Describes focus groups for therapists and supervisors practicing home-based therapy. Identifies eight topics challenging to therapists and necessary for home-based practice (i.e., crisis and safety issues, multiproblem families, therapist demoralization). Recommends focus group methodology as useful tool to assess training needs and for promoting…

Describes a student project that enables students to experience problem-solving strategies and construct their own understandings of the problem-solving strategies by researching the problem-solving process itself, uncovering and defining strategies that they can subsequently use to solve problems, and exploring the impact that attitude has on…

Discusses the use of case studies to encourage students to examine their own thinking processes. Concludes that the benefit of focusing on metacognitive skills is the increase in students' awareness. Suggests texts and their conventions are no longer rules and formulas, but tools writers use and options they can take; Metacognition allows writers…

Discusses the kinds of abilities and knowledge that are measured in investigative performance assessment tasks in science. Questions the emphasis placed on the assessment of problem-solving and higher-order skills and calls for a rationale for performance assessment in the dimension of "scientific argumentation." (SLD)

Describes a Texas principal's experience of overseeing the consolidation of three elementary schools into a larger facility for nearly 1,000 students. The 3 years spent designing, building, and moving into the new facility were both exhilarating and exhausting. Advice on handling frustrations is provided. (MLH)

Describes the range of processes used by year 3 children engaged in solving non-routine mathematics problems. Discusses how it can be told when children are thinking mathematically. (ASK)

Describes a newly designed interdisciplinary course called 'Algebra for the Sciences'. Studies the effects of the course on students' critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and attitudes towards mathematics. Concludes that students had larger gains in critical thinking skills and significantly more positive attitudes towards mathematics…

Presents strategies to prepare students in step two of the Independent Investigation Method, goal setting, for the research in step three: ask essential questions; ask questions using Bloom's taxonomy; create playful ways to focus questioning; create a hypothesis or preliminary thesis statement; identify a variety of likely resources before…

Traditionally, novice programmers have had difficulties in three distinct areas: breaking down a given problem, designing a workable solution, and debugging the resulting program. Many programming environments, software applications, and teaching tools have been developed to address the difficulties faced by these novices. Along with advancements…

P.A.C.E.S. stands for Participation, Appearance, Cleanup, Engineering, and Safety. The author has traditionally used design briefs to set the limits on processes and materials to solve a given problem. The design brief brings out all kinds of "out of the box" thinking, with many correct answers to solve the problem. The P.A.C.E.S. rubric ties the…

Science fairs offer students the opportunity to develop skills in inquiry, writing research proposals, working with peers, verifying results, and sharing experimental findings. However, the science fair itself does not necessarily translate into a student's attainment of such skills. Project quality and a student's successful achievement of good…

This article describes the author's experience of adopting a child-centered approach to his pedagogy. The approach has created many teachable moments for his students and has improved the quality of their musical interactions. The article also presents ideas and strategies about child-centered, problem-based learning applied to the elementary…

A very simple strategy for the solution of the Schrodinger equation of a particle moving in one dimension subjected to a generic potential is presented. This strategy is implemented in a computer program called Kmonodium, which is free and distributed under the General Public License (GPL).

Phyllis Whitin was interested in the role of communications in developing mathematical understanding among children. She designed a problem-posing explorations system, which encouraged children to think, question, solve problems and discuss their ideas, strategies and solutions.

This article describes the following phenomenon: Gifted high school students trained in solving Olympiad-style mathematics problems experienced conflict between their conceptions of "effectiveness" and "elegance" (the EEC). This phenomenon was observed while analyzing clinical task-based interviews that were conducted with three members of the…