The aim of this study is to enhance students' creative problem-solving ability using a project-based learning approach. The study was based on a quasi-experimental design and the participants were 69 postgraduate students in the field of education management. There were 35 of the students assigned to the experimental group, and the remaining 34 to…

Are you frustrated when students focus on "getting the right answer" without understanding why the physics works that way, or even why their own brains came to that conclusion? If so, this might be less about the student and more about the pedagogy--you might be stuck on the "One True Path," a way of thinking "that assumes…

A common homework problem in many introductory physics courses is similar to the following. "A car drives at constant speed over a hill on a road in the shape of a vertical circular arc. What is the maximum speed the car can have and not lose contact with the road at the crest of the hill?" Unfortunately this problem is flawed, because…

The negative effects of bullying in school are substantial, yet educators trying to intervene face significant barriers. Such obstacles include ineffective intervention techniques and perceptual bias that gets in the way of recognizing bullying. Promising ways to overcome these barriers include the following strategies: using intervention methods…

Insight into early precursors of proportional reasoning is necessary to further our theoretical understanding of mathematical development and to guide early interventions. Although several researchers have suggested patterning as a possible precursor for proportional reasoning, there is little empirical evidence to support this assumption,…

One of the topics within the course of Essential Concepts in School Mathematics (ECSM) for prospective mathematics teachers concerns maximum and minimum problems. This type of problems requires mathematization, i.e., the activity of transforming a problem into a symbolic mathematics problem and of reorganizing within the mathematical system, in…

This study investigated 45 undergraduate students' mathematical problem posing based on four problem situations. This study was designed to better understand the kinds of problems they pose, and the kinds of mathematical ideas exhibited when problem posing. The findings of this study support that underprepared college students can pose…

While much research has been done on Critical Thinking (CT) skills, the "disposition toward CT" has not been adequately investigated. The paucity of literature regarding technology teachers' disposition toward CT is particularly problematic as these teachers have to assist learners with the designing and making of solutions (artefacts)…

For too long, problem solving has been studied as a solitary and isolated activity where individuals make progress based on personal resources acquired from knowledge, previous experiences or moments of illumination; however, in society, and indeed amongst mathematicians, problem solving can be highly collaborative and occurs in spaces where…

Ultraviolet (UV)-visible (Vis) spectroscopy is widely used in all modern laboratories as a routine method of analysis. The monitoring of chemical reactions in an aqueous solution involving a gas product is a demanding task but particularly for oscillatory reactions which are obtainable in a narrow concentration range. In this work, the…

Friedel-Crafts alkylation reactions using a curated set of alcohols provide students with the opportunity to combine the study of electrophilic aromatic substitution with carbocation rearrangements. In this experiment students may be presented with up to nine alcohols that yield six products, all synthesized under identical reaction conditions.…

Combinatorial proof serves both as an important topic in combinatorics and as a type of proof with certain properties and constraints. We report on a teaching experiment in which undergraduate students (who were novice provers) engaged in combinatorial reasoning as they proved binomial identities. We highlight ways of understanding that were…

Problem-solving skills in a digital environment are a prerequisite to a better future for all citizens in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era. To investigate the relationship between age, gender, computer use, and adult learners' problem-solving skills in a digital environment, this study analyzed the 4,540 Korean participants' problem-solving…

The response process of problem-solving items contains rich information about respondents' behaviours and cognitive process in the digital tasks, while the information extraction is a big challenge. The aim of the study is to use a data-driven approach to explore the latent states and state transitions underlying problem-solving process to reflect…

Despite the importance of teachers' conceptions of and competency in problem solving, limited attention is given to this area in the current literature. We examined 96 preservice elementary teachers' problem-solving conceptions and performances by having them define and create metaphors for problem solving and then investigated the relationships…