This paper responds to Richard E. Mayer’s (2025) commentary on our FoRe-Squares model of technology-augmented instruction (Eitel et al., 2025), a model that builds on the foundational contributions of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer, 2022) and Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 2010). We advocate for two key contributions the model makes: First, it conceptualizes cognition and motivation in a highly integrative way, aiming for a comprehensive understanding of what makes (technology-augmented) instruction effective. Second, it highlights two main predictor constructs that underlie effective instruction—focus support and reward—aiming for high parsimony and a construct-based understanding of instructional effectiveness. We position the FoRe-Squares model to guide further research by providing a complementary rationale for explaining and predicting the effects of instructional techniques and their combinations on processing and learning outcomes. In addition, we position the FoRe-Squares model to provide practitioners with a parsimonious heuristic for designing and evaluating instruction.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly integrated into education. However, fundamental questions about its effects remain unresolved, with existing meta-analyses differing substantially in reported effect sizes, moderators that amplify or attenuate these effects, and methodological quality. To synthesize the fragmented evidence base and examine sources of these variations, we conducted a preregistered second-order meta-analysis aggregating 45 meta-analyses (129 effect sizes) based on approximately 197,000 learners from prekindergarten through university. Three-level second-order meta-analyses showed that AI applications in education had a medium effect across educational outcomes. Effects were larger in more recent meta-analyses, in meta-analyses including tertiary-education students, and for general academic outcomes than for STEM performance outcomes. We did not find significant differences between AI applications. Methodological quality of meta-analyses did not explain variance in effects, but our assessment identified systematic quality deficits (e.g., regarding reproducibility and open science). Insufficient statistical power was common among the included meta-analyses. Overall, these findings advance a more differentiated understanding of the current state of research on AI in education, highlighting both the potential of AI and the limitations of the evidence base.

In-service and student teachers often hold math-gender misconceptions of female learners’ lower levels of mathematical talent. Such misconceptions are related to the math-gender stereotype that shapes how teachers interact with students and can contribute to the underrepresentation of women in mathematical fields. One method for reducing these misconceptions is refutation texts, which explicitly state and refute a misconception before providing an alternate explanation. Since refutation texts alone may not be sufficient to incite conceptual change among teachers, we presented them with an adaptive personalized feedback, which can enhance conceptual change effects. Yet, teachers’ identity may be related to math-gender misconceptions, which might cause worldview backfire effects where teachers double down on their original stance due to identity threat induced by an attempted refutation. In a randomized 2×2-pre-post-design with 336 in-service and student teachers, we investigated whether (1) expository texts, (2) personalized expository texts, (3) common refutation texts, or (4) personalized refutation texts were most effective for conceptual change. We found that personalized refutation texts initiated the strongest conceptual change for teachers who had held misconceptions at pre-test, but triggered the most backfire among those who did not. Findings suggest that personalized refutation texts effectively enhance teachers’ conceptual change when misconceptions are present. However, if misconceptions are not prevalent, personalized refutation text may lead to familiarity backfire; by repeatedly naming a misconception, it gains familiarity and becomes more credible than the intended refutation information. Hence, we recommend that personalized (refutation) interventions be adapted to individuals’ prior knowledge and misconceptions.

Background According to the seductive-details effect, practitioners should avoid interesting but irrelevant adjuncts (e.g., fun facts, comics) in learning materials as they might increase extraneous cognitive load and thus hamper learning. As the digitalisation of learning continues to increase, the question arises as to whether this recommendation also applies to interesting but irrelevant hyperlinks that are often included in online materials. Objectives We investigated whether students perceive and use seductive details that appear behind hyperlinks differently compared to seductive details that are integrated in the learning material directly on the screen. We were assuming that students would (a) perceive hyperlink seductive details as less relevant than integrated seductive details and thus not be negatively affected in their cognitive processing (i.e., informed use of seductive details) and (b) use hyperlink seductive details to take a small break or for gratification, thereby supporting them in their persistent online learning (i.e., needs-oriented use of seductive details). Methods In a 3 & times; 2-between-subjects study, participants (N = 165) worked online on a learning unit about chemistry models without seductive details or with them, either with explicit information about their irrelevance for the learning goal or without such explicit information. Moreover, we presented the details integrated in the learning material or as mouse-over hyperlinks. Results and Conclusion Although students perceived hyperlink seductive details as less relevant than integrated details, their learning outcomes were still impaired when they did not receive an additional explicit irrelevance instruction. Hence, our study reveals no evidence that students use seductive details via hyperlinks differently from integrated ones, but instead that seductive details via hyperlinks should also be avoided.

