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Can teaching assistants improve attainment and attitudes of low performing pupils in numeracy? Evidence from a large-scale randomised controlled trial (2022)
Journal Article
Hodgen, J., Adkins, M., & Ainsworth, S. E. (2023). Can teaching assistants improve attainment and attitudes of low performing pupils in numeracy? Evidence from a large-scale randomised controlled trial. Cambridge Journal of Education, 53(2), 215-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2022.2093838

The use of teaching assistants (TAs) is widespread in many education systems, but the ways that TAs can support learning effectively are poorly understood. Much evidence indicates that most TA support has no, or negative, effects on pupil attainment.... Read More about Can teaching assistants improve attainment and attitudes of low performing pupils in numeracy? Evidence from a large-scale randomised controlled trial.

Learning About Viruses: Representing Covid-19 (2022)
Journal Article
Manches, A., & Ainsworth, S. (2022). Learning About Viruses: Representing Covid-19. Frontiers in Education, 6, Article 736744. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.736744

Covid-19 has significantly impacted children’s lives, requiring them to process multiple messages with significant emotional, social, and behavioural implications. Yet, the vast majority of these messages solely focus on behaviour. This is an oversig... Read More about Learning About Viruses: Representing Covid-19.

Using dialogic interventions to decrease children’s use of inappropriate teleological explanations (2021)
Journal Article
Halls, J. G., Ainsworth, S. E., & Oliver, M. C. (2021). Using dialogic interventions to decrease children’s use of inappropriate teleological explanations. International Journal of Science Education, 43(11), 1817-1836. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2021.1936271

A belief in teleology is often suggested to be a barrier in children’s science education. Many studies have catalogued children’s use of teleological explanations, but fewer have developed approaches to tackle children’s use in scientific contexts. T... Read More about Using dialogic interventions to decrease children’s use of inappropriate teleological explanations.

Learning by Drawing Visual Representations: Potential, Purposes, and Practical Implications (2021)
Journal Article
Ainsworth, S. E., & Scheiter, K. (2021). Learning by Drawing Visual Representations: Potential, Purposes, and Practical Implications. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 30(1), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721420979582

The technique of drawing to learn has received increasing attention in recent years. In this article, we will present distinct purposes for using drawing that are based on active, constructive, and interactive forms of engagement. In doing so, we hop... Read More about Learning by Drawing Visual Representations: Potential, Purposes, and Practical Implications.

Sketching to support visual learning with interactive tutorials (2020)
Journal Article
Kohnle, A., Ainsworth, S. E., & Passante, G. (2020). Sketching to support visual learning with interactive tutorials. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 16(2), Article 020139. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.020139

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] This manuscript discusses how learning theories have been applied to shape multiple aspects of the design of curricular activities combining interactive com... Read More about Sketching to support visual learning with interactive tutorials.

“Now move like that fish”: Can enactment help learners come to understand dynamic motion presented in photographs and videos? (2020)
Journal Article
Scheiter, K., Brucker, B., & Ainsworth, S. (2020). “Now move like that fish”: Can enactment help learners come to understand dynamic motion presented in photographs and videos?. Computers and Education, 155, Article 103934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103934

Technological advancements offer new possibilities of interacting with learning materials, including the use of gestures and body movements. The present study addressed the question of how using one’s body to enact movements whilst learning about the... Read More about “Now move like that fish”: Can enactment help learners come to understand dynamic motion presented in photographs and videos?.

Professional vision in fashion design: practices and views of teachers and learners (2018)
Journal Article
Caruso, V., Cattaneo, A., Gurtner, J., & Ainsworth, S. (2019). Professional vision in fashion design: practices and views of teachers and learners. Vocations and Learning, 12(1), 47–65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-018-09216-7

Professional vision is a key skill in visually-oriented professions, but its relevance to vocational education and training has only drawn limited attention from researchers. When educating fashion designers, professional vision is vital because prec... Read More about Professional vision in fashion design: practices and views of teachers and learners.

Young children’s impressionable use of teleology: the influence of question wording and questioned topic on teleological explanations for natural phenomena (2018)
Journal Article
Halls, J., Ainsworth, S. E., & Oliver, M. (2018). Young children’s impressionable use of teleology: the influence of question wording and questioned topic on teleological explanations for natural phenomena. International Journal of Science Education, 40(7), 808-826. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2018.1451008

There is a significant body of research on children's preconceptions concerning scientific concepts and the impact this has upon their science education. One active issue concerns the extent to which young children's explanations for the existence of... Read More about Young children’s impressionable use of teleology: the influence of question wording and questioned topic on teleological explanations for natural phenomena.

Multi-modal, multi-source reading: a multi-representational reader’s perspective (2018)
Journal Article
Ainsworth, S. E. (2018). Multi-modal, multi-source reading: a multi-representational reader’s perspective. Learning and Instruction, 57, 71-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.01.014

In this commentary, I review the five articles that comprise the Special Issue titled ‘Towards a model of multi-source, multi-modal processing”. The papers are discussed in terms of how they help us understand the “second generational” issues of read... Read More about Multi-modal, multi-source reading: a multi-representational reader’s perspective.

Why Sketching May Aid Learning From Science Texts: Contrasting Sketching With Written Explanations (2017)
Journal Article
Scheiter, K., Schleinschok, K., & Ainsworth, S. E. (2017). Why Sketching May Aid Learning From Science Texts: Contrasting Sketching With Written Explanations. Topics in Cognitive Science, 9(4), 866-882. https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12261

Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc. The goal of this study was to explore two accounts for why sketching during learning from text is helpful: (1) sketching acts like other constructive strategies such as self-explanation because it help... Read More about Why Sketching May Aid Learning From Science Texts: Contrasting Sketching With Written Explanations.

Personal inquiry: orchestrating science investigations within and beyond the classroom (2014)
Journal Article
Sharples, M., Scanlon, E., Ainsworth, S. E., Anastopoulou, S., Collins, T., Crook, C., …O’Malley, C. (2015). Personal inquiry: orchestrating science investigations within and beyond the classroom. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 24(2), 308-341. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2014.944642

A central challenge for science educators is to enable young people to act as scientists by gathering and assessing evidence, conducting experiments, and engaging in informed debate. We report the design of the nQuire toolkit, a system to support scr... Read More about Personal inquiry: orchestrating science investigations within and beyond the classroom.

Depicting the tree of life in museums: guiding principles from psychological research (2014)
Journal Article
Novick, L. R., Pickering, J., MacDonald, T., Diamond, J., Ainsworth, S. E., Aquino, A. E., …Scott, M. (2014). Depicting the tree of life in museums: guiding principles from psychological research. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 7, Article 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-014-0025-0

The Tree of Life is revolutionizing our understanding of life on Earth, and, accordingly, evolutionary trees are increasingly important parts of exhibits on biodiversity and evolution. The authors argue that in using these trees to effectively commun... Read More about Depicting the tree of life in museums: guiding principles from psychological research.

Do student perceptions of teaching predict the development of representational competence and biological knowledge? (2014)
Journal Article
Nitz, S., Ainsworth, S. E., Nerdel, C., & Prechtl, H. (2014). Do student perceptions of teaching predict the development of representational competence and biological knowledge?. Learning and Instruction, 31, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2013.12.003

Dealing with representations is a crucial skill for students and such representational competence is essential for learning science. This study analysed the relationship between representational competence and content knowledge, student perceptions... Read More about Do student perceptions of teaching predict the development of representational competence and biological knowledge?.