The use of quantitative decision making tools provides the decision maker with a range of alternatives among which to decide, permits acceptance and use of the optimal solution, and decreases risk. Training line administrators in the use of these tools can help school business officials obtain reliable information upon which to base district…

The greater organizational complexity of libraries and information centers in recent years has given rise to more complex problems for managers. To facilitate solutions, operations research (OR) techniques have been developed that consider the quantitative dimensions of problems along with their political and organizational aspects. Eight standard…

The teacher consultant's role in working with regular classroom teachers of students with mild to moderate learning or behavior problems is examined. The three-party interaction network in consultation is discussed along with five models of consultation: the expert model, the medical model, the mental health model, the collaboration model, and the…

An approach which is designed to help students better understand the utility of models in understanding and doing physics, specifically in a course in light and color, is described in this paper. Explanations are given and illustrations are provided of an analogue model of waves which assist in the creation of an abstract model to deduce Snell's…

Preschoolers in a model preschool designed to develop children's planning and problem-solving abilities were compared to children in three comparison preschools on measures assessing children's ability to solve problems and plan. Children were also compared on other measures of cognitive ability, including measures of general cognitive…

This paper discusses the incorporation of heuristics in computerized decision aids that are used for structuring decision problems. Decision theory is described in terms of linked subsystems, and sites where it is necessary to employ heuristic rather than normative, algorithmic procedures are identified. Production systems are then used to…

This study investigates the influence of changes in the wording of simple addition and subtraction problems without affecting their semantic structure on the level of difficulty of those problems for first and second graders and on the nature of their errors. The objective is to contribute to a better understanding of the process of constructing a…

Teachers frequently need assistance in meeting the needs of students with behavior and learning problems. Contacts with peers and other staff usually are informal and do not allow thorough analysis of the problem. The Building Support System model used in some North Dakota schools provides prompt, accessible support to teachers through peer…

This paper discusses some means by which one might answer the question of "What makes problem solving hard?" In order to facilitate the investigations required to answer this question, a model of problem solving is needed. From some simulated solutions to a physics problem, several problem solving processes used by students are…

The purpose of this report is to describe the development of a pool of mathematical problem-solving situations and a set of items for each situation which provides information about students' qualitatively different levels of reasoning ability as applied to that situation. For each problem-solving situation, a set of "structured…

Preschoolers 4 and 5 years of age were found to use four strategies differing in temporal characteristics as they solved simple addition problems with sums of 10 or less. Three strategies had visible and/or audible aspects, and one was covert, involving retrieval from memory. The harder the problem, the more often the children used an overt…

Although the distinction between verbal ability and spatial ability is fundamental in all models of human abilities, differences in the relative strengths of verbal and spatial abilities have failed to show consistent interactions with instructional treatments. This study investigated the hypothesis that spatial tests measure different abilities…

Outlines a model which describes the processes that a learner goes through in attempting to solve problems, and suggests ways to assist students in reaching a solution when they are confronted by an apparent impasse. (JR)

This paper describes a three-stage model for helping teachers to prepare themselves for conferencing with inner city parents. All of the concepts, procedures, and processes involved in the model are applicable to routine conferencing as well as the problem-oriented variety of conferencing toward which the model is focused. The first stage of the…

A study was designed to investigate forms of human internal knowledge organization that facilitate the recall of information or its use for complex problem solving tasks. Three experiments, using college and high school physics students, were performed. The effects were studied by: (1) formulating explicit models of organization; (2) using…