This study investigated effects of content format and instructional framing on knowledge attainment, situational interest, and academic emotions in digital history learning. In a 2 (format: game versus text) × 2 (instruction: learning versus fun) between-subjects design, 143 university students engaged with either a historically accurate video game on the Roman Empire or a structurally aligned interactive text application, each paired with instructions to focus on learning or fun. Both formats presented the same historical content through main narratives, optional missions, and supplemental historical information in the form of codex entries. The findings revealed that participants in the game condition reported higher enjoyment and greater triggered situational interest, indicating that the game enhances the positive affective experience of engaging with historical content and sparks learners’ interest. However, our hypothesis that knowledge test performance would be higher in the game condition was not supported. Instead, knowledge test scores were higher in the text condition. No statistically significant effects emerged for instructional framing or for the interaction between format and framing on the outcomes. Additional analyses of behavioural data showed that text participants engaged more extensively with codex entries, and that codex engagement strongly predicted knowledge outcomes across both formats. This suggests that knowledge outcomes depend on the visibility and integration of supplemental materials, and learners’ engagement with them. Overall, this study contributes to research on digital history learning by offering a controlled comparison of identical content delivered through game and text and shedding light on the role of instructional framing.

Given the many opportunities for technology use in education nowadays (e.g., Large language models, explainer videos, digital quizzing), teachers should know and rely on evidence-based answers to questions about when, how, and why technology-augmented instruction helps or hinders learning. To date, finding these answers requires integrating theories and concepts from multiple research fields (e.g., multimedia learning, intelligent tutoring systems, gamification) and perspectives on learning (cognition, motivation), which makes evidence-based answers less likely to be found in practice. To address this problem, we drafted a simple model (i.e., FoRe-Squares model) that synthesizes evidence-based concepts from various research fields and both cognitive and motivational theory. The FoRe-Squares model predicts that technology-augmented instruction is effective only when it provides both Focus support (cognitive factor) and Reward (motivational factor) to enable and motivate active goal-directed processing. Technology-augmented instruction is thus more effective when it does not just apply cognitive techniques (e.g., signaling, contiguity) to increase focus support, but also motivational techniques (e.g., choice, gamification) to increase reward. Furthermore, cognitive-motivational techniques (e.g., elaborative feedback, intrinsic integration) are most likely effective for learning because they increase both focus support and reward at the same time; they should be prioritized when only a few techniques can be applied. Since just the two factors of focus support and reward predict learning outcomes across a broad range of situations, the FoRe-Squares model aims to provide a simple but evidence-based guide to technology-augmented instruction that should help instructional practice and inspire further research including instruction without technology.

The stereotype of math being male-typed prevails among most Western societies. This math-gender stereotype is associated with math-gender misconceptions, which are scientifically incorrect specific theories about girls’ math abilities (e.g., girls inherently think less systematically and thus have less math ability than boys). Teachers may contribute to the dissemination of the math-gender stereotype via their behaviors (e.g., choice of stereotypic learning materials). Here, we researched teachers’ awareness of such math-gender stereotype-reinforcing behaviors in scripted classroom videos in relation to what teachers answered in stereotype and misconception questionnaires. In an online experiment, we randomly assigned 278 teachers to videos with a female vs. male model teacher’s math-gender stereotype-reinforcing behaviors. We instructed participants to evaluate the model teacher’s teaching behaviors. Teachers were more aware of the male model teacher’s than of the female model teacher’s math-gender stereotype-reinforcing behaviors. If the model and observer genders aligned, awareness improved. Most importantly, participants who agreed less with math-gender misconceptions were more aware of math-gender stereotype-reinforcing behaviors. However, awareness was unrelated to holding the math-gender stereotype. Videos of model teacher behaviors, like those developed in this study, could also be a useful means to measure to train teachers’ awareness of relevant classroom behaviors.

