Completion of partially worked-out examples as a generation strategy for improving monitoring accuracy

Students’ Judgments of Learning (JOLs) are often inaccurate: students often overestimate their future test performance. Because of the consequences that JOL inaccuracy can have for regulating study activities, an important question is how JOL accuracy can be improved. When learning texts, JOL accuracy has been shown to improve through ‘generation strategies’, such as generating keywords, summaries, or concept maps. This study investigated whether JOL accuracy can also be improved by means of a generation strategy (i.e., completing blank steps in the examples) when learning to solve problems through worked example study. Secondary education students of 14–15 years old (cf. USA 9th grade) either studied worked examples or completed partially worked examples and gave JOLs. It was found that completion of worked examples resulted in underestimation of future test performance. It seems that completing partially worked-out examples made students less confident about future performance than studying fully worked examples. However, this did not lead to better regulation of study.     

Biology instruction using a generic framework of scientific reasoning and argumentation

We investigated biology instruction—using a generic framework of scientific reasoning and argumentation (SRA) with eight epistemic activities—on how to foster student learning in biological literacy which had not been clarified in previous studies. Our analysis of videotaped biology lessons and student achievement showed varying frequencies in using these activities and their effects on achievement. Those students taught with more epistemic activities had higher achievement. We believe that the SRA framework can be a worthwhile methodical tool for teaching biology to foster student learning. Therefore, we draw practically orientated implications for educational research, practitioners, teacher educators, and curriculum developers.     

Effects of training self-assessment and using assessment standards on retrospective and prospective monitoring of problem solving

Both retrospective and prospective monitoring are considered important for self-regulated learning of problem-solving skills. Retrospective monitoring (or self-assessment; SA) refers to students' assessments of how well they performed on a problem just completed. Prospective monitoring (or Judgments of Learning; JOLs) refers to students' judgments about how well they will perform on a (similar) problem on a future test. We investigated whether secondary education students' SA accuracy could be improved by training (Experiment 1 and 2), or by providing assessment standards (Experiment 2), and whether this would also affect the accuracy of JOLs. Accurate assessment of past performance might provide a good cue for judging future performance. Both Experiment 1 and 2 showed no effect of training on SA or JOL accuracy, but SA and JOLs were positively correlated with each other and negatively with effort. Providing standards did improve SA and JOL accuracy on identical problems, and performance on all problems.     

How to foster STEM learning during Covid-19 remote schooling: Combining virtual and video experiments

Understanding scientific concepts is a fundamental aim of science education. Conceptual understanding can be fostered through inquiry learning with experiments. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic school closures hands-on experiments could hardly be realized. Fortunately, digital technologies allow for conducting experiments virtually by using interactive simulations or observing video recordings of hands-on experiments. In the present study, 154 seventh graders in remote schooling were involved in inquiry learning using either a combination of virtual and video experiments in two different orders or only virtual experiments. We hypothesized that in general inquiry learning fosters students' conceptual understanding in physics, which could be confirmed. Moreover, we expected the combinations to be more effective than learning with virtual experiments only due to the complementary roles of the prior, which was, however, not the case. We conclude that virtual and video experiments can be recommended to teachers if hands-on experimentation is not possible.