…Truth [is] being involved in an eternal conversation about things that matter, conducted with passion and discipline…truth is not in the conclusions so much as in the process of conversation itself…if you want to be in truth you must be in conversation. Parker Palmer

The objectives of the study were to conduct a series of observations and experiments under as real-life a situation as possible related to: (i) user context of questions in information retrieval; (ii) the structure and classification of questions; (iii) cognitive traits and decision making of searchers; and (iv) different searches of the same question. The study is presented in three parts: Part I presents the background ot the study and describes the models, measures, methods, procedures, and statistical analyses used. Part II is devoted to results related to users, questions, and effectiveness measures, and Part III to results related to searchers, searches, and overlap studies. A concluding summary of all results is presented in Part III. introduction Problem, Motivation, Significance Users and their questions are fundamental to all kinds of information systems, and human decisions and humansystem interactions are by far the most important variables in processes dealing with searching for and retrieval of information. These statements are true to the point of being trite. Nevertheless, it is nothing but short of amazing how relatively little knowledge and understanding in a scientific sense we have about these factors. Information retrieval

This paper is based on the premises that the purpose of engineering education is to graduate engineers who can design, and that design thinking is complex. The paper begins by briefly reviewing the history and role of design in the engineering curriculum. Several dimensions of design thinking are then detailed, explaining why design is hard to learn and harder still to teach, and outlining the research available on how well design thinking skills are learned. The currently most-favored pedagogical model for teaching design, project-based learning (PBL), is explored next, along with available assessment data on its success. Two contexts for PBL are emphasized: first-year cornerstone courses and globally dispersed PBL courses. Finally, the paper lists some of the open research questions that must be answered to identify the best pedagogical practices of improving design learning, after which it closes by making recommendations for research aimed at enhancing design learning.

exploratory learning with games and simulations within the curriculum be most effectively evaluated? Computers and Education 46 (3) 249-264. This is an author-produced version of a paper published in Computers and Education (ISSN 0360-1315). This version has been peer-reviewed, but does not include the final publisher proof corrections, published layout, or pagination. The published version is available to subscribers at

Students have different levels of motivation, different attitudes about teaching and learning, and different responses to specific classroom environments and instructional practices. The more thoroughly instructors understand the differences, the better chance they have of meeting the diverse learning needs of all of their students. Three categories of diversity that have been shown to have important implications for teaching and learning are differences in students ’ learning styles (characteristic ways of taking in and processing information), approaches to learning (surface, deep, and strategic), and intellectual development levels (attitudes about the nature of knowledge and how it should be acquired and evaluated). This article reviews models that have been developed for each of these categories, outlines their pedagogical implications, and suggests areas for further study.

Previous studies have demonstrated the learning benefit of personalized language and worked examples. However, previous investigators have primarily been interested in how these interventions support students as they problem solve with no other cognitive support. We hypothesized that personalized language added to a web-based intelligent tutor and worked examples provided as complements to the tutor would improve student (e- )learning. However, in a 2 x 2 factorial study, we found that personalization and worked examples had no significant effects on learning. On the other hand, there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest across all conditions, suggesting that the online intelligent tutor present in all conditions did make a difference in learning. We conjecture why personalization and, especially, the worked examples did not have the hypothesized effect in this preliminary experiment, and discuss a new study we have begun to further investigate these effects.

In this paper, successful approaches to teaching undergraduate physics and engineering students using strategies developed from two independent learning style models will be described. The first learning style model to be described is the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model. The Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model is employed with non-science majors enrolled in introductory physics at American University. The second model to be described is the Kolb Learning Style Model. The Kolb Learning Style Model is incorporated into the design of Counselor Tutorial (CT) courses for freshman engineering students at Purdue University. The basic elements of these two learning style models will be compared and contrasted. Teaching approaches designed to accommodate students' learning style preferences will be shared. These approaches include teaching and learning techniques that can be used in and out of the classroom. In particular, techniques utilizing these learning style models that have been effective in teaching students in large classes will be outlined. Ideas and approaches that have been successful with two distinctly different populations of students will be shared. These approaches can easily be adapted for use by educators in other branches of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET) education.

This research monograph examines the potential of constructivist learning environments for developing prerequisites of expert knowledge during university studies. Drawing on recent theories of the development of expert knowledge and on the constructivist view of learning, an experiment was conducted in an educational psychology course. The primary purpose of the study was to compare the learning outcomes of students who studied the course material in a constructivist learning environment with those of students who learned it under traditional teaching and studying conditions. Students in the constructivist learning environment acquired more diversi"ed knowledge. In addition, a theory will be presented about what actually changes when conceptual change occurs. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract. This paper describes a study in which individual learner models were built for students and presented to them with a choice of view. Students found it useful, and not confusing to be shown multiple representations of their knowledge, and individuals exhibited different preferences for which view they favoured. No link was established between these preferences and the students’ learning styles. We describe the implications of these results for intelligent tutoring systems where interaction with the open learner model is individualised. 1

This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adaptive educational hypermedia (AEH) systems that is currently under investigation by the EU ADAPT project. Within this project, design dimensions for high granularity patterns have been established. In this paper we focus on detailing lower granularity adaptive patterns based upon learning styles. Several patterns from existing AEH system case studies are identified and classified according to an extended learning style "onion " model. This model forms the basis of a learning style taxonomy, introduced here, whose components determine adaptation patterns for AEH. These patterns are of importance both for authoring, as well as for interfacing between adaptive hypermedia systems. From an authoring point of view, these patterns may be used to establish a fine-grain approach to instructional strategies that can be implemented in AEH systems, as a response to a particular learning style. The implementation of this adaptation pattern taxonomy is discussed, both generally and in detail.