Two experiments examined how learning from different media--real pulley systems or simple line diagrams--affected mechanical learning and problem solving. The first showed that subjects' learning improved equally in both cases; all subjects showed an increase in quantitative understanding as they learned; and subjects manipulating real pulley…

Examined children's use of the representativeness heuristic with two types of decision problems adapted from research with adults--standard representativeness problems and conjunction fallacy problems. Findings on both problems indicate the use of decision heuristics in the early grade-school years, and suggests these should be the years for…

The report "Workplace Basics: the Skills Employers Want" was based on interviews with hundreds of employers, who identified seven groups of desirable skills: reading, writing, and computation; listening and speaking; learning to learn, problem-solving and creative thinking; personal management; teamwork; and leadership and organizational…

Presents illustrated examples that promote problem solving through the student's consideration of a visible predicament from a three-dimensional viewpoint rather than the typical planar perspective. Includes six student exercises involving rays, circles, quadrilaterals, and hexagons, with hints and solutions provided. (JJK)

Discusses research on cognitive styles and strategies. Groups labels into two principle styles. Describes the wholist-analytic style, examining whether an individual tends to process information in wholes or parts, and the verbalizer-imager style considering whether an individual is inclined to represent information during thinking verbally or in…

Students in grades 7 (n=4), 9 (n=9), 10 (n=13), and 11 (n=12) were interviewed to compare the use of intuitive and taught methods of problem solving. Results indicate grade 9 students could efficiently use taught methods as well as intuitive methods, whereas grade 10 and 11 students reverted to basic problem-solving methods and were reluctant to…

Explores high school student's postinstructional knowledge about mass, volume, weight, and density in terms of what students need to know to successfully solve academic physical science problems. Presents definitions of the concepts, discusses hypothesized knowledge deficiencies, and suggests implications for instructional design. (Contains 31…

Addresses the importance of social context when students are learning music and how social context may affect learning styles. Focuses on how teachers should respect students' different learning styles, presenting Harvard Project Zero as a program in which the learner is central to the educational process. (CMK)

The Applications in Biology/Chemistry (ABC) curriculum is a real-world approach designed for the middle 50% of secondary students who may not learn in a predominantly abstract way. Stressing contextual and cooperative learning, ABC features 10 laboratory exercises and other hands-on, problem-solving activities involving visits to job sites and…

Today's "digital child" has never known a time bereft of computers, change, or easy communication systems. Computers and other technologies have irreversibly transformed kids' learning environment, temperament, and conceptions of work and playtime, relationships, location, technological advancement, relevant knowledge, and flexibility. (MLH)

What does attention to feeling have to do with solving problems in mathematics? Can feeling be used to navigate a path to a solution? What is meant by a feeling anyway? To what kind of problem does this productive benefit refer? A study of 405 middle school students solving two novel mathematics problems found that individuals utilising a feeling…

This program information guide describes two approaches, Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) and Active Mathematics Teaching (AMT), for teaching academic skills in mathematics to limited English proficient (LEP) students. CGI is based on four related teacher competencies: knowing how specific mathematical content is organized in children's minds;…

Contradictory research findings on teachers and teaching are frequently the result of overlooking or neglecting a systematic approach to teaching, using principles of human learning to enhance pupils' learning and their enjoyment of learning. In discussing teacher preparation, it is pointed out that task analysis is a crucial operation, in which…

One approach to the study of problem solving is to observe how people with different skills (novices and experts) solve problems by collecting and analyzing protocols and formulating models to obtain solution processes. Individual differences are subsequently explained by the differences in the knowledge possessed, as embodied by the sets of…

This study was undertaken to examine what would happen if individuals who are intrinsically motivated to perform a cognitive problem-solving task were offered a contingent extrinsic monetary incentive for doing so. Sixty male and 60 female undergraduates at the University of South Florida used microcomputers to complete a cognitive task requiring…