The mission of the group is to create models of learning, knowledge, and performance that apply to learning across many educational levels and subject areas, and to use these models to improve instruction. We focus particularly on innovative approaches that emphasize discourse communication, problem solving, cooperative learning and coaching support for students, and the use of networked multimedia computers as tools for facilitating these kinds of learning. As an applied cognitive science research unit, our research is concerned with specifying knowledge and the complex cognitive skills associated with knowledge, its comprehension, representation, and communication (in a first or second language); its application in reasoning and problem-solving tasks; and its acquisition and use by students and experts in authentic domains and contexts.