videos on the four Mandarin tones, one with the instructor video present and one without. While viewing the videos, participants’ eye movements and skin conductance level were recorded, and measurements of learning performance and perceptions about learning were taken afterwards. Results showed no significant difference in overall learning performance when comparing the conditions with and without instructor presence, but learners indicated that they were more satisfied and perceived more learning when the instructor video was included. This suggests that instructor presence can influence learners’ attention and perceived learning. However, in the present study, videos of instructors modeling tone production without providing other cues to tone production did not lead to measurable improvements in learning outcomes, even though learners attended to the instructor videos and perceived them as helpful. These findings indicate that instructor presence is unlikely to improve learning outcomes unless the instructor’s visible behavior provides information learners can directly use for the task at hand. More broadly, the benefits of instructor presence may depend not only on the alignment between the information conveyed and the requirements of the learning task, but also on learners’ ability to recognize and use that information effectively.
Socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) can promote high-level collaborative learning. However, the sequential interplay between sociocognitive, socioemotional and motivational group-level challenges and SSRL strategies remains unclear, particularly in comparative analyses of pre-service and in-service teachers engaged in computer-supported collaborative problem-solving tasks. To address this gap, 33 pre-service and 33 in-service teachers were video-recorded in face-to-face settings while working in groups of three on collaborative problem-solving tasks within a virtual simulation on a desktop computer. A total of 25.7 h of video data were analysed using a theory-driven coding scheme that captured sociocognitive, socioemotional and motivational challenges, as well as collaborative regulatory activities grounded in the SSRL framework. Process mining was employed to visualise and compare sequential patterns of challenges and regulation. The findings indicate that pre-service teachers exhibited stronger sequential patterns linking planning, monitoring and controlling activities, whereas in-service teachers demonstrated more pronounced sequences involving monitoring and planning following socioemotional and motivational challenges. These differences reflect distinct tendencies in how collaborative learning activities were organised over time, rather than differences in effectiveness or learning outcomes. This study contributes to the learning sciences by extending SSRL research and offering theoretical and methodological insights into analysing collaborative learning as a dynamic process. From a practical perspective, the findings inform the pedagogical design of collaborative learning and teachers’ professional development by highlighting the need for profile-sensitive scaffolds that support shared planning, monitoring and adaptive regulation.
Teacher academic and emotional support play a crucial role in students’ reading achievement, yet the underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. Utilizing data from PISA 2018, this study investigates how school belonging moderates the indirect effects of teacher academic and emotional support on reading achievement via mastery goal orientation. Based on a sample of mainland Chinese students (N = 12,058), the findings indicate that: (a) both academic and emotional teacher support positively predict reading achievement; (b) mastery goal orientation mediates these relationships; and (c) contrary to expectations, school belonging negatively moderates the indirect effects – the indirect effects are stronger when school belonging is low. For academic support, the first‑stage interaction (support → mastery) was significantly negative, whereas for emotional support, neither path interaction reached significance; nevertheless, the overall indices of moderated mediation were significant for both models, indicating that the joint contribution of the two stages (weighted by the strong main effects) produces a reliable change in the indirect effect across levels of belonging. These results challenge the assumption that belonging universally amplifies the benefits of teacher support and instead suggest a buffering role of belonging in the Chinese educational context. The findings highlight the importance of providing targeted support to students with low belonging and call for culturally sensitive models of motivation and achievement.
This study examines emotion regulation during emotional challenges in mathematics group tasks among teacher education students (N = 62). The data consisted of 87 hours of videotaped group interaction and students’ pre- and post-evaluations of their group experiences. The results show that emotional challenges and regulation varied across groups and tasks. Pre-evaluations were associated with the level of regulation, whereas post-evaluations were associated with the level of challenge but not with regulation. Qualitative case analyses further illustrate group-specific challenges and regulation strategies, including task structuring, awareness raising, encouragement, and social reinforcement. The findings indicate that regulation strategies did not always align with the challenges faced, leading to recurring difficulties within groups. These results have implications for the design and support of collaborative learning: beyond helping students stay on task, groups may benefit from increased awareness of the nature of their challenges and sufficient time to address them through negotiated interaction.
