In this article, a methodology for utilizing eight Thinking Maps that are linked to a cognitive taxonomy will be explored. Firstly, the various taxonomies focusing on cognitive processes will be elaborated upon, namely Bloom’s Taxonomy as well as Barret’s Taxonomy that is used in the education system. Following this, the article will explore the questioning strategy that links questions to either taxonomy and how this strategy is currently employed in classrooms worldwide. A section then elucidates the eight Thinking Maps and what types of thought processes are associated with each map. A methodology will be discussed that links the eight Thinking Maps to verbs that are all associated with the previously mentioned taxonomies. Finally, an adaptive systematic methodology will be elaborated upon, linking to the information processing theory.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a large-scale assessment of 15-year-old students’ achievements in three broad areas: Reading, science, and mathematics. PISA results are widely used in discussions on various educational aspects, such as educational policy, quality of education, and teaching methods. Although PISA started in 2000, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) participated for the first time in 2018. The core subject for the 2018 circle of testing was reading. Thus, the goal of the present article was to examine the effects of metacognitive strategies on the reading achievement of students in BIH. The sample for this analysis was composed of 5,482 students (2,701 female and 2,781 male students). The results showed that metacognitive strategies had a significant effect on reading achievement. We conclude the article with some remarks on how teachers can employ metacognitive strategies in their everyday practice and thus increase their students’ reading achievement.

This qualitative study aimed to examine: 1) the manner in which kindergarten children and first graders make sense of the term “area” regarding optimization problems; 2) how this manner is manifested in their decision-making and “STEAM” (science, technology, engineering, art and math) skills; 3) how kindergarten children and first graders comprehend the concept of “cover maximal area.” Six kindergarten children and six first graders participated in the study.

To investigate the children’s knowledge objectification, a multi-semiotic data analysis was conducted; to investigate the children’s decision making an optimal model of a metacognitive process for individuals served us. Our findings indicate that all the children’s knowledge objectification process included three stages: visual, contextual, and symbolic. In the visual stage, children focused on gathering data while demonstrating basic “STEAM” skills. In the contextual stage, they focused on ergotic gestures, planned how they would cover the area using strategies of symmetry and overlapping, and demonstrated engineering and mathematics skills. The symbolic stage was demonstrated by symbolic gestures, self-evaluation, self-feedback, and mathematical skills.

The findings indicate that numeracy and geometric intuition underlie kindergarten children’s and first graders’ perception of the term “cover maximal area” and that this can and should be developed by providing geometry-based optimization activities particularly in kindergarten both when teaching mathematics in general and for STEAM subjects in particular.

How much people believe that they understand information, so-called metacomprehension, is important for education. This ability to discriminate between well-learned versus not well-learned information is important to allow the student to decide which areas need further understanding. Feedback can affect metacomprehension and is important for guiding student self-regulated learning. The effects of taking an assessment and finding out the score on self-rated understanding, interest, and knowledge were measured. Participants sampled via MTurk were randomly allocated to one of three groups using Qualtrics in-built randomizer, with the restriction of equal numbers in conditions. The three groups were asked metacomprehension questions: a) after reading a passage but before taking an assessment (Pre-Test group); b) after taking an assessment but before being told their score (Post-Test group); and c) after hearing their score (Post-Feedback group). Responses for understanding and interest substantially decreased between those asked these questions before receiving the feedback versus those asked after receiving the feedback. These self-ratings were also used to predict scores on a later assessment and were similar in their diagnostic value for all conditions.

One major view as to the mechanism underlying metaphor interpretation is that it is based on relational-structure consistency (a.k.a. analogy) between target and vehicle. This entails a possibility of varying levels of stringency of analogical processing by individuals. This can be viewed as metaphor literacy. The study, involving 77 Indonesian college students, investigates the extent to which metaphor interpretations made by early-adult native speakers are analogically grounded. The study used eight metaphors selected through a familiarity-rating survey of 37 metaphoric expressions taken from printed media sources. The results showed that, for each metaphor, there was an average of 12.1 different suggestions (S.D. ranging from 4.2 to 9.7) and that 72.2% of the interpretations were categorized as not being strongly grounded on relational-structure consistency. The study suggests that the looseness of the interpretations can be accounted to either the subjects’ preference for not being stringent in observing analogical processing or their being unaccustomed to an analogical manner of metaphor interpretation.

