Distance education programs have become the preferred option for most higher education institutions to continue teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the effectiveness of some online courses, especially those engineering courses with experimentation activities, remains disputed. The main challenge is fostering collaborative problem solving…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how young students experience the contribution of a pedagogical assemblage based on design thinking (DT) while contributing to the transition to a more just and sustainable university. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative research considers the case of two pedagogical experiences developed at…

The trend in history education is gradually emphasizing the development of historical thinking and collaborative problem-solving skills, which are expected to enhance the breadth and depth of learners' thinking. The integration of game-based learning with collaborative problem-solving activities designed for historical thinking is expected to help…

The purpose of this study is to examine organizational decision-making processes of problem-solving groups. This experimental design study utilized a case study method bounded by a fictional problem-solving scenario to illicit problem solving in groups. Fourteen undergraduate pre-service teachers were placed into six groups and given 45 minutes to…

Whilst young children are affected by educational policy decisions based on research evidence, their abilities to make decisions based on evidence are often disregarded by policymakers and professional adult researchers. This article reports on elements of the Young Children As Researchers (YCAR) project, an interpretive empirical study that…

That objective reference is necessary for formation of reliable beliefs about the external world is almost axiomatic. However, Condorcet (1785) suggested that purely subjective information--if shared and combined via social interaction--is enough for accurate understanding of the external world. We asked if social interaction and objective…

The increasing emergence of participation in decision making (PDM) in schools reflects the widely shared belief that flatter management and decentralized authority structures carry the potential for promoting school effectiveness. However, the literature indicates a discrepancy between the intuitive appeal of PDM and empirical evidence in respect…

The author offers the thesis that hunter-gatherers promoted, through cultural means, the playful side of their human nature and this made possible their egalitarian, nonautocratic, intensely cooperative ways of living. Hunter-gatherer bands, with their fluid membership, are likened to social-play groups, which people could freely join or leave.…

Because of a multiplicity of approaches to small group argument, research in this area often needs to be summarized, condensed, and redirected. Researchers have identified the rational, cognitive and interactive components of argumentation, and have demonstrated that arguments can take several forms and fulfill a variety of functions. The result…

The first part of the article describes the theoretical background of a library planning model based on the concept of right brain/left brain activities. The second describes the implementation of a short term planning model based on this theory. (CLB)

Reports on two studies concerned with computer usage in the context of collaborative groups. Looks at the computer's capacity to stimulate active collaboration and discussion among children. Studies were made of a group of eight-year-olds and eleven-year-olds. Reports that groups in which partners were chosen had fewer problems than groups which…

The progression of qualified surgical nurses toward capable proficiency was examined in an ethnographic study during which 25 nurses, including 4 who transferred to other wards, were observed to determine whether social mediation affects the process of proficiency development. The nurses were observed for 18 months. Data were also gathered through…

Knowledge production and learning in engineering is a local, situated, negotiated, and thoroughly social process. Although engineering work entails the construal, production, and application of artifacts and technical devices belonging to the "object world," the process of designing is a process of achieving consensus among real or…

Instruction should emphasize generic skills as much as it does occupational or domain-specific skills. Generic skills enable people to: (1) cooperate and communicate for group problem solving; (2) identify and define problems in complex environments; (3) seek, acquire, and synthesize new information; and (4) adapt to changes in the problem-solving…