Cognitive Instruction Research Articles

Metacognitive Skills in Learning and Pedagogy: a Systematic Review and Analysis

Abstract Educational frameworks aim to empower students to become self-regulated and empowered learners. They also contribute to a robust learning community through the amalgamation of metacognitive strategies in their educational system. To shed the light on the same, we conducted a systematic review of research published between 2010 and 2022 in Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases. The review focused on two key areas: a) the application of metacognition in teaching and learning, and b) the relationship between metacognitive strategies and pedagogical approaches. Our findings highlight metacognition’s promising role in developing self-awareness, critical thinking, and cognitive facilitation within the learning environment. Additionally, the review emphasizes self-regulated learning and cognitive instruction strategies as key pathways to metacognitive regulation. We conclude by advocating for the integration of metacognitive skills development within educational systems to promote holistic learner development.

Does L2 assessment make a difference? Testing the empirical validity of applied cognitive linguistics in the acquisition of the Spanish/L2 psych-verb construction

This article lies within the field of applied cognitive linguistics (ACL) and presents empirical work that addresses overlooked effects of assessment typology in second language (L2) learning. It examines whether pairing a cognitive instructional approach with matching assessment design results in greater learning outcomes over the more pervasive notional-functional approaches. The last two decades have witnessed a proliferation of empirical research measuring the effectiveness of ACL-based teaching approaches, yet studies have only been partly fruitful in eliciting data that truly favors ACL. We argue that this is largely due to assessment design, which typically measures performance via correct vs. incorrect tasks. To overcome this caveat, two studies addressing the complex Spanish psych-verb construction (e.g. gustar ‘to like’) were conducted following a pretest/posttest/delayed-posttest design for three empirical conditions (control, cognitive, and traditional): a pilot study ( n = 59) and a larger replication ( n = 160). Data collection entailed ACL-based assessment for interpretation and production tasks. Results showed that after instruction, the cognitive group significantly outperformed the traditional counterpart in both tasks. These findings lend support to the effectiveness of pairing cognitive instruction and cognitive assessment for difficult grammatical constructions.

Developing L2 learners’ metaphoric competence: a case study of figurative motion constructions

AbstractThis study compares two instruction methods (cognitive and traditional) for teaching complex metaphorical motion constructions in Spanish and developing A2+ learners’ metaphoric competence in the L2. The cognitive instruction combined insights from the Conceptual Metaphor Theory with multimodal content and cognitive parameters, whereas the traditional package followed a communicative and formalist approach to language based on most current L2 textbooks. A group of 33 university students from a North American-based College participated in the experiment. Assessment tests were designed inspired by cognitive linguistics tenets and measured learners’ general metaphor comprehension (Task 1) and original production (Task 2), as well as performance in the comprehension (Task 3) and production (Task 4) of change-of-state constructions, thus breaking with the pervading assessment typology for empirical studies in applied cognitive linguistics. The cognitive methodology proved to be significantly more beneficial for all four tasks. Although students who received a traditional instruction improved over time, those from the cognitive group showed statistically higher performance in metaphoric competence and in the comprehension and production of the target constructions. These findings clearly suggest that a cognitive-based instruction, when followed by a consistent assessment, is an effective approach to teaching and learning difficult constructions in the L2.

Research on VR Immersive Instructional Design for Art Design Major—Taking Foundations of Design Composition Course as an Example

This paper explores using Virtual Reality (VR) in instructional design to enhance the Foundations of Design Composition course in art design. It examines the course's significance and identifies limitations of traditional teaching methods, such as a singular cognitive approach, limited curriculum presentation, lack of interactivity, absence of personalized instruction, and difficulties with abstract concepts. Implementing immersive VR teaching addresses these limitations, improving cognitive instruction, curriculum presentation, interactive experiences, personalized instruction, and comprehension of abstract concepts. A survey demonstrates the feasibility of VR immersive teaching. Practical applications include creating panoramic VR teaching experiences, virtual spaces for engagement, and comprehensive teaching resources. This study enhances art design programs and promotes educational innovation.