This article addresses the problem of “education for all,” and offers a research proposal that replaces procedural learning by a learning practice whereby all are engaged. Although educational research since 1990 of dialogical learning (DL) and collaborative learning (CL) have shown that it is possible to promote the learning practices that they focus on, little evidence is available on long-term effects of school achievement. Teachers also face pressure from both the UK and USA governments having produced policy documents favouring procedural teaching. An exception is CASE, Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (1984 onwards), and a 2-year course for 12–14 year-olds. This functioned by collaborative learning placed in highly structured theory-based science lessons based on Piagetian models of difficulty. Students consistently performed higher in National exams in science, maths and English at 16 (Shayer, 1999b). It is argued that a better way of changing teaching practice would be to place it in teachers’ initial training. By assisting trainee science teachers, in designing their science curriculum lessons—assisted by DL and CL literature—to extract and use the same theory-base that had been used by CA staff for constructing CASE lessons, they would possess a valid theory and practice of teaching.

This article discusses the role of the three components of executive functions (EF) in geometric understanding. Discussing several examples of geometry problems, this article shows how EF are actively employed to solve geometry problems. Inhibition as the first component of EF helps the individual to suppress contextually irrelevant information. This strengthen the degree of focus on what is relevant to the problem being solved. In some geometry problems, the individual needs to rotate or manipulate shapes in her/his mind. Working memory as the second component of EF keeps a mental image of various positions of the rotating shape before rotation, after rotation, and during rotation. Keeping a clear mental image of these positions and comparing them with each other could facilitate the process of relating inferences to each other throughout the process of solving a geometry problem. Cognitive flexibility as the third component of EF helps the individual in the process of shift of attention between various parts of geometric shapes. Finally, it is suggested that the components of EF are in active collaboration with other cognitive resources such as the motor system in the process of solving geometry problems.

The development of executive functions (EF) in bilingual children with a specific learning disorder (SLD) is a growing area of research interest. Our objective is to study the development of EF in Lebanese children with typical development (TD) and presenting SLD, in the primary grades (Grades 2, 3, and 4). Ninety TD and ninety SLD children, in Grade 2, 3, and 4, were recruited in Lebanese public and private schools. Inhibition, working memory (WM), flexibility and planning were evaluated through the following tests: Image matching test, Numbers retention test in backward order, Corsi block tapping test, Opposite Worlds test, Categorization test (Animal Sorting), and LABY 5–12 test. When comparing the two groups of children in terms of inhibition and WM, the statistical tests show significantly that SLD children are more impulsive than TD children and have a lower visuospatial and verbal WM. SLD children are also slower than TD children in the Opposite Worlds test that assesses flexibility. Similarly, the planning capacity is lower in SLD children compared to TD children. All results improved across grades. This work can explain the cognitive components related to learning, for a better management of specific learning disorders.

In order to assess the accuracy and validity of proficiency diagnostic tests in Second Language (L2), specifically regarding the linguistic (orthographic, semantic, syntactic, lexical) and cognitive (verbal reasoning, lexical decision) components for the immigrant population in Portugal, a study of cut-off points of 6 tests was conducted. This study was motivated by the unknown tests and the gap concerning the testing and rating of individuals in L2 settings, different from English as L2. The objective was to validate and inform about new tests (and how to establish rating scores and understand the proficiency level of students) in Second Language Testing (for European Portuguese) especially concerning different psychometrics for specific skills (e.g., phonemic blending). In this way, we contribute to identify new procedures for schools and professionals about testing of cognitive functions in immigrant populations. First, we examined 108 non-native students attending Portuguese schools, aged 7–17 years, speakers of mother tongues other than Portuguese and residing in Portugal for a period not exceeding eight years. Then, series of univariate analyses, non-parametric tests and the calculation of percentiles enabled the subsequent classification of the subjects’ proficiency levels: With or without proficiency. Several levels were identified. The sensitivity and specificity indexes were calculated using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis to define the cut-off points for each test. The score calculation took into account the chronological age, age of immigration and gender variables. The evidence from this study suggests that all tasks are suitable to assess immigrant students. However with the ROC analysis, this assessment differs regarding degrees of proficiency between groups given the characteristics of the tasks and of the subjects. The importance of doing tests with discriminatory power of the subjects’ performance to be able to intervene in the linguistic and cognitive areas with the greatest deficit is examined here.

Adaptive serious mathematical games in kindergarten were used to investigate whether kindergarteners could grasp mathematics topics. A pretest–posttest-follow up design with two conditions. (Condition 1 educational kindergarten games on the computer, focusing on counting and comparison, Condition 2 educational kindergarten games on the computer, focusing on memory, counting and comparison) and one active control group (playing educational kindergarten games without mathematical content) was set up dealing with 45 preschoolers with a mean age of 68.78 months (SD = 4.46). Children were matched in kindergarten on their early mathematical and language skills as well as on their intelligence before the interventions took place. The study revealed that playing mathematical games in kindergarten had the potential to enhance the early mathematical skills. Children with initial weak mathematical skills in kindergarten caught up with their average performing peers, pointing to the importance of serious numerical games as “opportunities” in kindergarten. Both boys and girls benefitted, with a sustained effect in grade 1, revealing promising potential effects of offering opportunities to focus on mathematics even in very young children.