Information problem solving (IPS) is an important twenty-first century skill, but it is lacking at all age levels. One type of information problem, those of an ill-structured nature that require multiple iterations of (re)defining problems and formulating emerging solutions, can be particularly challenging but have received less attention in the…

Literature typically describes mathematization, the process of transforming a real-world situation into a mathematical model, in terms of desirable actions and behaviors students exhibit. We attended to STEM undergraduate students' quantitative reasoning as they derived equations. Analysis of the meanings they held for arithmetic operations (+, -,…

This study investigated whether parents and kindergarten children show concurrent and time-lagged physiological synchrony during dyadic interaction. Further, we tested whether parent-child behavioral co-regulation was associated with concurrent and time-lagged synchrony, and whether synchrony varied by the type of interaction task. Participants…

The complex and dynamic nature of collaboration makes it challenging to find indicators of productive learning and quality collaboration. This exploratory study developed a collaboration metric to capture temporal patterns of joint attention (JA) based on log files generated as students interacted with an immersive astronomy simulation using…

Collaborative dialogue is rich in conscious and subconscious coordination behaviours between participants. This work explores collaborative learner dialogue through theories of alignment, analysing inter-partner movement and language use with respect to our hypotheses: that they interrelate, and that they form predictors of collaboration quality…

The proposed revisions to the "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics" highlight the importance of learning to mathematise, problem-solve and reason in real world contexts, including financial contexts. Through the Economics + Maths = Financial Capability research project, the authors have been imagining fresh ideas for connecting the…

Three- and 4-year-old children were asked to judge which of a set of 3 lines was the longest, both independently and in the face of an inaccurate consensus among adult informants. Children were invariably accurate when making independent judgments but sometimes deferred to the inaccurate consensus. Nevertheless, the deference displayed by both age…

This study aimed at investigating the relations between students' strategic behaviour during problem solving, task performance and domain-specific self-concept. A total of 167 first- and second-graders were individually examined in tasks involving cubes assembly and in academic self-concept in mathematics. Students' cognitive, metacognitive, and…

Discusses many factors involved in determining the complex nature of a child's knowledge base. Includes three kinds of considerations: 1) task-oriented criteria; 2) motivational elements; and 3) the relationship between personality and performance. (Author/CS)

A study of the physical activity or motor responses associated with curiosity, persistence, and problem solving behaviors was undertaken to learn more about the general developmental nature of these behaviors among elementary school children. The sample consisted of 125 children from kindergarten, second, fourth and sixth grade, all of whom…

The personal problem-solving process can be functionally analyzed from a cognitive-behavioral perspective into at least four major performance classes: (1) decision making; (2) problem exploration, differentiation, and definition; (3) identification of response alternatives; and (4) performance of an intended solution response. The personal…