Creativity is a task-specific construct that exhibits diverse characteristics depending on the context it operates in. Currently, there is little consensus on how creativity can be defined and taught within STEM education. In this study, mathematics teachers' beliefs about STEM creativity and their pedagogical approaches to teaching creativity…

This paper reports on early years teachers and how often they should devote planning time to anticipating student responses in advance of the lesson. Sixty-five Foundation to Year 2 teachers (students 5-8 years of age) completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of a year-long research-based professional development program. Participants…

In the present study, we tested the hypotheses that: a) there are individual differences in secondary students' conceptual and procedural fraction knowledge, and b) these differences are predicted by students' approach (deep vs. surface) to mathematics learning. We used two instruments developed and evaluated for the purposes of the study which…

Online planning of good teaching sequences has the potential to provide a truly personalized teaching experience with a huge impact on the motivation and learning of students. In this work we compare two main approaches to achieve such a goal, POMDPs that can find an optimal long-term path, and Multi-armed bandits that optimize policies locally…

Within the context of complex cognitive processing and educational interventions, Woolfolk (2016) makes reference to problem solving acquisition, problem solving retention, and problem solving transfer. In each of the aforementioned types of problem solving activities, problem identification and problem representation (reflecting procedural…

Although ITSs are supposed to adapt to differences among learners, so far, little attention has been paid to how they might adapt to differences in how students learn from help. When students study with an Intelligent Tutoring System, they may receive multiple types of help, but may not comprehend and make use of this help in the same way. To…

Infants' exploration of their environment has been considered by Piaget and others to provide a vehicle for cognitive development. Little research, however, has examined in detail what infants actually do while exploring or how exploratory behavior is related to other aspects of cognitive functioning. The present investigation was designed to…

Possible sex differences in risk-taking behavior were investigated in two experiments. In the first experiment, 15 men and 15 women played 12 hands of blackjack against a computer. A two-factor ANOVA with repeated measures on the outcome factor revealed no differences for main or interaction effects. In the second experiment 10 female and 10 male…

Behaviors that characterize play with convergent and divergent materials and the effects of play on convergent and divergent problem solving were examined in this study. Seventy-two 3- and 4-year-old children were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) play with convergent materials; (2) play with divergent materials; and (3) non-play control.…

The primary goal of this discussion is to summarize research on the role of expertise in accounting for individual differences in analogical problem solving among college students. The discussion also relates expertise differences to current theorizing in the developmental literature that concerns analogical reasoning in children. Contents focus…

Lev Vygotsky maintained that historical and cultural aspects of development started from the point at which humans could first be distinguished from apes. It is critical to consider the dialectical relationship between the individual and the cultural environment in which the child actively masters cultural behavior. Interaction with others…

Preschool children's problem-solving strategies on structured and unstructured number tasks were compared in this study. Participants were 20 four-years-olds and 20 five-year-olds. Each child was administered a number conservation, addition and subtraction, and division task. The addition and subtraction task contained trials which were designed…

A study attempting to disclose dilemmas encountered by university professors as a means of better understanding their inner world is discussed. The nature of these dilemmas is investigated via the thinking aloud technique. Twelve subjects were asked to think aloud about dilemmas they encountered in their work, and the flow of thoughts was…

To investigate the relationship of differences in 2-year-old children's reactions to strangers to differences in their temperaments and their security of attachment with their mothers, a correlational study was conducted with 47 infants and their parents. In the first component of the study, both parents completed a child temperament rating…

This paper takes the position that theories about individual differences in childhood and theories about cognitive development both would be enhanced if the two lines of research were integrated. The heuristic value of this position is illustrated in the context of analogical reasoning tasks. A general model of analogy solution and potential…