Web-based collaborative Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environments have great potential for learner improvement in solving ill-structured problems in practical situations. Web-based environments, however, offer learners relatively few chances to solve problems through face-to-face interactions compared to traditional classrooms, thereby making it…

In a climate of continual change and innovation, lifelong learning is a critical professional development objective which has a direct impact on organizations' effectiveness and ability to compete and innovate. To help learners continually upgrade their skills and knowledge so they can effectively address emerging organizational and professional…

The affordances of online learning technologies have enabled more widespread development of learning environments that facilitate the exploration and solving of complex and realistic problems. In this paper, we describe the design of a real world geography problem, embedded within a web environment that is facilitated by an onsite excursion for…

Over the past two decades, calculus reformers have called for the use of alternative pedagogical techniques to promote student learning. Some mathematics instructors have responded by developing a set of student projects intended to hone thinking skills and improve the mathematical writing skills of calculus students. Drawbacks to this strategy…

Discusses brainstorming and brainwriting procedures used in creative problem solving, and gives 10 guidelines for using these techniques. (JOW)

Demonstrations of judgment heuristics typically focus on how heuristics can lead to poor judgments. However, exclusive focus on the negative consequences of heuristics can prove problematic. We illustrate the problem with the representativeness heuristic and present a study (N = 45) that examined how examples influence understanding of the…

Marion Walter, an internationally acclaimed mathematics educator discusses about problem posing, focusing on both the merits of problem posing and techniques to encourage problem posing. She believes that playful attitude toward problem variables is an essential part of an inquiring mind and the more opportunities that learners have, to change a…

The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) on eleventh grade students' understanding of "The effects of temperature, concentration and pressure on cell potential" and also their social skills. Stratified randomly selected control and experimental groups with 20 students each were used in…

The paper discusses the boundary in the frequency-amplitude plane for boundedness of solutions to the forced spring Duffing type equation x[umlaut] + x + [epsilon]x[cubed] = F cos[omega]t. For fixed initial conditions and for representative fixed values of the parameter [epsilon], the results are reported of a systematic numerical investigation…

Sometimes it becomes a matter of natural choice for an observer (A) that he prefers a coordinate system of two-dimensional spatial x-y coordinates from which he observes another observer (B) who is moving at a uniform speed along a line of motion, which is not collinear with A's chosen x- or y-axis. It becomes necessary in such cases to develop…

When students design and build their own versions of instruments, they appreciate them more--and are more likely to appreciate how experimentation plays a critical role in explaining the world around them (NRC 1999). In this activity, students learn how science is done by becoming active participants. They use free lenses to build simple…

Knowing the mathematics relating to a problem is one thing, but producing a tool to solve a practical example is often daunting. This article describes a case study which presented an interesting implementational challenge.

In order to think, to interpret and judge correctly, the humans have to comprehend what they have learned. Concepts are the abstract representatives of the classifications that are formed by objects, events, ideas and behaviors which have common specifications. (Fidan, N., 1985). Concepts reduce the complexity by simplifying the environment that…

This project was based on recent interview research which suggested that in choosing operations for story problems in mathematics many students are guided by computational considerations rather than meanings for the operations. This project aimed to refine the catalogue of strategies used by students and to design and test instructional materials…