Young children engage in pre-engineering thinking and play in their day-to-day activities. However, early childhood teachers often miss opportunities to facilitate and extend this type of play. In order to support teachers in this undertaking, the current study aimed to answer the question: What does pre-engineering thinking look like in…

The knowledge base on various forms of structuring students' learning by ability grouping is more robust than that on teachers' instructional practices being implemented within these groupings. The present study examines if student-reported mathematics teachers' instructional practices vary among schools with different degrees of implementing…

This is a descriptive research on the difficulties of Filipino high school students in translating algebraic word problems into mathematical equations. This research is composed of three parts: (1) development of an 11-page "Filipinized" questionnaire; (2) analysis of the mathematical thinking processes of the respondents based on the answers to…

Contemporary debates on effective pedagogies for K-12 mathematics have called for shifts in the way teachers and teacher educators conceptualise mathematics as a subject and how it should be taught. This is reflected by changes in the curriculum including the inclusion of a strand called Working Mathematically within K-12 mathematics curriculum…

Meanings of "surprise" are wide and include uplifting and engaging facets like wonder and amazement on the one hand as well as ones that may be of the opposite nature like interruption and disrupt on the other. Pedagogically, educators who use surprise in class activities are focusing on students being "taken aback" by a situation, hopefully…

The purpose of this paper was to investigate how it becomes possible for solvers to make drawings to advance their problem solving processes, in order to understand the use of drawings in mathematical problem solving more deeply. For this purpose, three examples in which drawings made by the solver played a critical role in the solutions have been…

Article stresses the skills gained in problem-solving over mere information transmission in the classroom. (GB)

The experience of the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy with a course in non-prescription drugs that emphasizes problem-solving through pattern recognition illustrates that when thinking skills are taught, students value, remember, and can use more of the concepts they study. (MSE)

Transferring the skills learned in mathematics to other contexts is a problem for many students. A new heuristic model of mathematics instruction is proposed. The model would guard against the adoption of mistaken assumptions about mathematics and foster the learning of problem-solving strategies. (VM)

A review of research and theory on cognitive processes and their relationship to instructional technique since the early 1970s looks at the contributions of schema theory and artificial intelligence and their instructional implications, including cognitive load theory, worked examples for learning problem solving, and physical vs. mental…

An experiment using guided design scenarios for a self-care pharmacy practice course found that despite differing entry-level knowledge, all students were able to meet course and unit objectives using the instructional format, indicating it is one method of presenting problem-solving learning activities involving higher-level cognitive processes.…

Qualitative differences between 24 expert teachers and 24 novice teachers in think-aloud protocols related to solving classroom discipline problems were investigated. Results suggest that expert teachers have procedural plans for solving discipline problems and are able to put more attention into defining the problem than are novice teachers. (SLD)

A rationale for the teaching of thinking and problem-solving skills is outlined, and the definition of and design for teaching such skills are discussed. Developing the ability of students to think has surfaced in recent years as one of the major purposes of American education. Problem solving has been described as a major type of thinking…

Differentiates between problem solving and academic learning. The importance of problem-solving possibilities and the characteristics of good problems are discussed. Defines the teacher's role in problem-solving situations and in creating problem-solving possibilities. Delineates four types of problems on the basis of the responses they encourage:…

A justification for the study of teachers' routines, as they affect the preparation of lesson plans, prefaces this paper on teachers' thought processes during lesson planning. In focusing on the importance of research into teachers' routines, it is pointed out that lesson preparation and classroom routines permit teachers to direct attention to…