The aim of this study is to analyze and document the extent to which high school teachers rely on a set of technology affordances to articulate epistemological and cognitive actions in problem solving approaches. Participants were encouraged to construct dynamic representations of tasks and always to look for different ways to identify and support…

Studies in cognitive science have verified that working memory (where the brain solves problems) can manipulate nearly all elements of knowledge that can be recalled automatically from long-term memory, but only a few elements that have not previously been well memorized. Research in reading comprehension has found that "lecture notes with…

Open-ended questions, as discussed in this article, are questions that can be solved or explained in a variety of ways, that focus on conceptual aspects of mathematics, and that have the potential to expose students' understanding and misconceptions. When working with teachers who are using open-ended questions with their students for the…

This study, part of a series investigating students' use of online tools to assess problem solving, uses eye-tracking hardware and software to explore the effect of problem difficulty and cognitive processes when students solve gas law word problems. Eye movements are indices of cognition; eye-tracking data typically include the location,…

In a series of two in vivo experiments, we examine whether correct and incorrect examples with prompts for self-explanation can be effective for improving students' conceptual understanding and procedural skill in Algebra when combined with guided practice. In Experiment 1, students working with the Algebra I Cognitive Tutor were randomly assigned…

Although any mainstream thought is subject to theoretical challenges, the challenges to the mainstream cognitive perspective on transfer have had an unfortunate divisive effect. This article takes a pragmatic view that transfer perspectives are simply designed objects (Plomp & Nieveen, 2007), which provide different information for different…

Undergraduate students were asked to complete gas law questions using a Web-based tool as a first step in our understanding of the role of cognitive load in chemistry word questions and in helping us assess student problem-solving. Each question contained five different complexity factors, which were randomly assigned by the tool so that a…

Thanks to technological progress the world becomes more and more complicated. People stand in front of new and difficult problems that need to be solved. These are problems, the solutions of which are not universal, and cannot be learned. Many solutions require specific data that cannot be learned, as new data is part of the ongoing generation of…

Research has shown that affordances of computers may be exploited in the design of mathematical tasks so as to provide interesting and challenging activities. At the same time, opportunities for learning mathematics may be constrained if the design of the task is not appropriate. A tool which allows teachers, researchers and task designers to…

These two issues of a newsletter address the use of computers in developing complex thinking skills. The first issue, for May 1986, includes articles on: environmental science computer applications; computers and higher order thinking in Mineola, New York; a description of case study research identifying effective uses of computers in developing…

Describes a study that illustrates that collaborative-thought experiments are emergent phenomena triggered by events as a whole rather than being predesigned. Points out that participants gradually adopt shared graphical representations and meanings. Contains 28 references. (DDR)

Investigates whether high school Algebra I students' (n=29) writing about their mathematical problem solving processes showed evidence of a metacognitive framework. Indicates that various metacognitive behaviors were present in students' writings. Describes the more predominant metacognitive behaviors. (Contains 36 references.) (Author/ASK)

Studied patterns of self-explanation that distinguish between good and poor problem solvers. Results with 32 ninth graders identify self-explanation patterns that show that poor problem solvers are more likely to produce clarifications after inferences and good problem solvers are more likely to produce justifications after regulations. (SLD)

Because research indicates that specific cognitive deficiencies do exist for hearing-impaired individuals (though the normal range of intellectual potential exists among the hearing-impaired as a group), Instrumental Enrichment (IE), an approach developed originally in response to the need for mediated learning experiences for culturally…

Presents a framework for differentiating between five levels of extension of knowledge: basic features, forms, rules, application, and elaboration. Comparison of the extent of knowledge use exhibited by (n=14) Year-11 Australian students on a range of plane geometry problems found that high-achieving students exhibited greater extension of…