The history of instructional media research is marked by an emphasis on the use of the terminal performance to measure learning. Little attention has been paid to the processes of learning. However, some studies have identified cognitive strategies used in solving problems of concept identification. The task now is to find out the relationship of…

On-the-job experience is commonly regarded as the prime prerequisite for proficiency. This paper presents findings of a study that compared the ways in which a group of practicing elementary principals (n=31) and aspiring principals (n=25) thought their way through a case study. The study was conducted as part of the Cognitive Approaches to School…

Developmental differences in reasoning ability and item processing demands are analyzed in a study of cognitive determinants of number analogy performance in two IQ levels of elementary school children and college students. The amount of solution-related information in working memory was the crucial processing demand. Process differentiations of…

Offers five suggestions to help students assess the reasonableness of their answers: (1) giving students a variety of problems; (2) facilitating students' discussions and interpretations of the problem conditions; (3) encouraging students to estimate answers before carrying out calculations; (4) encouraging students to ask whether their answers…

Provides new evidence for mathematical problem-solving abilities of preschool children. These problem-solving behaviors occurred in a study of sharing of discrete items by dealing, in which we examined the abilities of three categories of counters to solve a discrete redistribution problem. Identifies problem-solving strategies used in the context…

Investigates the effect that manipulation of the extent of formal reasoning required for solving chemistry problems has upon student performance, and presents a cognitive model for the qualitative analysis of that effect. Concludes that the developmental level of students is the most important predictor of problem-solving success given significant…

This paper describes a method of understanding student problem-solving behavior during computer-assisted instruction using trigonometry as the example domain. Instead of attempting to model the student's process for solving problems, techniques which infer the equivalence between two adjacent steps in the student's process are used to determine…

The author examines the effectiveness of the Inquiry Strategy method which he hypothesizes to be useful in developing an analytical cognitive style. Ninety-two subjects from four, large urban high schools were involved. Forty-two were experimental, having received 2-3 years of Inquiry Strategy exposure in their late elementary or early junior high…

Thought processes as they are observed during problem solving are discussed. A theoretical framework is designed to establish the correspondence between the tactics the subjects use to solve problems and thinking processes. (NCR)

Highlights dynamic assessment, an approach to assessing cognitive ability in which students are instructed on how to perform on certain tasks and measured on their progress in learning to solve similar problems. It describes how dynamic assessment can be used for identifying disadvantaged students for specialized enrichment programs. (CR)

Fifty-five college students were assessed on four types of cognitive and metacognitive measures in math, language, and visual/spatial tasks. They were measures on self-reported general metacognitive skills, predicted performance, metacognitive behaviors, and actual performance. The students' self-reported assessments of their ability on a general…

This exploratory study investigated the leadership styles of selected administrators in Tennessee's public schools. Styles of leadership were viewed against a backdrop of current brain research, and the subjects' underlying patterns of cognitive processing were identified by means of a self-report measurement of brain dominance--the Herrmann Brain…

Information about the neuropsychological consequences of alcoholism has been mostly limited to the cognitive functioning of recently detoxified alcoholic men. To expand this research, the long-term recovery of cognitive abilities in alcoholic women was examined in two studies. In the first study, neuropsychological performances were compared for…

Observing that available standardized tests purporting to measure problem solving in mathematics do not validly reflect currently accepted definitions of problem solving, while more valid individualized measures are costly in terms of time, this researcher undertook (1) to construct a paper-and-pencil instrument which might better reflect…

Three developments over the past 15 years--our understanding of cognition, new techniques in technical psychometrics, and the computer explosion--form the basis for a proposal for new intelligence tests. These developments are reviewed, and both leaps and steps in intellectual assessment are proposed. (Author/RD)