Current problem-solving research has advanced our understanding of the problem-solving process but has provided little advice on how to teach problem-solving skills. In addition, literature reveals that individual difference is an essential issue in problem-solving skills instruction but has been rarely addressed in current research. Building upon…

Response times are one of the important sources that provide information about the performance of individuals during a test process. The main purpose of this study is to show that survival models can be used in educational data. Accordingly, data sets of items measuring literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills of the countries participating…

As healthcare delivery, education, and technology dramatically evolve, middle managers serve a vital role in communication. Studies provide convincing evidence that resilience and self-directed learning can each be acquired and improved. This study investigated the relationship of resilience and self-directed learning readiness in healthcare…

The last 15 years have witnessed a quiet revolution in the understanding of spatial skills, and the authors are finding that these all-important science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competencies are rooted in spatial knowledge. Spatial skills are the tools use to visualize and navigate the world. Spatial skills allows people to…

Skeptics of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trend for International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) argue that while US elementary and high school students are behind their peers in other nations, the US workforce is still excellent because of the high quality post-secondary educational institutions in the US. However, the…

Numeracy needs of nursing students are often underestimated by students when they enter university. Even when students are aware of the mathematics required, students underestimate or overestimate the skills they have. Research has highlighted the mathematics and numeracy skills required of nurses and nursing students and numerous studies have…

The manual gestures that hearing children produce when explaining their answers to math problems predict whether they will profit from instruction in those problems. We ask here whether gesture plays a similar role in deaf children, whose primary communication system is in the manual modality. Forty ASL-signing deaf children explained their…

A high failure rate at first year physics is often attributed to the lack of readiness of high school students to pursue such studies. This research explores this issue and reports on the perceptions of five physics lecturers at a South African university on the preparedness of high school students for first year physics. Qualitative data was…

An understanding of proof does not start in a high school geometry course. Rather, attention to logical reasoning throughout a student's school experience can help the development of proof readiness. In the spirit of problem solving, the author has begun to use some Japanese logic puzzles other than sudoku to help students develop additional…

The purpose of this study was to determine if a student's academic success, measured by grade point average (GPA) in mathematics, science, and communication courses, is correlated with student change in achievement during an engineering design challenge. Engineering design challenges have been implemented and researched in K-16 environments where…

Speakers routinely gesture with their hands when they talk, and those gestures often convey information not found anywhere in their speech. This information is typically not consciously accessible, yet it provides an early sign that the speaker is ready to learn a particular task (S. Goldin-Meadow, 2003). In this sense, the unwitting gestures that…

Effective problem solvers have an aptitude complex composed of cognitive, affective, and conative factors. After diagnosing learning readiness, instructions can organize strategies to help students structure knowledge and develop the attitudes, confidence, and skills to think through application-level problems. (SK)

Three experiments investigated effects of attentional factors on children's learning set performance. Younger children's learning was differentially affected by two or more irrelevant dimensions. Practice improved performance for all ages. Results confirmed that irrelevant dimensions and within-problems exposure interact with age and amount of…

This paper focuses on the role of evaluation in mathematics in 749 elementary school children. The macroevaluative skills and calibration scores of high versus low mathematical problem solvers were contrasted as measures of metacognition. No relevant calibration differences were found for gender. In addition, the performances of children with…

A study of 753 utilities company workers examined the relationship between a measure of worker self-directed learning readiness and their job level, sex, age, education, race, job performance rating, creativity and problem-solving ability needed in their jobs, and the degree of change inherent in their work. (Author/MSE)