Failure is an inevitable human experience, which can offer great learning opportunities. Yet, in current educational contexts, failure has largely been eschewed to minimize students' frustration and confusion. Such a failure-avoidance approach is also reflected in the cases used for instruction. To maximize learning, more studies are needed to…

Three related studies replicated and extended previous work (J.A. Danielson et al. (2003), "Educational Technology Research and Development," 51(3), 63-81) involving the Diagnostic Pathfinder (dP) (previously Problem List Generator [PLG]), a cognitive tool for learning diagnostic problem solving. In studies 1 and 2, groups of 126 and 113…

Describes the result of implementing the Problem List Generator, a computer-based tool designed to help clinical pathology veterinary students learn diagnostic problem solving. Findings suggest that student problem solving ability improved, because students identified all relevant data before providing a solution. (MES)