This quasi-experimental study examines the effects of a literary intervention based on the Quality Talk (QT) approach aimed at promoting dialogic discussions about a moral dilemma. Nine teachers and 104 fourth- and fifth-grade students from Switzerland participated in the study. Over the course of one school year, students in the intervention group read and discussed four literary fiction books in small groups. Teachers received video-based coaching to facilitate the discussions. The subsequent analyses focused on changes in (a) monologic teacher practices, (b) dialogic teacher practices, and (c) the quality of student contributions. Multilevel analyses show that the intervention led to a shift from monologic to dialogic teaching patterns. More specifically, teachers in the intervention group were less likely to ask test questions, control turn-taking, or evaluate students’ responses, but more likely to engage in dialogic practices, as indicated by an increase in the use of talk moves. Due to these shifts in teacher practices, students in the intervention group exhibited higher-quality contributions to literary discussions, as demonstrated by increases in authentic questions, cumulative and exploratory talk, reasoning, and elaborated explanations. Ultimately, these findings provide evidence that QT facilitates a shift toward dialogic patterns, thereby enabling more student-centered and cognitively demanding literary discussions in primary education.
A recent study by Lim and Park (2023) compared specific combinations of learning activities in higher education. They found that self-study followed by discussion led to better retention and transfer outcomes than more conventional approaches, such as starting with a lecture. In this study, we sought to replicate and extend these findings for high school students. Two experimental conditions were compared: discussion preceded by lecture and discussion preceded by self-study. The results showed that the self-study group outperformed the lecture group in both immediate and long-term retention and transfer tests. To gain a better understanding of our findings, we analyzed students’ dialogue during discussion. The results indicated that students in the self-study group engaged in more substantive dialogue compared to those in the lecture group. Furthermore, students in the self-study condition achieved higher post-test scores than those in the lecture condition, and this effect was mediated by the number of substantive comments during discussion. These findings demonstrate that the self-study and discussion model promotes effective learning not only for college students but also for high school students. Thus, this study extends the applicability of this model as a viable alternative to traditional lecture-based approaches.
Second language (L2) learners require feedback on their writing. However, studies on feedback effectiveness in L2 learning have lacked ecological validity: these studies have isolated one variable at a time, but the L2 classroom features complex interactions between variables. Thus, this quasi-experimental study examined the effectiveness of (1) feedback type (focused vs. unfocused) and (2) the supplementation of feedback with instruction in improving the understanding of grammatical countability among L2 English students in Taiwan. College sophomores attending 18-week L2 English courses were divided into four groups, namely, a focused feedback + unfocused feedback + instruction group (Group 1), an unfocused feedback + focused feedback group (Group 2), an unfocused feedback group (Group 3), and a control group (Group 4). The focused feedback and instruction were on grammatical countability. The number of errors in grammatical countability that the students made in their writing was taken as the outcome. According to the two-way analysis of variance results, Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 performed the best to worst, respectively. These results reveal the following. First, focused feedback on a specific error type should be supplemented with subsequent instruction on that error type to reinforce and clarify the feedback given. Second, unfocused feedback should be supplemented with focused feedback. Third, unfocused feedback has some utility and is better than no feedback. Future studies should investigate other aspects of English usage and have a longer follow-up duration.
Although there is abundant empirical evidence that, separately applied, cognitive load theory and desirable difficulty theory enhance performance, little is known about how these theories can be successfully combined. To address this critical gap, the present study investigated the effects of complexity (constantly high vs. gradually increasing) and desirable difficulty (interleaved vs. blocked) on performance, metacognitive strategy use, and self- and task perception. In total, 132 learners participated in this 2 × 2 factorial intervention study. This study consisted of a main learning session and a posttest two days later. The posttest results showed that confronting learners with complex desirable difficulty tasks was effective in fostering performance. Furthermore, cognitive load was revealed as one of the major reasons for learners’ metacognitive engagement. We discuss the implications of these findings for research, theory, and practice and provide recommendations for future research.
