Whereas some educational designers believe that students should learn new concepts through explorative problem solving within dedicated environments that constrain key parameters of their search and then support their progressive appropriation of empowering disciplinary forms, others are critical of the ultimate efficacy of this discovery-based…

Error-based simulation (EBS) has been developed to generate phenomena by using students' erroneous ideas and also offers promise for promoting students' awareness of errors. In this paper, we report the evaluation of EBS used in learning "normal reaction" in a junior high school. An EBS class, where students learned the concept…

Recent research has demonstrated that knowledge about specific instances may be of more relevance to reasoning than has previously been assumed. Students can rely on principles they have learned, or they can recall something similar previously experienced, and base the new prediction on it in an instance-based approach. Instance-based (or…

This article describes and tests a theory of scientific discovery learning based on the Scientific Discovery as Dual Search (SDDS) model. A study of 22 university chemistry students determined that conditions for performing a search operation in hypothesis space include sufficient knowledge of the search operation and reasons for choosing a…

Describes a computer curriculum for 7- to 12-year-old children which is designed to integrate the computer into multiple subject areas and stimulate the development and sharpening of critical-thinking skills. The course is divided into eight conceptual units, each containing educational computer games or simulations and some related off-line…

These worksheets suggest activities through which secondary school students may be introduced to the ideas of simulation. All can be played as games to give students a feel for the situation modeled; most use coins or dice and a few use random digits. Directions are detailed for each of the 17 worksheets, with variations suggested for many. (MMS)

A model of the inquiry process based on John Dewey's concept of inquiry was used to develop a means of observing and scoring individual inquiry behavior. The Teacher's Inbasket, a simulation of problems crossing a teacher's desk in a simulated school setting, was developed for the study. Fifty-one female elementary education majors were selected…

A model of the inquiry process bas"d on John Dewey's concept of inquiry was used to develop a means of observing and scoring individual inquiry behavior. The Teacher's Inbasket, a simulation of problems crossing a teacher's desk in a simulated school setting, was developed for the study. Fifty-one female elementary education majors were selected…

This collection of documents promotes simulation as an attractive topic in mathematics instruction that provides game-like activities likely to interest pupils, by illustrating the important ideas of probability and showing how mathematical models can be used in practical problems clearly relevant to everyday life. While computer programs written…