Reading affects everything we do in life. Sometimes it is difficult to determine how many people have a reading disability, and what tools can be used to overcome it. The main aim of this thesis is to gain insight into how and if audio recordings (audiobooks, talking books or mobile apps for reading) are used in elementary schools by teachers as a tool for pupils with reading disabilities. A quantitative approach was adopted for data collection in the form of a self-administered online survey created by using Sunet Survey software. The survey, with 15 questions in Croatian, was sent to 63 elementary schools in Primorje and Gorski Kotar County in Croatia. The sampling frame consisted of 541 elementary school teachers teaching first through fourth grades. 98 responded to the survey. To support the results, 2 theories were used. The cognitive authority theory to support the notion that teachers play a large role in pupils' relationship with reading, and the cognitive load theory to support the notion that assistive technology can help pupils with reading disabilities. The results elucidate that our sample consists of 96.6% female respondents who are between 45 and 54 years old, have 10 to 20 years of professional experience, and mainly teach first grade. 75% of the respondents currently have and 89.8% used to have pupils with reading disabilities in their class. Although audiobooks are not the most popular tool in Croatia, 63.6% of respondents recognize them as a tool they use. The results also show that schools and school libraries are not sufficiently equipped with tools to help pupils with reading disabilities. Most involvement depends on the individual will of teachers.

Os mapas conceituais são organizadores gráficos utilizados no processo de ensino e de aprendizagem. Sua efetividade em sala de aula é pouco explorada como instrumento avaliativo por alguns motivos como o treinamento dos alunos, na sua elaboração e na devolutiva do professor aos alunos, que pode ser influenciada pela forma de abordagem e recepção. Essa pesquisa teve por objetivo investigar a utilização dos mapas conceituais com proposições incorretas como instrumento avaliativo em uma sala de aula invertida Flipped Classroom. Foi investigado também quais as estratégias de ensino e de aprendizagem utilizadas pelo professor e pelos alunos para se planejarem e se organizarem dentro da disciplina. Três estudos foram realizados para analisar o efeito do mapa conceitual com proposições incorretas no desempenho dos alunos (Estudo 1), como os alunos se prepararam para as aulas e para as provas em uma disciplina cuja metodologia da sala de aula foi invertida (Estudo 2) e quais foram as estratégias de ensino e de aprendizagem utilizadas pelo professor e pelos alunos nessa organização pedagógica (Estudo 3). Participaram dessa pesquisa 86 alunos ingressos na Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades da Universidade de São Paulo, no primeiro semestre de 2016, na disciplina de Ciências da Natureza. O referencial teórico fundamentou-se na Teoria da Carga Cognitiva de Sweller (1988) e na Teoria Social Cognitiva de Bandura (1986). A abordagem utilizada para a pesquisa foi mista sendo no Estudo 1 e Estudo 2 quantitativa e no Estudo 3 a qualitativa e o procedimento escolhido foi o estudo de caso. Os resultados obtidos evidenciaram que: o mapa conceitual com proposição incorreta pode ser mais uma ferramenta avaliativa agregada às que são usualmente utilizadas pelos professores em sala de aula; o mapa conceitual com a demanda da tarefa sem direcionamento instrucional foi considerado mais difícil pelos alunos do que o que possuía uma demanda com direcionamento instrucional; a metodologia da sala de aula invertida causou um efeito favorável para que os alunos participassem e se preparassem mais para as aulas e para as provas mesmo que no início tenha havido uma relutância por parte deles; quanto mais estratégias de ensino o professor disponibiliza em suas aulas mais satisfatória e mais eficiente é a interação entre ele e seus alunos, o que propicia devolutivas mais pontuais e assertivas para os alunos promovendo a ressonância pedagógica entre eles professor e aluno. As análises revelaram que os mapas conceituais com proposições incorretas são muito bons para serem utilizados como um instrumento avaliativo, que a diversidade metodológica da sala de aula influenciou positivamente no processo de ensino e de aprendizagem e que as escolhas de estratégias podem potencializar esse processo permitindo a regulação do ensino pelo professor e autorregulação da aprendizagem por parte dos alunos. / Concept maps are graphic organizers used in the teaching and learning process. However, their effectiveness in the classroom is little explored in the literature mainly in the evaluation for some reasons such as the training of students in their elaboration, the amount of differentiated maps for the teacher to correct and in the composition of a scoring system so that they do not become a tool for the superficial and memoristic understanding of the content addressed in the classroom. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of using conceptual maps in an unusual way: elaborated by the teacher of the discipline with incorrect propositions as an evaluation tool within an inverted methodological proposal - Flipped Classroom. The study also verified the teaching and learning strategies used by the teacher and the students to plan and organize their formative process within the discipline. Three studies were conducted to analyze the impact of this conceptual map on student performance (Study 1), as students prepared for classes and for tests with a discipline that inverted classroom methodology (Study 2) and which were the teaching and learning strategies used by the teacher and the students in this pedagogical organization (Study 3). A total of 86 students participated in the study of the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities of the University of São Paulo, in the first semester of 2016, in the discipline of Natural Sciences and the professor of the discipline. The theoretical framework was based on Sweller\'s Theory of Cognitive Load (1988) and on Curative Social Theory of Bandura (1986). The case study approach was used and the methodology adopted was differentiated for the studies: in Study 1 and Study 2 it was the quantitative one and in Study 3 it was used the qualitative one. The results obtained showed that (1) this conceptual map style can be an additional evaluative tool that is usually used by teachers; (2) task instruction on the conceptual map influences the student\'s understanding of knowledge; (3) the methodology of the inverted classroom has a favorable impact on the quantity and quality of time invested by the students in the preparation for the classes and proof; (4) the inverted classroom is a methodology that generates a more active and dynamic participation of the students, which in the first moment causes a reluctance on their part; (5) the more teaching strategies the teacher offers in his classes, the more interaction and punctual feedbacks occur between students and him promoting pedagogic resonance and (6) the more students use learning strategies, the more they excel in the subject. The analyzes revealed that the conceptual maps with incorrect propositions are very good to be used as an evaluation tool, that the methodological diversity of the classroom influenced positively in the teaching and learning process and that the strategies choices can potentiate this process allowing the teacher regulation and self-regulation of student learning.

