The booklet focuses on the use of the logical inductive strategy to teach problem solving skills to mildly retarded learners. An introductory section examines three research studies on interventions in the area of problem solving with the retarded learner and concludes, among other things, that mainstreaming has underscored the need for this…

Reported is an attempt to examine the nature of the reasoning used by college students who consistently erred on timer tape problems and a comparison of their performance with that of students who made logical responses. The author suggests that the poor performance of students, classified as intuitive responders, is a result of their use of an…

CHANGES WERE STUDIED IN THE PROBLEM-SOLVING BEHAVIOR OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AS A FUNCTION OF A CAREFULLY DESIGNED TRAINING PROGRAM. TRAINING WAS DEFINED AS THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT AWARENESS OF PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES USED. INSTRUMENTS WERE DEVELOPED AND REFINED TO MEASURE PROBLEM-SOLVING BEHAVIOR. SPECIFICALLY TESTED WAS THE FOLLOWING…

A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS WAS DESIGNED TO STUDY THE VALUE OF TEACHING CHILDREN SUCH A COMPLEX PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGY AS TO USE KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS AFTER A PERFORMANCE TRIAL TO REJECT MORE THAN ONE HYPOTHESIS AT A TIME (MULTIPLE HYPOTHESIS STRATEGY). APPROXIMATELY 150 THIRD-GRADE CHILDREN WERE DIVIDED INTO 3 GROUPS--THOSE TAUGHT THE MULTIPLE…

This study investigated the relationships between Piagetian logical reasoning abilities with an information processing capacity, and first-grade children's performance on verbal addition and subtraction problems. An analysis of simple arithmetic problems indicated that several reasoning abilities identified by Piaget are needed to achieve…

Presented are abstracts of 18 research reports. Topics covered include: (1) The effect of a numeration learning hierarchy on mathematics attitudes in kindergarten children; (2) Children's acquisition and production of mathematical rules; (3) Preschoolers' abilities to recognize counting errors; (4) Young children's solution processes for verbal…

Forty-three first-grade children, who had received no formal instruction in addition and subtraction, were individually administered 20 problems that could be solved using addition or subtraction. The problems were selected to represent the following semantic types: joining, separating, part-part-whole, comparison, and equalizing. Responses were…

This study investigated the differential effectiveness of two instructional techniques for field-dependent and field-independent fourth graders. Instruction consisted of eight worksheets and two tests. For one group worksheets contained perceptual structuring while for the other they contained both perception and cognitive structuring. This…

This investigation compares overt judgments about tenable hypotheses to choices in a concept identification task, as a function of stimulus similarity on successive trials. Two mathematical models are tested: (a) A 1-element local consistency version of Restle's concept identification model and (b) the same model with two additional passive states…

This issue, part of an annual series prepared for Maryland educators, presents the problem solving aspect of learning behavior by reviewing some of the variables which affect how individuals confront intellectual problems. Selected studies and a bibliography which are helpful in developing instructional methods which take into account individual…

Five experiments are reported which relate to sex-role identification in problem solving. Instruments used on high school and college students include a booklet of 20 problems that had illustrated sex differences during an earlier study, the Terman-Miles M-F Test to measure sex-role identification, an open-ended personal history questionnaire and…

This paper outlines the syntactic structures which represent a stage in the cognitive development of children, and focusses on an aspect of cognitive development known as conservation. The cognitive components of conservation are presented as the primordial base for the set of syntactic structures which map or mirror them. Piaget proposed four…

Defines skills used in the reasoning process: problem solving, classification and organization, making reasoned judgments, and researching a subject. Lists Vermont's basic competencies in reasoning and notes that teachers and the community must accept the competencies of reasoning as legitimate educational concerns. (KC)

Reviews current studies that emphasize teacher thinking processes. (Author/MLF)

The author reviews pertinent studies conducted between 1917 and 1973 in which the introspective-retrospective technique of data gathering was employed in determining the mental processes of children in arithmetical reasoning and the difficulties encountered. (MN)