“Conjoint Communicated Experience”: Art as an Instrument of Democracy

“Conjoint Communicated Experience”: Art as an Instrument of Democracy

Taking a “Whole” Classroom Perspective: Theorizing Classroom Typologies Using a Video-Based Observational Protocol

Inspired by a “whole child” framing, the current study takes a “whole classroom” perspective to consider classroom practice. Study aims included: (1) presenting a systematic video-based observational coding strategy to concurrently consider practice domains that have implications for learning—cognitive instruction, classroom management, and teacher–student relational interactions; (2) identifying distinct and interrelated classroom typologies based upon this coding strategy. The framework was developed through coding and analysis of 58 purposively sampled urban 4th–9th grade classrooms from the Measures of Effective Teaching study. Analyses revealed three overarching typologies: task-focused (52%), low stimulation (43%), and optimal (5%). We conclude by discussing implications for urban education.

Impacts Of Language Learning On The Development Of Cognition

The basic theoretical goal of cognitive psychology is to describe the information processing mechanism during human action. The driving role of concept and situational role of textbook in language education is the further development of learners' intelligence for the purpose of developing learners' competency in language use. This study discusses cognitive psychology-based foreign language learning and instruction.

Teams’ games tournaments with cognitive conflict instruction (CCI) model to unveil students’ misconceptions

The purpose of this research is to see what physics misconceptions students have regarding heat material. This study employs a three-tier diagnostic exam designed to identify students' physics misunderstandings. 150 grade VII students from five Lamongan district state junior high schools were included in the study. Creating a closed-ended the students' responses to the cognitive conflict instruction are used to create a three-tier instrument (CCI). The findings of the research revealed that the CCI is a viable and reliable tool for detecting misunderstandings. The findings of the detection of misconceptions in participants revealed that 45 % of pupils met the mastery criteria, 35 % met the misconception criteria, and 10% met the guessing requirement.
 Keywords: Misconception, heat material, three-tier test

The effectiveness of cognitive instructions when children provide true and false eyewitness reports of another’s transgression

ABSTRACT Children’s non-disclosures of another’s wrongdoing, particularly in cases involving alleged maltreatment, is a notable concern among forensic professionals. The current study was designed to provide these professionals with much needed information about the efficacy of a range of interviewing strategies, namely free-recall, cognitive instructions and closed-ended questions, when children are asked to conceal the transgression of an adult. After being asked to falsely deny a theft they witnessed, children (ages 8 to 13; N = 104) were interviewed using either the cognitive instructions (n = 52) or a Standard Interview (n = 52). Two raters coded the children’s: (1) report honesty; (2) number of words used; (3) number of Transgression Details disclosed; (4) number of events recalled; (5) temporal order accuracy; and (6) number of theft disclosures made. Children produced longer testimonies with more Transgression Details, disclosures and events on the interview with the cognitive instructions, without compromising temporal order accuracy. However, there were no interview differences in overall report honesty. Overall, the free-recall reports had the most words, along with more Transgression Details, theft disclosures and events recalled. The reverse-order recall was the most effective cognitive instruction for increasing the amount of events recalled. Overall, the cognitive instructions increased the amount of information and disclosures about the theft, but they did not discourage false reporting.

Science Writing Intervention Research for Students With and At Risk for Learning Disabilities, and English Learners: A Systematic Review

Writing in science can be challenging for all learners, and it is especially so for students with cognitive or language-based learning difficulties. Yet, we know very little about how to support students with learning disabilities (LD) or who are English learners (EL) when asked to write for authentic purposes during science instruction. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of 14 high-quality studies to identify effective writing instruction elements for students with LD, those who are EL, and for at-risk learners more generally. We analyzed the studies according to purpose, participants, dependent variables, and interventions. Then, we categorized instructional elements into two broad types of support: (a) cognitive skills and processes and (b) linguistic skills and processes. Quantitative analyses showed students (regardless of disability or language status) who received structured cognitive instruction on text features demonstrated substantial growth in writing. Conversely, although language in science differs from everyday language, it is absent from this literature. Thus, our findings provide insights into necessary cognitive and linguistic supports for these students, and implications for designing effective writing instruction.