A key challenge of the learning sciences is moving research results into practice. Educators on the front lines perceive little value in the outputs of education research and demand more “usable knowledge”. This work explores the potential instead of usable artifacts to translate knowledge into practice, adding scientists as stakeholders in an interaction design process. The contributions are two effective systems, the scientific and contextual principles in their design, and a research model for scientific research through interaction design. College student study practices are the domain chosen for the development of these methods. Iterative ethnographic fieldwork identified two systems that would be likely to advance both learning in practice and knowledge for applying the employed theories in general. Nudge was designed to improve students’ study time management by regularly emailing students with explicit recommended study activities. It reconceptualizes the syllabus into an interactive guide that fits into modern students' attention streams. Examplify was designed to improve how students learn from worked example problems by modularizing them into steps and scaffolding their metacognitive behaviors though problem-solving and self-explanation prompts. It combines these techniques in a way that is exceedingly easy to author, using existing answer keys and students' self-evaluations. Nudge and Examplify were evaluated experimentally over a full semester of a lecture-based introductory chemistry course. Nudge messages increased students’ sense of achievement and interacted with students’ existing time management skills to improve exam grades for poorer students. Among students who could choose whether to receive them, 80% did. Students with access to Examplify had higher exam scores (d=0.26), especially on delayed measures of learning (d=0.40). A key design decision in Examplify was not clearly resolvable by existing theory and so was tested experimentally by comparing two variants, one without prompts to solve the steps. The variant without problem solving was less effective (d=0.77) and less used, while usage rates of the variant with problem solving increased over time. These results support the use of the design methods employed and provide specific empirical recommendations for future designs of these and similar systems for implementing theory in practice.

