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In two studies, students' difficulties in using multiple external representations were effectively addressed. In a first explorative study (N ¼ 16), we investigated the allocation of visual attention (as assessed by gaze data) on external representations, its relation to learning and learners' beliefs on the representations' functions. Results confirmed that students were not aware of the functions. In a subsequent experiment (N ¼ 30), we analysed effects of informing students about the function of diagrams in worked examples on learning, mediating effects of visual attention and moderating effects of prior knowledge. The instruction had strong effects on learning, which were partially mediated by visual attention. Prior knowledge moderated both, the effects of the instruction on visual attention and of visual attention on learning. Implications for research into multiple representations and instructional design are discussed.

Recently, there have been efforts to rethink assessment. Instead of informing about (relatively stable) learner characteristics, assessment should assist instruction by looking at the learning process, facilitating feedback about what students' next step in learning could be. Similarly, new forms of strategy assessment aim at capturing self-regulated learning as it happens. One potential method for such assessment is the learning journal. We analyzed whether (a) quantity and (b) quality of learning strategies assessed by learning journals predict learning outcomes, and (c) whether differently successful combinations of strategies can be identified. In Study 1, 9th graders of medium-track high schools (N = 236) wrote learning journals in mathematics during 6 weeks. Foremost, quality and quantity of cognitive strategies predicted learning outcomes, controlling for prior knowledge. Learners who combined cognitive plus metacognitive strategies were particularly successful. Learners who mainly used 1 type of strategy performed similarly poorly as did learners who hardly used strategies. Study 2 in the domain of biology learning (N = 144) essentially replicated these findings. In summary, learning journals are a useful and innovative method for assessing learning strategies.

Prior research has shown that tutored problem solving with intelligent software tutors is an effective instructional method, and that worked examples are an effective complement to this kind of tutored problem solving. The work on the expertise reversal effect suggests that it is desirable to tailor the fading of worked examples to individual students' growing expertise levels. One lab and one classroom experiment were conducted to investigate whether adaptively fading worked examples in a tutored problem-solving environment can lead to higher learning gains. Both studies compared a standard Cognitive Tutor with two example-enhanced versions, in which the fading of worked examples occurred either in a fixed manner or in a manner adaptive to individual students' understanding of the examples. Both experiments provide evidence of improved learning results from adaptive fading over fixed fading over problem solving. We discuss how to further optimize the fading procedure matching each individual student's changing knowledge level.