The Neurocircuitry Underlying Additive Effects of Safety Instruction on Extinction Learning.

Extinction learning is the dominant laboratory model for exposure therapy, a treatment involving both experience of safety near the feared object, and safety instructions relayed by a therapist. While the experiential aspect of extinction learning is well researched, less is known about instructed extinction learning and its neurocircuitry. Here, in 14 healthy participants we examined the neural correlates of, and the network interactions evoked by instructed extinction learning. Following fear conditioning to two CS+ stimuli, participants were instructed about the absence of the aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) for one of the CS+s (instructed CS; CS+I) but not the second CS+ (uninstructed CS+; CS+U). Early during extinction learning, greater activation was observed for the CS+I > CS+U contrast in regions including the vmPFC, dmPFC, vlPFC, and right parahippocampus. Subsequently, psychophysiological interaction (PPI) was applied to investigate functional connectivity of a seed in the vmPFC. This analyses revealed significant modulation of the dmPFC, parahippocampus, amygdala, and insula. Our findings suggest that the addition of cognitive instruction yields greater activation of emotion regulation and reappraisal networks during extinction learning. This work is a step in advancing laboratory paradigms that more accurately model exposure therapy and identifies regions which may be potential targets for neuromodulation to enhance psychotherapy effects.

The effectiveness of free-recall, cognitive instruction and closed-ended questions when students with and without disabilities provide eyewitness reports of another’s transgression

ABSTRACT The current study evaluated the efficacy of free-recall, cognitive instruction and closed-ended questions with students (N = 50; ages 6–18) with developmental disabilities. After watching a magic show wherein the magician made a major error, the students were asked by the magician to keep the transgression a secret. Next, students were interviewed using the Cognitive Interview (CI: free-recall, cognitive instruction and closed-ended questions) or a Standard Interview (SI: free-recall and closed-ended questions) by an unfamiliar researcher whereby their statement quality (statement consistency, veracity and disclosure forthcomingness) and quantity (number of words, transgression details and events recalled) were evaluated. The CI group disclosed significantly more total words and events than the SI group, without compromising testimony consistency; while not significant, descriptive differences in transgression details were found between interview groups. Nevertheless, there were no significant interview group differences in disclosure honesty or forthcomingness. Truth-tellers provided the most forthcoming and detailed statements on the free-recall question, irrespective of interview type. Conversely, lie-tellers rarely discussed the alleged transgression, and primarily lied on the final direct closed-ended question. These results suggest that the CI can be effective with students with developmental disabilities for increasing eyewitness memory recall.

The technology of cognitive instruction in the process of designing personality-developing education at a university

The article reveals the problem of introducing a technological approach into any transformational activity, including professional. Within the framework of solving the research problems, the inclusion in the goal-setting system of the formation of various thinking skills in the learning process is considered. The scientific work reflects fundamental research on the following problems: personal developmental learning (A.V. Petrovsky, V.V. Serikov); the influence of motivation on the effectiveness of educational activities (A.A. Leontiev, O.K. Tikhomirov, J. Usher, A.P. Preobrazhensky, O.N. Choporov). The authors also analyzed a number of scientific works on the problem of applying cognitive learning technology and methods of forming student motivation for successfully solving professional problems in his future professional activity. Within the framework of the article, provisions were proposed for the design of personal developmental training in the course of building the educational process. The authors pay special attention to the use of methods of cognitive instruction technology of transformative activity carried out by means of ICT to focus on the effective assimilation of knowledge and skills. In the conditions of personal developmental education, these methods are subject to the requirements listed in the article. The presented material shows that for active, motivated work of students, it is necessary to purposefully form and develop the motives of their activities in the educational process through the methods of cognitive instruction technology.