In recent years, research on embodied cognition has inspired a number of studies on multimedia learning and instructional psychology. However, in contrast to traditional research on education and multimedia learning, studies on embodied learning (i.e., focusing on bodily action and perception in the context of education) in some cases pose new problems for the measurement of cognitive load. This review provides an overview over recent studies on embodied learning in which cognitive load was measured using surveys, behavioral data, or physiological measures. The different methods are assessed in terms of their success in finding differences of cognitive load in embodied learning scenarios. At the same time, we highlight the most important challenges for researchers aiming to include these measures into their study designs. The main issues we identified are: (1) Subjective measures must be appropriately phrased to be useful for embodied learning; (2) recent findings indicate potentials as well as problematic aspects of dual-task measures; (3) the use of physiological measures offers great potential, but may require mobile equipment in the context of embodied scenarios; (4) meta-cognitive measures can be useful extensions of cognitive load measurement for embodied learning.

The purpose of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of using multimedia as a means of teaching physical science to learners. The underlying theoretical assumption was that a multimedia presentation would help to reduce the cognitive load experienced by learners when they learn physical science content, compared to a traditional mode of presentation, and that this reduction may have a positive effect on the ease with which they master the content. Physical science learners in Grade 11 viewed a presentation consisting of multimedia screens and screens depicting the learning content in a traditional layout – in order to compare the level of knowledge gained as well as the cognitive load experienced for the multimedia and traditional instructions. Pre- and post-test questionnaires were used to determine the knowledge gained, while cognitive load was measured using a dual-task methodology. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyse the data. The results did not reveal a statistically significant increase in knowledge gained via the multimedia approach when compared to the traditional mode of instruction, but when focussing the analysis on learners with a lower-knowledge base in physical science though, statistically significant results were found. However, no significant results were found to support the hypothesis that multimedia would help to reduce learners’ cognitive load. It was concluded that the multimedia design principles are more effective in increasing knowledge for physical science learners of low-knowledge than traditional instructional designs. / M. Sc. (Psychology)

This research aims to enhance Simulation-Based Training (SBT) applications to support training events in the absence of live instruction. The overarching purpose is to explore available tools for integrating intelligent tutoring communications in game-based learning platforms and to examine theory-based techniques for delivering explicit feedback in such environments. The primary tool influencing the design of this research was the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT), a modular domain-independent architecture that provides the tools and methods to author, deliver, and evaluate intelligent tutoring technologies within any training platform. Influenced by research surrounding Social Cognitive Theory and Cognitive Load Theory, the resulting experiment tested varying approaches for utilizing an Embodied Pedagogical Agent (EPA) to function as a tutor during interaction in a game-based environment. Conditions were authored to assess the tradeoffs between embedding an EPA directly in a game, embedding an EPA in GIFT’s browser-based Tutor-User Interface (TUI), or using audio prompts alone with no social grounding. The resulting data supports the application of using an EPA embedded in GIFT’s TUI to provide explicit feedback during a game-based learning event. Analyses revealed conditions with an EPA situated in the TUI to be as effective as embedding the agent directly in the game environment. This inference is based on evidence showing reliable differences across conditions on the metrics of performance and self-reported mental demand and feedback usefulness items. This research provides source modality tradeoffs linked to tactics for relaying training relevant explicit information to a user based on real-time performance in a game.

This qualitative, exploratory dissertation aimed to describe how accessibility, usability, and cognitive load experts explained and experienced the usability and accessibility aspects of the LT department's website pages, information, and digital links. A usability, accessibility, and cognitive load manual examination was conducted with four experts. The usability, accessibility, and cognitive load examination comprised WCAG 2.1 four standards and Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics. Transcripts and observational field notes were coded through an iterative process in the analysis tool Dedoose. Two groups and four main categories were discovered using emic and etic coding. The two groups were macro challenges and page with most codes. The four main categories included macro, usability, accessibility, and cognitive load. The findings for accessibility, usability, and cognitive load are discussed. Website recommendations for creating an accessible and usable site and suggestions for future research are provided.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of context-based problem solving instruction (CBPSI) on the problem solving performance of Grade 10 learners, who performed poorly in mathematics. A cognitive load theory (CLT) was used to frame the study. In addition, CLT was used to: 1) facilitate the interpretation and explanation of participants‟ problem solving performance; and, 2) influence the design of CBPSI to hone participants‟ problem solving skills. The study was conducted in the Gauteng province of South Africa and involved a two-week intervention program in each of the nine participating high schools. Participants consisted of 783 learners and four Grade 10 mathematics teachers. A non-equivalent control group design was employed, consisting of a pre- and post- measure. In addition, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and learners. Teachers employed conventional problem solving instructions in four control schools while the researcher implemented CBPSI in five experimental schools. Instruction in experimental schools entailed several worked-out context-based problem solving examples given to participants in worksheets. The main aspects of CBPSI embraced elements of the effects of self-explanation and split-attention, as advocated by CLT. Due to the design of CBPSI participants in experimental schools became familiar with the basic context-based problem solving tasks that were presented to them through the worked-out example samples. In turn, the associated cognitive load of problem solving tasks was gradually reduced. The principal instrument for data collection was a standardized Functional Mathematics Achievement Test. The pre-test determined participants‟ initial problem solving status before intervention. A post-test was given at the end of intervention to benchmark change in the functionality of CBPSI over a two-week period. Using one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and other statistical techniques the study found that participants in experimental schools performed significantly better than participants in control schools on certain aspects of problem solving performance. In addition, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations revealed that participants rated CBPSI highly. On the whole, the study showed that CBPSI is an effective instructional tool to enhance the problem solving performance of Grade 10 mathematics learners. / Mathematics Education / D. Phil. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education)