Learners increasingly use digital devices such as laptops or tablets for studying. While these devices offer advantages, they also pose challenges. They present attractive alternative opportunities for learners, such as communication or entertainment opportunities that may distract from learning. Such alternatives increase demand for self-control, particularly over time. We investigated the potential of emotional design in learning materials to support self-control by triggering and maintaining situational interest, thereby reducing the mental load required for self-control. We hypothesize that emotional design becomes especially effective in distractionprone learning situations, such as during extended learning durations or when attractive alternative opportunities are present. We employed a 2 x 2 x 2 mixed design, varying video design (neutral vs. emotional) and opportunity presentation (no opportunity vs. opportunity presented) as between-subjects factors, and learning phase (beginning vs. end of the video) as a withinsubjects factor. Our participants (N = 144) learned from a 16-min video on photography. We assessed triggered and maintained situational interest, mental load, and learning outcomes. Emotional design interacted with the learning phase, enhancing learning outcomes particularly at the end of the video. This learning benefit was mediated by the development of situational interest and a reduction in mental load. The positive impact of emotional design on learning at the end of the video was significantly stronger when an alternative opportunity was present (threeway interaction). Emotional design seems to be particularly helpful when self-control demands are high. Such conditions include extended learning sessions, the presence of attractive alternatives, or situations where multiple self-control demands come together.

Despite theoretical knowledge being an important source for well-founded teaching decisions, student teachers often struggle to put this knowledge into practice. One way to close this theory- practice gap could be digital teaching simulation games that enable theory-use in authentic critical teaching situation. To assess their potential for teacher education, we conducted a learning experiment with 126 novice student teachers. In this experiment, after reading an expository text on classroom management, student teachers either played a digital teaching simulation-game (simulation condition) or read a screenshot-sequence depicting the game's content (screenshot condition). We assessed the student teachers' ability to apply theoretical knowledge featured in the text, how useful they perceive theoretical knowledge, their self- efficacy and their motivation to reuse the learning material. Against our expectations, participants in the screenshot condition outperformed participants in the simulation condition in transfer tasks. Participants in the simulation condition, however, reported higher teaching self- efficacy for both classroom management and instructional strategies. Both learning materials similarly increased participants perception of theoretical knowledge as useful for teaching. Participants' learning times showed that participants in the simulation condition spent significantly less time reading the feedback presented at the end of the material than participants in the screenshot condition. Taken together, our results suggest that while student teachers want to learn with simulation games, they might not do so effectively if they are not instructed thoroughly. Further research is needed to explore this assumption.

Background & aims: Instructional videos on the internet that incorporate emotional design often employ a narrative frame. This frame is intended to enhance the value of the content to-be-learned and, in turn, promote sustained learning in longer learning sessions. We tested whether the presence of a value-evoking narrative frame (vs. expository frame) actually enhances sustained learning. Sample & methods: We employed a 2 x 2 x 3 mixed between-subject design (N = 128) with repeated measures on three 5-min sections of video. The between-subject factors included audiovisual design (emotional vs. neutral) and frame (narrative vs. expository). Results & conclusion: We observed a three-way interaction between audiovisual design, frame, and learning phase with respect to learning outcomes: The narrative frame was essential for improving sustained learning at the end of the video. Without the narrative frame, emotional audiovisual design hindered sustained learning. This pattern of results suggests that employing a narrative frame maintains triggered situational interest and contributes significantly to sustained learning from instructional video.

We investigated how learners' motivation impacts the testing effect for complex study materials. High mastery goal orientation was expected to weaken the effect, while external rewards for successful retrieval practice were expected to strengthen it. Two experiments (N = 191) compared restudy, retrieval practice, and retrieval practice with external reward in a between-subject design. We assessed delayed retention after 1 week. Both experiments revealed a testing effect. Learners' mastery goal orientation moderated the effect in both experiments. It was strong in students with low mastery goal orientation and absent in those with high mastery goal orientation. The external reward failed to enhance the testing effect in Experiment 1, but boosted it in Experiment 2 with more specific criteria for "successful retrieval practice." In Experiment 2, the reward increased students' retrieval practice effort, improving delayed retention. These results suggest that students' motivation to practice retrieval and to restudy are important boundary conditions for the testing effect.