Students’ English Language Learning Strategy and Implication to the Teaching and Learning Activity: A Study at Health Vocational Schools (SMK Kesehatan) in Ruteng at Flores

Different theorists proposed different definition of learning strategies (Wenden, 1987, O’Malley and Chamot, 1990, Oxford, 1990). All the definitions highlighted that learning strategies are the actions taken to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferrable. The study aims to find out how Health Vocational School students in Ruteng, Flores employ learning strategies, what strategy is mostly employed and the implications of learning strategy employed to language learning and teaching which cover cognitive strategy, meta cognitive strategy and social strategy. It’s mixed method research combining the use of quantitative and qualitative study. For the purpose of quantitative study, it was chosen 123 students by using the technique of cluster random sampling, meanwhile for the purpose of qualitative data, it was chosen 12 students and three English teachers by using purposive sampling. The research result shows that students of health vocational schools in Ruteng, Flores employ medium language learning strategy for the three learning strategies studied (Cognitive strategy employed by 90,2% (111) students, meta cognitive strategy employed by 86,2%(106) students, and social strategy employed by 86,2% (106) students. Regarding learning strategy mostly employed, the most frequent strategy is cognitive strategy which gains the mean 3.33. Meanwhile, the least strategy is social strategy and it reaches the mean of 3.26. Medium learning strategy for the three strategies studied, and cognitive strategy as the most frequent strategy employed has the implication to applying teaching method which is oriented to raise up students’ cognitive strategy, adopting regularly the meta cognitive instruction in the classroom to help students improve academic achievement, and providing the opportunity for students to practice speaking English out of the classroom.

The effect of the Preparing Pequeños small-group cognitive instruction program on academic and concurrent social and behavioral outcomes in young Spanish-speaking dual-language learners

Academic achievement for young dual language learners (DLL) is a critically acknowledged problem of national significance that has been understudied. To address this shortage, this study evaluated the effectiveness of Preparing Pequeños, an integrated small-group instruction program designed to promote increased learning for Spanish speaking DLL in language, literacy, and math. The DLL in the randomized Preparing Pequeños intervention classrooms were compared to control DLL with comparable Spanish language delays and in which the school district's core curriculum was being implemented. Intervention teachers and paraprofessionals, as part of Preparing Pequeños, implemented new classroom and time management systems in order to conduct 90 min of small-group instruction four days each week across the school year. In total, 51 control and 52 intervention classrooms participated; pre-test measures were completed with 829 children, with 777 of these children also completing post-test measures (7% attrition). Results showed that intervention teachers and paraprofessionals, as compared to control, showed greater increases in most of the targeted areas of cognitive instruction (d range = 0.60–2.38) and in the use of small groups (d range = 3.32–4.46), progress monitoring (d = 0.17) to inform instruction, and team teaching (d = 1.94). Intervention children, as compared to control, showed significantly greater gains in Spanish oral language, print knowledge, phonological awareness, and phonics with small to large effect sizes (d range = 0.14–0.52). Also, potentially as a result of greater attention to children's individual needs and support for managing their behavior, intervention children, as compared to control, showed greater decreases in school avoidance, anger, and aggression with small effect sizes (d range = −0.22 to −0.29). Results are discussed in relation to the need for greater attention in teachers' training in effective approaches for small-group instruction.

A cognitive approach to teaching deictic motion verbs to German and Italian students of Spanish

AbstractIn this study we compare two instruction approaches (cognitive and traditional) to the teaching of Spanish deictic motion verbs –ir, venir, llevarandtraer– to German and Italian learners. We also analyse whether the students’ first language (Italian or German) influences the results of the cognitive methodology we applied. The Cognitive Instruction combined the basic principles of Cognitive Grammar with those of Processing Instruction for activities in which students practice both comprehension and production. We carried out a survey of 274 university students who were learning Spanish (Level B1) at universities in Italy and Germany. Students carried out a test prior to receiving the instruction and three tests subsequently, one immediately afterwards, the second a week later and the third, a month later. The cognitive methodology proved to be beneficial and positive. The students who received cognitive instruction made better form-meaning connections and showed higher performances in the use of deictic motion verbs than those who received traditional instruction. The learners’ L1 did not appear to influence the results of the groups that received the cognitive method of instruction.