This study aimed to understand the relationship between mobile device screen display size (laptops and smartphones) and text segmentation (continuous text, medium text segments, and small text segments) on learning outcomes, cognitive load, and user perception. This quantitative study occurred during the spring semester of 2015. Seven hundred and seventy-one chemistry students from a higher education university completed one of nine treatments in this 3x3 research design. Data collection took place over four class periods. The study revealed that learning outcomes were not affected by the mobile screen display size or orientation, nor was working memory. However, user perception was affected by the screen display size of the device, and results indicated that participants in the sample felt laptop screens were more acceptable for accessing the digital chemistry text than smartphone screens by a small margin. The study also found that neither learning outcomes, nor working memory was affected by the text segmentation viewed. Though user perception was generally not affected by text segmentation, the study found that for perceived ease of use, participants felt medium text segments were easier to learn from than either continuous or small test segments by a small margin. No interaction affects were found between mobile devices and text segmentation. These findings challenge the findings of some earlier studies that laptops may be better for learning than smartphones because of screen size, landscape orientation is better for learning than portrait orientation in small screen mobile devices, and meaningful text segments may be better for learning than non-meaningful, non-segmented, or overly segmented text. The results of this study suggest that customizing the design to the smartphone screen (as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach) improves learning from smartphones, making them equal to learning from laptops in terms of learning outcomes and cognitive load, and in some cases, user perspective. / text

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of context-based problem solving instruction (CBPSI) on the problem solving performance of Grade 10 learners, who performed poorly in mathematics. A cognitive load theory (CLT) was used to frame the study. In addition, CLT was used to: 1) facilitate the interpretation and explanation of participants‟ problem solving performance; and, 2) influence the design of CBPSI to hone participants‟ problem solving skills. The study was conducted in the Gauteng province of South Africa and involved a two-week intervention program in each of the nine participating high schools. Participants consisted of 783 learners and four Grade 10 mathematics teachers. A non-equivalent control group design was employed, consisting of a pre- and post- measure. In addition, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and learners. Teachers employed conventional problem solving instructions in four control schools while the researcher implemented CBPSI in five experimental schools. Instruction in experimental schools entailed several worked-out context-based problem solving examples given to participants in worksheets. The main aspects of CBPSI embraced elements of the effects of self-explanation and split-attention, as advocated by CLT. Due to the design of CBPSI participants in experimental schools became familiar with the basic context-based problem solving tasks that were presented to them through the worked-out example samples. In turn, the associated cognitive load of problem solving tasks was gradually reduced. The principal instrument for data collection was a standardized Functional Mathematics Achievement Test. The pre-test determined participants‟ initial problem solving status before intervention. A post-test was given at the end of intervention to benchmark change in the functionality of CBPSI over a two-week period. Using one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and other statistical techniques the study found that participants in experimental schools performed significantly better than participants in control schools on certain aspects of problem solving performance. In addition, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations revealed that participants rated CBPSI highly. On the whole, the study showed that CBPSI is an effective instructional tool to enhance the problem solving performance of Grade 10 mathematics learners. / Mathematics Education / D. Phil. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education)