Background Student teachers commonly struggle to apply theoretical knowledge to their teaching. This theory-practice gap is a serious problem in teacher education. Over the past decade, simulations and serious games have been shown as an effective way to practice the transfer of theoretical knowledge in authentic settings of skill-use. Approximating theory-based teaching practice via repeated use of simulation games, thus, may be able to close the theory-practice gap in teacher education.Aim We aimed to assess whether repeatedly engaging with simulated teaching and theory-based feedback would improve student teachers' teaching self-efficacy, transfer of theories into teaching situations and their perceived usefulness of theories.Method N = 86 student teachers learned twice with either a digital simulation game depicting decision-making in the classroom (simulation condition) or with screenshots of the game (control condition). After each phase, student teachers received theory-based feedback about (their) teaching.Results Against our hypothesis, there were no changes in both conditions regarding student teachers' teaching self-efficacy, perceived usefulness of theories for practice, or integration of theory-based arguments into practical reasoning. Nonetheless, we found positive effects for learning time and motivation favoring the simulation condition.Conclusion Our results point towards the motivating potential of simulation games that was, however, not sufficient to close the theory-practice gap. It seems that the theory-practice integration within the simulation game needs to be even stronger to reveal the desired effects, which needs to be subject to further research.

Background :Students often show unfavourable attribution: they attribute poor school performance to stable factors such as lack of ability and good school performance to variable factors such as effort. However, attribution can be influenced by individualized digital re-attributional feedback leading to positive motivational effects and higher learning outcomes. This is very promising, but it still is unclear, whether this digital re-attributional feedback can also be successfully integrated in everyday classroom activities.Objectives :The present field experiment investigated how integrating digital re-attributional feedback into classroom instruction affects student attribution, motivation and learning outcomes.Methods :In the experiment, 8th-10th grade high school students (N = 322) worked with a digital mathematics learning program which was integrated in a three-week teaching unit. Half the students in each classroom received only standard feedback after each practice task (SF group); the other half received additionally an individual re-attributional feedback (RF group) after every third task. Attribution, mathematics self-concept, and self-efficacy were measured by an online questionnaire twice a week; learning outcomes in mathematics were measured weekly.Results and Conclusion :Hierarchical analyses showed that re-attributional feedback led to a more favourable attribution in case of success on stable factors. Especially low-performing students benefited from this feedback. No effects on attribution in case of failure, self-efficacy or learning outcomes could be found. Further research could investigate if certain adaptations to the digital re-attributional feedback is more effective in a real classroom setting and has a broader impact on different students.

Background Learning with explainer videos can foster learning. However, their effects on subsequent learning are still unclear. On the one hand, they might increase situational interest and scaffold subsequent learning. On the other hand, they might hinder subsequent learning by fostering an illusion of understanding. In case of the latter, the question arises of whether providing prompt-questions after an explainer video would prevent an illusion of understanding. Therefore, we investigated the effects of medium and prompt-questions on subsequent learning with text. Sample One hundred thirty-three teacher students and psychology students from a German university. Methods In an online study with a 2x2 between-subjects design, we investigated the effects of medium (video vs. video-script) in learning phase 1 and prompt-questions (yes vs. no) on subsequent learning with text. Results As expected, watching the video made the content seem more interesting and less difficult. Contrary to the illusion-of-understanding-assumption, this did not result in learners overestimating but rather underestimating themselves. Moreover, while prompt-questions in the video condition fostered learning, they impaired learning in the video-script condition. Exploratory mediation analyses revealed that in the prompt condition, the superiority of the video was mainly driven by the quality of the prompt-answers rather than the time learners invested in answering the prompt-questions. Conclusions Our findings suggest that explainer videos combined with prompt-questions can foster learning with subsequent text. However, further research is necessary to replicate the findings under more controlled conditions and to investigate the underlying processes in greater depth.