The analysis of conceptual reading violations in pupils with special learning disabilities in terms of cognitive-activity approach

The article is devoted to the analysis of violations of various types of conceptual reading (scanning, reading for gist, reading for detail comprehension) in pupils with the delay of mental development (DMD). The analysis is based on the cognitive-activity approach, which allows us to consider the mechanism of understanding the text message not only as a language process, but also as a speech-thinking process, which has its own goals, means and technology. The article describes the results of the research that characterizes the manifestations and cognitive mechanisms of conceptual reading violations in pupils with specified type of dysontogenesis. There are analyzed the variable nature of the difficulties of using different strategies for processing text information in children with the delay of mental development in accordance with the communicative and cognitive task. There is characterized the connection between the violations of different types of conceptual reading in pupils with DMD and the features of the processes of goal formation, cognitive instruction.

Applying Cognitive Linguistics to teaching English prepositions in the EFL classroom

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study investigating the effect of cognitive linguistics-grounded instruction on learning the prepositions in, on, and at, which are known to pose tremendous difficulty to English language learners due to their language-specific features and polysemous nature. The participants (N = 44) were adolescent learners at a school in Indonesia. They were assigned into the cognitive group and the rule group. The cognitive group was presented with pictorial representations of the prepositions and cognitive tools used to motivate non-spatial uses, while the rule group was provided with rules. Participants’ performance on the three uses (i.e. spatial, temporal and abstract) was measured with pre-, post-, and delayed post-tests in a form of gap filling. The study yielded mixed results. The findings demonstrate that the cognitive group outperformed the rule group in the overall immediate and delayed post-tests. The cognitive group improved significantly in the immediate post-test; however, the positive effect did not last until the delayed post-test. On the other hand, the rule group gained a little in the immediate post-test, but the group’s performance decreased significantly in the delayed post-test. Although there was no indication of long-term effects of the cognitive instruction, the results still indicate a value of applying cognitive linguistics to teaching the prepositions, and thus lend support to the applicability of cognitive linguistic theory in second language instruction.

Differences in the Control of Unconstrained Three-Dimensional Arm Motions of the Dominant and the Nondominant Arm.

For the dominant limb, a velocity-dependent change in rotational axes during the kinesthetic control of unconstrained 3D arm rotations was reported, and thus the question arises if this can be reproduced for the nondominant arm. The rotation axes considered are the axes of minimum inertia (e3), the shoulder-center of mass axis (SH-CM), and the shoulder-elbow axis (SH-EL). The objective of this study was to examine whether the minimum inertia axis would constrain internal-external rotations of the shoulder at fast velocity. Participants performed cyclic rotations of their arms in 2 sensory conditions and at 2 velocities. The elbow configurations were either set to 90° or 140° to yield a constant separation between e3, SH-CM, and SH-EL. Our results showed that the limb's rotational axis coincide with the SH-EL axis across velocity conditions, although higher variability was seen at higher velocity. This was true for both the dominant and the nondominant arm. Together, the results showed that cognitive instruction prevented a velocity-dependent rotation axis change toward e3 and/or SH-CM, as proposed in the minimum inertia principle.

Liu’s Polytomous Item Relational Structure Theory Based on Q-Matrix Theory

In this paper, an improved polytomous item relational structure theory based on Q-matrix theory is proposed, using Tatsuoka’s Q-matrix theory, we can construct the test with all efficient items which are fitting in with the given relational structure of cognitive attributes, and then, before the test, using Liu’s before-test item ordering theory, an ideal relational structural graph of itemscan be constructed, and the real efficient items can be obtained accordingly. After testing the students, an after-test structure of items can be estimated by using the Liu’s polytomous item relational structure theory. Furthermore, using Liu’s criterion related validity index, we can evaluate the estimated item relational structure of the test, and the results could be useful for cognitive diagnosis and remedial instruction.