Design teams often rely on precedents, but the impact of using the direct experience of a precedent on design behavior requires further investigation. To explore this impact, fifteen teams of master students of architecture participated in two design sessions: one without and the other with a previous experience of visiting an example. The…

This study concerns the cognitive process of mathematical problem posing, conceptualized in three stages: understanding the task, constructing the problem, and expressing the problem. We used the eye tracker and think-aloud methods to deeply explore students' behavior in these three stages of problem posing, especially focusing on investigating…

The current study investigates Talk Aloud Problem Solving (TAPS) for master's level students at Endicott College in preparation for the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB) exam. The exam format of multiple-choice questions was used as the basis for acquisition and utilization of a TAPS skill repertoire. The purpose was to add to the…

This practice paper provides a detailed scaffolded layout of how to embed computational thinking concepts into a project-based math methods course. Parallel to completing a project in which the in-service teachers design solutions for math struggles of their P-12 students, the graduate students reflect on their problem-solving activities using…

This multiple-case study examined how advanced learners solved a complex problem, focusing on how their frequency and application of cognitive processes contributed to differences in performance outcomes, and developing a mental model of a problem. Fifteen graduate students with backgrounds related to the problem context participated in the study.…

Two suggestions for instruction in chemical equilibrium are presented, along with the evidence that supports these suggestions. The first is to use diagrams to connect chemical reactions to the effects of reactions on concentrations. The second is the use of the majority and minority species (M&M) strategy to analyze chemical equilibrium…

International students, a growing population in US universities, need to possess excellent reading skills in order to succeed. American universities also benefit from admitting students who do not require remedial English classes. Reading online has become an integrated part of college education, which requires students to have additional skills.…

In this study, we examine introductory physics students' ability to perform analogical reasoning between two isomorphic problems which employ the same underlying physics principles but have different surface features. 382 students from a calculus-based and an algebra-based introductory physics course were administered a quiz in the recitation…

This thesis explores the role of multiple representations in introductory physics students' problem solving performance through several investigations. Representations can help students focus on the conceptual aspects of physics and play a major role in effective problem solving. Diagrammatic representations can play a particularly important role…

This study examines the epistemic beliefs about justification employed by physics undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in the context of solving a standard classical physics problem and a frontier physics problem. Data were collected by a think-aloud problem solving session followed by a semi-structured interview conducted with 50…

This exploratory study highlights certain differences in the way an expert and a novice engineer used their analyzing and generating skills while solving a fairly ill-structured design problem. The expert tends to use more inferences and elaboration when solving the design problem and the novice tend to use analysis that is focused on the…

In order to understand how students approach multi-variate problems, we report a study on the cues organic chemistry graduate students perceive from mechanism tasks, and the reasoning processes induced by those cues. We used the think-aloud protocol in interviews with sixteen graduate students as they worked on two types of tasks: one, in which…

The role of planning in the design of digital circuits was studied in two experiments. One compared the planning-related activities of expert designers and beginning students of design, and the other looked at the effect on circuit-design processes of forcing students to construct a global plan. In experiment 1, five undergraduate students…

This study compared novice, "intermediate" (graduate student), and expert orchestral conductors. Two novice conductors, one graduate student in orchestral conducting, and one expert conductor led a university symphony orchestra in part of the first movement of Brahms's Symphony No. 2. Wired for sound, conductors attempted to verbalize their…

This paper describes a study of the differences between problem solving skills of graduate students in education who have had full-time teaching experience and those who have not. Information was gathered to determine the extent to which the use of concepts in problem solving and the use of problem solving strategies differ among educators as a…