Classroom videos are a viable means to implement evidence-informed reasoning in teacher education in order to establish an evidence-informed teaching practice. Although learning with videos relieves pre-service teachers from acting in parallel and might reduce complexity, the material still poses higher cognitive load than written text vignettes or other traditionally used static material. In particular, the information they deliver is transient and can, therefore, easily be missed. Signaling can guide learners’ attention to central aspects of a video, thereby reducing cognitive load and enhancing learning outcomes. In the current project, pre-service teachers acquired scientific knowledge about learning strategies and their promotion in a computer-based learning environment. We explored the effect of different arrangements of signaling in classroom video-examples on conceptual knowledge and the reasoning-component of professional vision. Therefore, we conducted a set of two studies with 100 student teachers including two signal arrangements in order to investigate how signaling can help learning to reason about classroom videos. In addition, we varied if participants received information on the use of signals in advance (informed) or not (uninformed). We measured conceptual knowledge by asking participants what they knew about self-regulation strategies. Additionally, we assessed reasoning by asking participants to notice sequences in a video where teachers induced learning strategies, and to reason in what respect the observed behavior was useful to induce the strategy. Uninformed signaling did not affect the acquisition of conceptual knowledge and reasoning. Informed signaling led to significantly better conceptual knowledge than uninformed signaling. It is argued that the signal-induced extraneous load exceeded the load reduction due to the signal’s selection advantage in the uninformed conditions. In a third, exploratory study, nine participants were interviewed on the perception of different signals and indicated that spotlight and zoom-in signals foster processing of classroom videos.

Previous research often revealed detrimental effects of seductive details on learning with multimedia instruction, but there are mixed findings regarding how to best explain these detrimental effects. We investigated whether the detrimental effects of seductive details are mainly mediated by the cognitive processes of diversion (deeper processing of seductive details rather than pertinent content) or disruption (unsuccessful attempts to integrate seductive details with pertinent content) by assessing the effects of instructional prompts. In an online learning experiment, participants ( N = 247) learned either without seductive details (control condition) or with seductive details in one of three conditions: Participants received either a prompt informing them about the irrelevance of seductive details (irrelevance-prompt), a prompt to process seductive details and pertinent content separately (separation-prompt), or no prompt within their task instruction. We assessed recall and transfer of knowledge as dependent variables. Supporting the diversion hypothesis, participants in the no-prompt condition regarded seductive details as more relevant and consequently spent more time processing them compared to participants in the irrelevance-prompt condition, which negatively influenced their recall performance. Against the disruption hypothesis, participants in the no-prompt condition reported lower integration avoidance between seductive details and pertinent content compared to participants in the separation-prompt condition, but this led to better rather than worse transfer performance. Our results thus suggest diversion, and not disruption, to be the main process driving the seductive details effect. Reducing the details’ diverting potential seems a good way to deal with seductive details in instruction.

Abstract. Creating lasting knowledge is an important goal of education. But how much do students retain what they have learned in school beyond the next class assignment? Is school instruction suitable for creating lasting knowledge and skills? And what can teachers do to foster the learning of lasting knowledge? We present a selective overview of research on these questions. The two theoretical strands that deal with lasting learning are meaningful learning and desirable difficulties in learning. We propose combining ideas from these two approaches to develop a comprehensive theoretical account of lasting learning and sketch questions that research should clarify to enable such a theory.

Creating lasting knowledge is an important goal of education. But how much do students retain what they have learned in school beyond the next class assignment? Is school instruction suitable for creating lasting knowledge and skills? And what can teachers do to foster the learning of lasting knowledge? We present a selective overview of research on these questions. The two theoretical strands that deal with lasting learning are meaningful learning and desirable difficulties in learning. We propose combining ideas from these two approaches to develop a comprehensive theoretical account of lasting learning and sketch questions that research should clarify to enable such a theory.

Background Previous research has shown that teachers hold misconceptions about multimedia learning (e.g., multimedia instruction needs to be adapted to students' learning styles), which may be at odds with evidence-based teaching. Objectives Refutation texts are a classical method to reduce misconceptions and thus to stimulate conceptual change. We wanted to know whether making use of a computer algorithm to personalize refutation texts would best initiate teachers' conceptual change. Methods We designed an online experiment, in which N = 129 in-service teachers read either (1) expository texts (without direct refutation), (2) common refutation texts, or (3) personalized refutation texts. The teachers filled in a misconception questionnaire pre and post to assess their conceptual change. Results and Conclusions Statistical analyses revealed that personalized refutation texts initiated the strongest conceptual change, which was driven by increased feelings of guilt and shame. Common refutation texts did not foster teachers' conceptual change as compared to expository texts. These findings indicate that refutation texts should be personalized for experienced practitioners such as teachers. Takeaways Personalized refutation seems to be promising in the context of online teacher training programs. Further research should test to which extent the present findings also apply to other groups of experienced learners or practitioners.