In this paper, we consider the issue of how the fine-grained multimodal design of educational explanation videos, such as those widely available on YouTube and other platforms, may be made accessible to empirical studies of reception and effectiveness. This is necessary because previous research has often led to conflicting conclusions concerning the roles of particular design elements. We argue that this may largely be due to insufficient characterizations of multimodal design itself. To achieve tighter control of this potential source of variation, we present a multimodal descriptive annotation framework drawing on multimodal (cohesive) film discourse analysis. This framework is seen as a critical first step toward being able to highlight just those differences in design that have functional consequences. For such consequences to accrue, however, viewers need to attend differently to corresponding design differences. The goal of the current paper, therefore, is to use eye-tracking techniques to explore the extent to which discourse structures revealed by our analytic framework relate to recipients' attention allocation. We hypothesize that any potentially emerging anomalies in regards to discourse organization, such as instances of unsuccessful cohesion signaling, may have correlations in the behavioral data. We report our current state of development for performing this kind of multimodal cohesion analysis and some of the unresolved challenges raised when considering how such analyses may be related to performance data.

Psychological factors play an important role in higher education. With respect to students' understanding of scientific research methods, research self-efficacy (RSE) has been studied as a core construct. However, findings on antecedents and outcomes of RSE are oftentimes heterogeneous regarding both its theoretical and empirical structures. The present study helps disentangle these findings by (a) establishing and validating an integrated, multi-dimensional assessment of RSE and (b) introducing a developmental perspective on RSE by testing the impact of the disciplinary context and academic seniority on both mean level and latent structure of RSE. The construct validity of the new measure was supported based on RSE assessments of 554 German psychology and educational science students. Relations to convergent and discriminant measures were as expected. Measurement invariance and LSEM analyses revealed significant differences in latent model parameters between most sub-groups of training level and disciplinary context. We discuss our findings of measurement non-invariance as a feature rather than a bug by stressing a process-oriented perspective on RSE. In this regard, we conclude potential future directions of research and RSE theory development, alongside implications for methods education practice in higher education.

In this chapter, we argue theoretically that students in educational science and teacher education need to be trained in research as well as disciplinary knowledge and that they need to integrate these knowledge domains because scientificity is a foundation for professionalism in their field. We base this statement on the viewpoints promoted by several scholars in the field who emphasize a scientific reflective habitus and theory application competence as manifestation of professionalism of teachers and educational specialists. However, especially students in social and educational science are often inclined to work in the field with no or little interest in research methods. We present two approaches developed to answer this dilemma and theoretically discuss their conduciveness to knowledge integration based on relevant dimensions, namely the level of student activity, the content of inquiry regarding both, information versus discovery orientation, and methods versus content orientation. We then argue that approaches where students are more active, and where both methods and disciplinary theory are the focus of inquiry are most promising in facilitating knowledge integration. We end the chapter with possible operationalizations of knowledge integration in students in the educational science and pre-service teacher education. This operationalization allows an empirical examination of the theoretical discourse we present in this chapter.

Recent research on expert teachers suggests that an integrated understanding across the core domains of teachers’ knowledge is crucial for their professional competence. However, in initial teacher education pre-service teachers seem to struggle with the integration of knowledge represented in multiple domain-specific sources into a coherent structure (e.g., textbooks that focus either on content knowledge, on content-specific pedagogical knowledge, or on general pedagogical knowledge). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of writing tasks (unspecific vs. argumentative) and prompts (i.e., focus questions) on pre-service teachers’ construction of a mental model that interrelates information from multiple domain-specific documents. Data of ninety-two pre-service teachers, who participated in a laboratory experiment where they read three domain-specific textbook excerpts and wrote essays for global comprehension, were analyzed using automated structural and semantic measures. In line with prior research, results indicated that prompts supported pre-service teachers in integrating domain-specific knowledge from multiple documents in their mental models. However, the automated structural and semantic measures did not support previous findings on the efficacy of argument tasks for knowledge integration. The findings and limitations are discussed, and conclusions are drawn for future research and for integrative learning environments in pre-service teacher education.

The present study aims to investigate the effects of writing tasks and prompts on knowledge integration across domains. One hundred pre-service teachers were asked to read and develop a global understanding of textbook excerpts from the core domains of their professional knowledge: content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). In an experimental 2 × 2 design, we varied two means to support knowledge integration, namely, essay writing tasks (unspecific vs. argument) and preactional integration prompts in the form of focus questions (with vs. without). In addition to the essays, a pre-post-knowledge test and an intertextual inference verification task served as dependent variables. Students’ motivation was assessed as a covariate. In all experimental conditions, students showed significant knowledge gains within the three domains. A category-driven content analysis of students’ essays indicated main effects of both writing tasks and prompts. That is, the argument task and the prompts independently promoted knowledge integration across domains. For the intertextual inference verification task, the positive influence of prompts was restricted to students in the unspecific writing task condition and in consideration of a compensatory effect of motivation. Taken together, the study expands evidence for the efficacy of argument tasks and preactional prompts on promoting knowledge integration across pre-service teachers’ CK, PK, and PCK. The findings are discussed with regard to multiple-document comprehension and pre-service teacher education.

Educational content of many kinds and from many disciplines are increasingly presented in the form of short videos made broadly accessible via platforms such as YouTube. We argue that understanding how such communicative forms function effectively (or not) demands a more thorough theoretical foundation in the principles of multimodal communication that is also capable of engaging with, and driving, empirical studies. We introduce the basic concepts adopted and discuss an empirical study showing how functional measures derived from the theory of multimodality we employ and results from a recipient-based study that we conducted align. We situate these results with respect to the state of the art in cognitive research in multimodal learning and argue that the more complex multimodal interactions and artifacts become, the more a fine-grained view of multimodal communication of the kind we propose will be essential for engaging with such media, both theoretically and empirically.

This research investigates pre-service mathematics teachers’ integration of knowledge entities from documents that pertain to the core dimensions of their professional knowledge. The theoretical rational founds on models and methodical approaches on self-regulated learning, its assistance through prompts, and multiple-document comprehension. Results of an experimental study suggest that prompts positively influenced the integration of knowledge entities from multiple documents on teachers’ professional knowledge domains. In contrast to prior multiple document studies, argumentation tasks did not promote knowledge integration compared to unspecific writing tasks. Neither integration prompts nor the type of writing task inhibited knowledge acquisition within professional knowledge dimensions. The results, further analyses, and consequences for future studies are discussed.

The study explores if established support devices for paper–pencil problem solving, namely worked examples and incremental scaffolds, are applicable to laboratory tasks. N = 173 grade eight students solved in dyads a physics laboratory task in one of three conditions. In condition A (unguided problem solving), students were asked to determine the mass of an unknown object by applying Hooke’s law. In condition B (laboratory guide), students received a guide which instructed and explained each solution step. In condition C (incremental scaffolds), the solution steps were presented incrementally on learner demand and were preceded by strategic prompts. Dependent variables were learning outcomes (solution, retention, knowledge) and motivational learning experiences (basic needs, situational interest, deeper level processing). The laboratory guide (B) led to better learning outcomes (d = 0.42) but lower motivation (d > 0.38) compared to unguided problem solving (A). Incremental scaffolds (C) led to higher motivation (d > 0.44) but similar learning outcomes compared to a laboratory guide.