This study explores how teaching activities that integrate metaconceptual processes impact 7th-grade students’ understanding of the republic, democracy, and the state of law. Using a case study approach, the research evaluates students’ current knowledge and the effects of metaconceptual teaching. The participants included four students (two girls and two boys) from a diverse public school. The selection was based on various assessments, including the Law-related Conceptual Understanding Test (LRCUT) and the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI), as well as in-class observations and interviews. The teaching methods included poster creation, concept mapping, concept cards, concept cartoons, and group and class discussions, with a focus on metacognitive processes such as awareness, monitoring, and evaluation. Findings indicate that metaconceptual processes enhance students’ understanding, correct alternative conceptions, and make teaching more effective. This study offers insights into the application of metaconceptual teaching for complex concepts, demonstrating that active student participation improves comprehension and relevance to daily life. These results may help shape educational programs and teaching strategies.
Evidence on which cognitive and dispositional factors jointly predict inquiry performance, overall and by facet, remains limited. Identifying these predictors is key for designing guidance suited to different learners and tasks. Drawing on the Scientific Discovery as Dual Search (SDDS) framework, we examined four cognitive factors - content knowledge, control-of-variables strategy (CVS), functional thinking, and general cognitive ability - together with four dispositional factors - interest in physics, physics self-concept, personality, and task-specific current motivation - and perceived intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load. Data from 232 young adults across six online sessions included assessments of these factors and a far-transfer Cartesian diver task capturing seven inquiry facets. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that cognitive factors explained about 50
Developing durable methodological capabilities is a central challenge in doctoral education. This study examined how doctoral students retain conceptual understanding and procedural execution in data visualization following formal instruction. Using a rubric-based assessment with verified inter-rater reliability, performance was evaluated at three time points: immediately after training, six months later, and twelve months later. Linear mixed-effects models captured longitudinal changes while accounting for individual variability. The results revealed significant declines in both dimensions, with sharper decay observed for procedural, tool-dependent execution. These findings suggest that conceptual understanding is relatively more resilient over time, whereas procedural fluency appears to depend more strongly on continued opportunities for practice and feedback. The study indicates that short-term methodological courses alone may be insufficient to ensure enduring competence. More broadly, the findings have implications for how doctoral education might better support the sustained development of data-visualization competence and highlight the need for further research on the learning environments and experiences that shape long-term retention. By linking cognitive theories of learning and forgetting with contemporary doctoral-training frameworks, this research contributes to understanding how methodological capabilities are retained, differentiated, and potentially strengthened through continued scholarly engagement.
As data science advances with the emergence of new computational technologies, science data literacy (SDL)—the ability to understand, use, and critically engage with data to address real-world scientific problems—becomes increasingly vital in science education. However, research on how data practices vary across scientific disciplines and educational levels remains limited, hindering the development of a more cohesive understanding of how SDL can be systematically integrated into diverse educational contexts. This review examines SDL by analyzing 42 peer-reviewed empirical studies (2000–2023) to investigate how students have been engaged in data practices across K–16 science education research. We identify seven core data practices: understanding problems, designing experiments, collecting data, cleaning data, analyzing data, and evaluating and disseminating results, along with their associated facets. Through frequency and association analyses, we observe systematic differences in how these practices are emphasized across disciplines, grade levels, and data types. The reviewed studies suggest that engagement in data practices is associated with both cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes. Building on established characterizations of scientific inquiry and problem-solving, along with frameworks such as NGSS and GAISE, we conceptualize SDL as a multifaceted and iterative process, encompassing dimensions from problem identification to data analysis, result synthesis, and dissemination. These dimensions illuminate how scientific knowledge is developed, critiqued, and communicated, which is critical for STEM workforce preparation. Lastly, we identify key challenges evident in the literature and outline directions for future research to support interdisciplinary and sustained approaches to SDL.
