This paper is a commentary on three other papers presented at the 1983 American Educational Research Association Symposium on "The Trainability of Information Processing and Problem Solving Skills." The papers focus on certain aspects of the training of complex skills, such as reading, that can presumably be broken down into a variety of skills.…

This document presents hypotheses about how much understanding a user needs to perform skillfully using a computer or a computer program. A framework for characterizing user understanding is presented which includes three criteria for evaluating the representation generated during problem solving: (1) internal coherence--whether the components of…

As a consequence of studies indicating that students' ability to think can be improved through direct instruction, this booklet presents one approach to teaching thinking skills within the context of existing curricula--a model described as the "inclusion process." The booklet discusses what thinking skills should be taught and how to…

This document was written for junior and senior high school students to help them learn to cope more effectively with their problems. It is intended as a quide for helping adolescents explore and solve problems through constructive critical thinking. Ten steps in the process of constructive critical thinking are presented with personal and social…

This paper, which analyzes the evaluative aspect of affectivity, argues that the functional internalization of organic evolution for the formation of the intellectual system of human beings required that some means of selecting behavioral variations be devised, and that the selective mechanism devised was the affective system. From this…

The refinement of the cognitive knowledge base was studied through exploration of the transition from novice to expert and the use of an instructional strategy called novice knowledge engineering. Six college freshmen, who were enrolled in an honors physics course, used an expert system to create questions, decisions, rules, and explanations…

The Rule Space Model, a cognitive error diagnostic methodology, is discussed, and the philosophy behind it is related to the question of what really determines item response curves. The Rule Space approach integrates Item Response Theory and the algebraic theory of databases. An application of Graph Theory is introduced as a way to acquire a list…

This project was designed to construct a single theoretical framework for the analysis of problem solving and real time "attention and performance" behavior. The model was developed as a computer program. It was designed in a similar manner to that of various problem solving simulations that use the "production system"…

Artificial intelligence, or the study of ideas that enable computers to be intelligent, is discussed in terms of what it is, what it has done, what it can do, and how it may affect the teaching of tomorrow. An extensive overview of artificial intelligence examines its goals and applications and types of artificial intelligence including (1) expert…

The goal of this study was to find a way to quantify three criteria of representational quality, described by Greeno, so that it would be possible to examine statistically the relationship between representational quality and other variables related to problem solution. The sample consisted of 18 college students, 84 percent of whom had…

This report introduces the concept of a "metacourse"--i.e., the provision of mental models, problem solving strategies, key concepts, and other structures--to assist students in learning programming, and examines the effect of the use of such a metacourse on high school programming students. The experimental group consisted of 6 teachers…

The Information Age has been shaping the conception of thinking in education through the capability of computerized problem solving, through the resulting application of the information processing model to human thinking, and through the theories emerging from other cognitive science research in metacognition, construction of knowledge, and…

The call for more empirical research in art education during the 1950s seems to be a precursor of the contemporary move toward more systematic instruction in the visual arts. If making art employs nonverbal aesthetic concepts, then conceptual consistency and problem solving within studio instruction can facilitate students' acquisition, retention,…

The study was conducted to gain some insight regarding whether the nature of critical thinking skills in biology appears to be different than the nature of more general critical thinking skills. The study falls within the context of previous studies (e.g., research by J. P. Guilford, 1967; and M. Rokeach, 1973) that used empirical methods to…

This paper describes part of a course for college freshmen entitled "Computation, Reasoning, and Problem Solving," which uses the LOGO programming language to integrate computer programming skills, collaborative problem solving skills, and writing skills. Discussion of the computer programming component includes two of the LOGO problem…