With digitisation and the rise of e-learning have come a range of computational tools and approaches that have allowed educators to better support the learners' experience in schools, colleges and universities. The move away from traditional paper-based course materials, registration, admissions and support services to the mobile, always-on and…

Examines the relationship between identity style and the need for cognition, openness to experience, and introspection. Results indicated that self-reported use of a cogitative information-oriented style was related to two factors: information-seeking variables, and self-reflective tendencies. Norm-oriented individuals tend to protect themselves…

The knowledge era demands that students and faculty analyze and organize information, which requires intellectual skills rooted in critical thinking, problem solving, formal operations, creative, and more recent metacognitive and cognitive concepts. These skills seem to have operations in common, including description, selection, representation,…

Good feedback from a consultant is evidence-based insight into the good, bad, and indifferent aspects of the work being done. The college administrator needs to prepare for hearing and acting on it. Receiving feedback is difficult, but handling it well is critical to the ultimate effectiveness of change. (Author/MSE)

Examines the extent to which the inability to translate decisionally relevant information into matrix form and knowledge about decision rule use act as impediments to consistent choice-making. Indicates that instruction, in decision matrix construction and decision rule application, increases students' decision making consistency. (JK)

A cognitive study examined expertise in managerial problem solving. Research questions asked what types of managerial knowledge do experts and novices use in representing and solving problems, and how do knowledge types develop over time? The 115 participants were divided into 9 levels of expertise: first through fourth year students in the…

Examines the attitudes of physics instructors on how and when students should be allowed access to textbook problem solutions. Presents a detailed analysis of 249 survey responses from U.S. and Canadian universities which conveyed a wide range of opinions and comments. Discusses the need to rethink strategies regarding access to solutions. (AIM)

The role of contextual information in the generation of early hypotheses during the clinical interview was studied with expert and novice medical diagnosticians: 18 experienced family physicians versus 5 new physicians and 12 final-year medical students. The 18 experts and 17 novices were presented with 32 short case histories each presented on…

University information systems are designed to make decisions easier and to provide good information for administrative tasks. Data do not by themselves produce better decisions, and more data can make agreement on issues more complicated. When collegial decisions are made, the precise impact of data and models is uncertain. When there is no…

To be effective in the current rapidly changing environment, individuals need more than a knowledge base. They also need information literacy which includes techniques for exploring new information, synthesizing it, and using it in practical ways. Undergraduate education should focus on such resource-based learning directed at problem solving.…

Ways in which the university library, in cooperation with the teaching staff, can ensure that information-gathering techniques become an integral part of the university education of first-year students are discussed. (LBH)

Successful implementation of assessment requires effective administrative leadership to get started, convert data to information, and use the information in making improvements. Assessment may pay its greatest long-term dividends as an organizational device for directing scarce reserves of institutional attention to teaching and learning. (MLW)

Presents a case study analysis which attempts to illuminate the difference between knowledge accumulation and ability to deal with problem solving in stoichiometry. Competence is presented as ability to properly represent, solve, and verify solutions. Discusses rule or algorithm based vs. heuristic based problem solving. (JM)

Discusses thinking skills for college students and describes strategies that can be used by faculty to teach thinking skills in distance education courses. Criteria for teaching thinking skills to distance learners are suggested, and methods are presented for teaching problem solving, how to evaluate information, and decision making. (10…

A study evaluated differences between subjects at three levels of expertise in acquiring and using information obtained from a patient during the clinical interview. Five endocrinologists, five residents, and five students interviewed a volunteer patient and provided differential diagnoses. Differences were found in diagnostic accuracy,…