Empirical evidence suggests that composite instructional designs implementing a problem-solving phase prior to the instruction phase (PS-I) are more effective than the reverse sequence (I-PS) in promoting conceptual knowledge and transfer. This is particularly true when the instruction phase builds on typical erroneous student solutions from the problem-solving phase, which makes the nature of the instruction phase crucial. Despite claims regarding the high effectiveness of the instruction phase, there is scant literature on this topic. Few studies have explored performance gains when students work individually during the instruction phase to compare erroneous examples—well-crafted, typical erroneous student solutions from the problem-solving phase—with worked examples consisting of step-by-step descriptions of the canonical solution, to detect and explain the errors in the erroneous examples. The current study examined whether (1) scaffolding these troubleshooting activities, (2) requiring students to compare their solutions from the problem-solving phase with worked examples to detect and explain their errors, or (3) scaffolding the self-diagnosis activities in (2) would differentially enhance the efficacy of the instruction phase. Twelve 8th-grade classes (261 students) completed a pretest/intervention/immediate posttest/delayed posttest on simple electric circuits. The intervention consisted of four PS-I sessions targeting different yet-to-be-learned accepted ideas. In the instruction phase of each session, students in each class were randomly assigned to four conditions in a 2 × 2 design, keeping the problem-solving phase identical across conditions. The findings indicated that the troubleshooting activities without scaffolding led to better learning outcomes. The instructional implications and directions for future research are discussed.
The objective of this study was to develop and assess an instructional approach to teaching purposeful reading comprehension strategies to vocational school students. These students specialize for an occupational field, but they often experience difficulties with school tasks that involve reading and using written documents. Grounded in a definition of reading that emphasizes goal-setting and task management, a set of 10 explicit instruction workshops focused on purposeful reading strategies was co-designed with a group of vocational high school teachers from various disciplines. A different group of teachers was then trained by the research team and implemented the workshops in their regular classrooms. The effectiveness of the approach was tested using a quasi-experimental pre-test/training/post-test design involving an experimental group (N = 17 classes and 241 students) and a control group (N = 15 classes and 174 students). The intervention led to improvements on several indicators of purposeful reading proficiency, with pre-post-test comparisons suggesting particularly notable benefits for the students who initially exhibited greater difficulties. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of reading comprehension, instructional approaches and researcher-teacher collaboration.
Instructional Science is a prominent international journal of learning sciences. This article provides a comprehensive bibliometric overview of the major trends within the journal from 1972 to 2023. The study focuses on assessing the journal’s impact, identifying the most productive and influential authors, institutions, and countries, as well as analysing the evolution of key topics over time. The primary source of bibliometric data for this analysis is the Scopus scientific database. Some information of the Web of Science Core Collection database is retrieved in specific instances to enhance the analysis. Additionally, the paper includes a graphical mapping of the bibliographic data using VOS viewer software, which provides more in-depth analysis through co-citation, bibliographic coupling, and co-occurrence of author keywords. The findings highlight the journal’s significant growth and impact over the years, and it is anticipated that it will continue to expand its international reach.
This longitudinal study explored the effects of a term-long foreign language reading strategy training on Chinese college EFL (English as a foreign language) students’ use of foreign language reading strategies and reading comprehension performance. The participants were 146 first-year students from a state-owned university in Beijing. Every other week in 16 weeks of the 18-week term, a group of specific foreign language reading strategies with explanations and two reading passages were published in an online classroom platform for the participants to read and practice using the strategies. During the term, the participants were measured for their use of foreign language reading strategy use (FLRSU) and reading comprehension performance at three different time points (i.e., beginning, middle and end of the term). Major findings were: (a) The students had a medium to high FLRSU level at each time point, which significantly increased over time, (b) their English reading comprehension performance decreased from time point 1 to time point 2 and then increased to time point 3, and significant difference occurred between the first two time points and the last two time points, (c) the FLRSU and English reading performance measured at a time point significantly predicted those measured at the following time point respectively, and (d) the FLRSU measured at each time point was significantly correlated with and predicted reading comprehension performance measured at the same time point and at the subsequent time point. These findings clearly demonstrated the significant role of the training in enhancing students’ use of foreign language reading strategies and reading comprehension performance. Based on these findings, the paper discusses key pedagogical implications on how to teach foreign language reading strategies.
