Research on learning engagement and cognitive load theory have proceeded in parallel with little cross-over of ideas. The aim of this research was to test an integrative model that examines how prior knowledge influences learning engagement via cognitive load and help-seeking strategies. A sample of 356 students from two middle schools in the north of China participated in the study. Analyses using structural equation modeling revealed that prior knowledge was positively associated with learning engagement, and that this relationship was mediated by cognitive load and instrumental help-seeking. Cognitive load also mediated the impact of prior knowledge on instrumental helpseeking, executive help-seeking and avoidance of help-seeking. The study shows that students with more prior knowledge and lower cognitive load are able to exercise higher levels of instrumental help-seeking, leading to good quality learning engagement. On the other hand, students with less prior knowledge and higher cognitive load are less able to engage in instrumental help-seeking, leading to lower engagement. Based on the research findings, recommendations for how teachers can improve learning engagement through decreasing cognitive load are discussed.

Serious gaming has been regarded as one of the important student-centric learning approaches in the coming decade. However, there has been a lack of in-depth discussion of the teacher role in the course of serious gaming when it is adopted in formal schooling. The study discussed in this paper is a piece of two-cycle design-based research, involving three teachers respectively from top, middle and bottom academic banding schools in Hong Kong and their Grade 11 classes in two consecutive school years (197 students in total). In the context of formal curriculum learning and teaching, we (researchers) collaborated with the teachers (practitioners) to investigate (design, enact, analyse and redesign) what and how they should do in order to optimise their students' serious gaming process and advance the pedagogic effectiveness of serious gaming in different classroom settings.