Reports a study which identified different problem-solving strategies among Hong Kong high school chemistry students. Finds that student experts employed a recognition plus a working forwards strategy, whereas student novices attempted a means-end analysis to create a solution procedure. Comparisons were made with problem-solving in physics. (GG)

Didactic transposition theory asserts that bodies of knowledge are designed not to be taught but to be used. Discusses didactic transposition, the transposition of knowledge regarded as a tool to be used to knowledge as something to be learned in mathematics textbooks. (14 references) (MDH)

Reviews research indicating that students' cognitive models hold random events to be equiprobable Examined 87 students between the ages of 15 and 17 to determine whether masking a random event using geometric figures would affect the students' view of the event as equiprobable. Results indicated that masking overcame the equiprobable bias of the…

Considers the relevance of cognitive learning theory to instructional design for effective learning. Highlights include the organization of knowledge; systems approach; cognitive process learning; schema theory; and components of a model for instructional design, including pretesting, motivational considerations, media selection, and validation.…

Examines quantitative models in school physics, looking particularly at the degree to which they match the real world. Explores the positive aspects of a mismatch between models and real world conditions. (DDR)

Suggests that the study of memory needs to be situated within broader conceptual and research contexts. Examines how four contexts accommodate memory phenomena: (1) knowledge; (2) comprehension; (3) context/function; and (4) strategy. Suggests that memories are best examined as knowledge structures resulting from efforts to understand, and that…

Effective belief-desire reasoning requires both specialized representational capacities--the capacity to represent the mental states as such--as well as executive selection processes for accurate performance on tasks requiring the prediction and explanation of the actions of social agents. Compromised belief-desire reasoning in a given population…

In the present study, a semantic perspective on e-learning theory is advanced and a modelling approach is used. This modelling approach towards the new learning theory is based on the four SECI phases of knowledge conversion: Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination and Internalisation, introduced by Nonaka in 1994, and involving two levels of…

Designed to focus attention on the design process in such computer science activities as information systems design, database design, and expert systems design, this paper examines three main phases of the design process: understanding the context of the problem, identifying the problem, and finding a solution. The processes that these phases…

This examination of the application of the products and processes of science to the field of education argues that education is entrenched in an outdated scientific mode--that of a Newtonian model--and proposes a more contemporary model of relativity which purports that wholes cannot be broken into parts, that variables are not isolatable but…

There has long been dispute in mathematics between the drill and practice orientation that focuses primarily on memorizing mathematics as meaningless rote algorithms and the approach based on understanding and making creative use of mathematics. This 25-chapter book, based on a 7-year study at the University of Illinois, seeks to explain and…

Outlines a path analytic interpretation of data collected in light of the theoretical formulation of a dynamic model of memory. An investigation of industrial trainees' capacity to differentiate various ferrous and nonferrous metals is described which emphasizes the role of relational, strategic, and empirical knowledge in cognitive skill…

In this report, the authors aim to review and advance knowledge of systematic ways of classifying thinking skills. They concentrate on taxonomies and theory-based frameworks, in the belief that studying and using them will promote better understanding of how people think and learn at the age of 16 or above. Their overarching interest is in how…

In the study, a part of longitudinal research focused on the emergence of mathematical knowledge structures in a learner's mind is presented. It concentrates on the analysis of introspective data gained from the author's study of a non-standard arithmetic structure in terms of the model of abstraction in context (Hershkowitz, Schwarz and Dreyfus).…

Evaluation of Israeli students, 392 in grades 7-9 and 381 in grades 10-12, in the domain of literature supported the construct validity of the 4 X 4 Structure of Giftedness Model, in which giftedness is conceptualized in 4 categories of general and specific intellectual ability and original thinking and 4 ordered ability levels embedded in a…