Eighteen staff members from Roselle Park (NJ) High School were the first faculty group in New Jersey to experience a workshop to acquaint them with the Wild Cat Mountain Wilderness Center and improve communication, trust, and enhance problem-solving skills. Challenging activities, suitable to the area, are described. (CM)

Two methods of assessing medical students' problem-solving skills were compared in actual use: a modified essay question and a structured oral examination based on it. The reliability and validity of each were found to be similar. (MSE)

Examined problem-solving strategies of 30 high school students as they solved genetics problems. Proposes a new sequence of teaching genetics based on results: meiosis, sex chromosomes, sex determination, sex-linked traits, monohybrid and dihybrid crosses (humans), codominance (humans), and Mendel's pea experiments. (JN)

Three sets of relationships between evaluation and staff development are identified: (1) evaluation for staff development in which data from evaluations suggest the program content; (2) evaluation of staff development in which evaluative activities become opportunities for problem solving; and (3) evaluation of staff development in which…

If health education is to develop into a discipline that increases the competencies of people to implement decisions about health behaviors, the development of a paradigm that can be used as an alternative to the behavior change paradigm is required. Several models of behavior change are presented. (JN)

Two programs are described: the first, the Future Problem Solving Program, is an interdisciplinary approach to studying and solving future problems. The second, Quality Circles, originally a management technique, has been implemented in schools to improve motivation, attendance, learning, and quality of life. (Author/LC)

This article presents the Practical Action Teaching Model and discusses its four phases: identification of the practical problem, practical reasoning or deliberation, action, and reflection. It incorporates intrinsically motivating, practical, value-based student problems that call for critical and creative thinking and offer opportunities for…

Discusses the implementation and utilization of specific behavioral skills and techniques designed to aid the parent or teacher in dealing with disciplinary and disruptive behaviors both within the home and the school, which enable the teacher or parent to effectively communicate with the child. (Author/CM)

The Quality Circle is a simple management technique in which workers in the same production area meet to solve company problems. The Quality Circle has been applied to elementary and secondary schools in Japan to help students to develop creative problem solving skills and independent study skills. Recommendations are given for implementing…

A description of a planet in the shape of a cube where everything was built from squares and parts of squares is presented. The story is used as a background for several paper folding exercises that explore several geometric shapes. Solutions to the problems stated are included. (MP)

The use of case studies as a teaching method--that is, presenting students with realistic problems to solve as part of the curriculum--is examined. Emphasis is on instructional materials, interdisciplinarity, and the complex relationships within the university and among faculty that help or hinder the method. (MSE)

Discusses the process whereby a variety of resources (human, informational, material) are brought together and fitted into problem-solving situations to achieve goals set by individuals, groups, or communities. Describes the Missouri community development system. (JOW)

Described is a Kernel Design, used in the multiunit Discovery School in Mansfield, Ohio, to improve a general weakness in the areas of measurement and the use of monetary skills. Kernel Design is so named because it conveys the gist or core of an idea. (Author/TG)

Children's cognitive and social development is facilitated by family problem-solving training, a behavioral family intervention designed to encourage a democratic atmosphere. It can be suited to the needs of individual families. A training package designed for an outpatient clinic setting that served one-parent families is described. (Author)

Instructional strategies are described for a one-year program at the University of Washington which attempts to increase the number of minority students being admitted to health science professions. The strategies focus on the necessity of the laboratory, reasoning ability, examinations, and homework. (Author/SA)