Although digital slides (e.g., PowerPoint) have become a prevalent instructional tool in university settings, few studies have evaluated their efficacy by examining distinctions in students’ note-taking habits and working memory capacities. The present study explored how the learning outcomes of undergraduate students differ under varying conditions of slide accessibility (full, none, partial), taking into account their individual differences in note-taking and working memory. To this end, 240 samples were collected from six repeated sessions with 40 undergraduates. Reviewing notes was permitted before conducting tests to assess the external-storage effect. Types of note-taking were categorized into words and markers to measure their quantity: words were further sorted into words related to slides and words extending beyond slide content, while markers were divided into structuring, emphasizing, connecting, and summarizing. Working memory capacity was gauged using operation span and reading span tasks. Results from a mixed effects analysis indicated a significant association between full access to slides and higher recall test scores, whereas partial access was linked to superior scores in the higher-order performance test. The study found that both types of note words were significant predictors of learning success. However, the positive impact of note words was moderated negatively by connecting markers and reading span scores. This research, with its detailed conditions and covariates, sheds light on why previous studies have produced varied outcomes.
Language in educational contexts is characterized by complex and cognitively demanding features that can be challenging to use. Based on situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT), we assumed that these linguistic demands can lower students’ expectancies of performing well and the intrinsic value they place on tasks. This is particularly true of students with lower language abilities. Consequently, they may be less motivated to actively engage in academic tasks, potentially leading to lower academic achievement. To test this assumption, we linguistically varied an instructional statistics video into three conditions (easy, moderate, and difficult) and randomly assigned a total of 123 pre-service teachers to each condition. We measured their expectancies of success and intrinsic task value halfway through the instructional video and conducted an achievement test after the instruction. Drawing on path analysis, our results showed that different linguistic conditions had no significant effect on the students’ expectancy-value beliefs. However, we found a significant positive effect of language ability and a significant negative effect of the interaction between the linguistically difficult instruction and language ability on expectancies of success. Contrary to our expectations, this indicates that high linguistic difficulty is associated with lower expectancies of success among students with increasing language abilities. Nevertheless, this finding emphasizes the importance of considering the fit between contextual and individual features. However, it did not have an indirect effect on student achievement. The findings are further discussed, highlighting their implications for future research and delineating linguistic design in educational contexts.
Smartphone distraction is a concern in university classrooms. However, the effectiveness of notification salience in reducing the impact of smartphone distraction on learning remains unclear. This study examined how external smartphone stimuli (i.e., notifications) and internal smartphone-related distraction (i.e., smartphone vigilance) influence students’ in-class phone use and learning performance. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate 84 Taiwanese undergraduates who were randomly assigned to groups with two different smartphone settings: notification revealed (NR) and notification hidden (NH). Using behavioral observations, self-report measures, and a performance test, we employed t-tests to analyze group differences in phone-use behaviors and learning performance. Partial least-squares structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among habitual phone use, smartphone vigilance, phone-use behaviors, mental effort, and learning performance under different smartphone settings. The results revealed that smartphone settings moderated the relationship between vigilance and phone-use patterns: When experiencing heightened smartphone vigilance during learning, students in the NR group exhibited more frequent checking behavior. Those in the NH group, meanwhile, tended toward longer duration per use, referring to extended time spent on each smartphone session. Both use patterns negatively affected learning performance by increasing mental effort, potentially explaining the absence of differences in performance between the groups. This study advances the literature by clarifying the distinct effects of external stimuli and internal distraction, highlighting that merely hiding notifications may be insufficient to prevent distractions in classrooms where smartphones remain accessible. Practical implications of student self-control strategies and classroom smartphone policies have also been discussed.
As video lectures have become an important way for online learning, the learning strategy is one of the important factors that affect the quality of learning. This study investigated the effects of three generative learning strategies (learner-generated explanations, learner-generated drawings, and imagining) on learners’ cognitive load, judgment of learning, learning engagement, learning performance and learning efficiency, compared to the control group.A total of 160 undergraduate students were randomly allocated to one of the four groups (three experimental groups and one control group) and watched the same video lectures about chemistry. Students in the three experimental groups were asked to engage in learning activities tailored to the learning strategy prompts provided in the pause segments of the videos and to complete all measurements. Students in the control group just watched the video without any prompts.Compared with control and imagining, learner-generated explanations and drawings improved engagement, performance, and learning efficiency and showed distinct patterns across intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load. Judgments of learning improved only for learner-generated explanations, whereas imagining showed no reliable benefits.This study provides empirical evidence to the impact of different generative learning strategies on students’ video learning.
