Engineering designers often generate multiple concepts to increase novelty and diversity among early solution candidates. Many past studies have focused on creating new concepts "from scratch;" however, designers at every level become fixated on their initial designs and struggle to generate different ideas. In line with prior work on…

Broad exploration is often the best way to solve complex problems because the best solution might not come to mind first. Consequently, creative thinking, like simulated annealing, begins with a "hot" exploratory phase of broad solution search and gradually "cools" to exploitation and narrowing the search space. In solving…

Recent voices in creativity research emphasize the vital role that processes of active engagement and interaction play. These distributed, interactivity-based, and ecological accounts critique the reduction of creativity to mental mechanisms and eschew the methodological individualism that underlies this view. Instead, they elevate socio-material…

An equal-armed balance at equilibrium--the bar is horizontal--tips into disequilibrium upon displacing a weight. Equilibrium is restored by reversing that move--putting the weight back where it was, or doing the same on the other side. Piaget adopted the idea of equilibration to describe how the intellect, in relating to the world, develops.…

Two approaches to the process of guided discovery learning are compared for their impacts on concept understanding. One, referred to as design, emphasizes invention and draws on the simulation literature. The other, referred to as case analysis, focuses on discovery and draws on the case-based reasoning literature. Following a lecture on four…

The impulse to investigate the natural world is deeply rooted in our earliest childhood experiences. This notion has long guided researchers to uncover the cognitive mechanisms underlying the development of scientific reasoning in children. Until recently, however, research in cognitive development and education followed largely independent…

This article is a commentary on TM 501 927 by the authors of the study "Classification and Seriation Instruction and Logical Task Performance in Preschool." (DEP)

To participate in the increase and dissemination of knowledge about children, the researcher must accept the problem of seeking to become a child again, to re-find discovery and inquiry without their metaphysical underpinnings and conventional opinions. An extended anecdote illustrates one way the author attempted to do this. (MJB)

This article is a rejoinder to TM 501 928. (DEP)

Numerous mathematical examples are presented which illustrate and raise questions about students' tendencies to overgeneralize. (BB)

Remarks are focused on two of the findings of a study carried out by Bingham-Newman and Hooper in "Classification and Seriation Instruction and Logical Task Performance in Preschool."

Presented is a paradigm for science education research. The paradigm advances the reception learning theory, where regularities to be learned are presented explicitly to the learner. A tool for the study of knowledge production in science education, the Gowin "V," is presented. (RE)

The article emphasizes the importance of the teacher listening to the student's questions and problems in math classes in order to understand exactly what the student is misunderstanding. (CD)

Argues that there should be no equation between modern methods of teaching science and discovery methods, suggesting that the emphasis on discovery has resulted from confused thinking among science educators. Also, describes research-based developments promising better theoretical/practical perspectives for improved science teaching, focusing on…