In this study, we considered how middle school teachers understood the relationship between fractions and ratios. We used two instruments to collect data from 11 teachers and relied on Knowledge in Pieces as a lens for considering understandings teachers have and how coherent those understandings are. From our analysis, we developed three main…

Fifteen elementary and secondary teacher candidates solved sixteen integer addition and subtraction problems during think-aloud interviews. Investigators further probed participants' solution strategies as well as what they noticed first when starting a new problem. Task analyses of participants' solutions led to the creation of two distinct maps…

By using ill-structured problems and examining problem- solving processes, this study was conducted to explore the nature of solving complex, multistep problems, focusing on how prior knowledge, problem-solving process utilization, and analogical problem solving are related to success. Twenty-four college students qualified to participate by…

The possibility of developing a learning theory that is designed to insure its relevance to educational problems is discussed. It is suggested that the constitutive problem for an educational psychology of learning is how one learns things that are difficult to learn. Behaviorist learning theories fail almost entirely to explain why anything is…

This study investigated the musical thinking of two composers through the use of concurrent protocol analysis and examinined their problems, funded experience, and reflective thinking. The objective was to determine the extent to which there is an observed or implicit paradigm of reflective thinking in the thinking of a practicing composer. The…

A study investigated the composing process to examine why different types of instruction have different effects on composing products. The study contrasted three treatments: (1) presenting students with models (the traditional method); (2) the general procedures approach stressing freethinking process; and (3) a method stressing task-specific…

Whether high levels of metacognitive knowledge about problem solving can compensate for low overall aptitude was studied for 31 high-aptitude and 25 low-aptitude children in grades 4 and 5. Results confirming superior performance of high metacognitive individuals are discussed in terms of the independence of metacognition and academic aptitude.…

A study in college-level English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction investigated (1) whether or not there is any relationship between the strategic use of explicit grammar knowledge, including metalinguistic concepts, in an attempt to recognize error, and the actual correction of error and success in academic ESL; (2) whether or not certain…

This study examined students' active roles in constructing knowledge when learning new information in the domain of biological evolution. A computer-based connectionist methodology was developed to provide a way to present students with new information while the experimenter provides probe statements congruent with or contradictory to the…