Goals discussed for developing education into an effective applied science include working toward intellectual standards similar to those in other successful applied sciences, teaching higher level cognitive skills, improving educational delivery through exploitation of current technological means, and striving for the excellence and…

Discusses cognitive mechanisms facilitating effective problem solving in physics (mechanics). Considers content, organization, and description of the knowledge base facilitating scientific problem solving. Also considers procedures used to describe and analyze a problem initially, to search for its solution, and to assess the solution. Educational…

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…

Reports on an experiment in which students were taught the learning skills necessary for the understanding of a physical definition or law and those skills necessary for a type of problem solving. Results indicate that students can be taught such general cognitive skills and that they can transfer these skills to areas outside of physics.…

A prescriptive model of problem-solving performance is described. The aim of the model is to specify explicitly how problems should be described initially in such a form as to facilitate their subsequent solution. According to the model, the process of initial problem description can be decomposed into two successive stages. The first uses general…

This study examined a proposed procedure for constructing theoretical descriptions of mechanics problems, in particular, to determine if the procedure led to explicit and correct descriptions of the motion and interaction of systems and if the resulting theoretical descriptions facilitated generation of correct constraint equations and, hence,…

Describes a systematic study of skills for solving problems in basic physics. Also discusses how detailed observations of individuals were used to formulate models for problem-solving processes in mechanics and applications for teaching basic college physics or engineering courses. (HM)

Discusses some central ideas emerging from a systematic approach to teaching scientific problem-solving skills. Areas considered include: insights derived from naturalistic studies; effective problem-solving methods; problem-solving procedures; characteristics of the knowledge base (focusing on functional conceptual building blocks, knowledge…

A theoretical model specifying the underlying knowledge and procedures whereby human subjects can generate effective initial descriptions of scientific problems was formulated. The model is prescriptive since it does not necessarily try to simulate the behavior of actual experts nor assume that their performance is optimal. The model, elaborated…

Several central ideas emerging from a systematic approach to teaching problem-solving in the quantitative sciences (chemistry, physics, engineering) are discussed. Areas addressed include: differences between teaching and performance, between naturalistic and effective functioning, and between detailed observations and gross statistical data;…