A 5-year study investigated the effect of training on question-asking skills of 42 licensing examiners in orthopedic surgery. Results indicate that a three-hour training session resulted in examiners' asking many more open-ended and/or problem-solving questions, suggesting the effectiveness of the training program. (Author/MSE)

Argues that educators should reconsider their current commitment to problem solving as the way to promote constructionist teaching and learning and should focus on teaching important ideas developed within the disciplines. This idea-based social constructivism focuses on the possibilities of a given situation. (SLD)

Focuses on the responses of elementary school children (N=336) to an "Awareness of Technology Survey" question intended to explore how they would begin the technological problem-solving process. Contains 29 references. (DDR)

Presents evidence for students' qualitative and quantitative difficulties with apparently simple one-dimensional relative-motion problems, students' spontaneous visualization of relative-motion problems, the visualizations facilitating solution of these problems, and students' memories of the online computer simulation used as a framework for…

Explores the arguments used by 14-year-old students in making decisions about the design of a road in their area. Describes the general perspective of such an approach and the process of argumentation, then analyzes the nature of the students' arguments which are discussed on the basis of a specifically-constructed network. Contains 20 references.…

Two studies examined abstract conditional reasoning. Findings indicated an increase in use of formal justifications with grade, and that abstract reasoning was facilitated by realistic context. Findings supported the idea that such reasoning may represent a qualitative change in reasoning abilities and that its development relies on appropriate…

Anchored instruction calls for the establishment of a macrocontext to "anchor" instruction within a realistic situation. Evidence is provided that video anchors encourage students to adopt certain contrived goals over their more naturalistic goals. Suggests that goals that enable the problem solver to detect the "raison d'etre"…

Discussion of the triarchic theory of intelligence focuses on a study of ninth graders that explored the relationships between student abilities and the cognitive and attitudinal outcomes that resulted from student immersion in a computer-based inquiry environment. Examines outcome variables related to content understanding, problem solving, and…

This study identified cognitive processes that underlie individual differences in working memory (WM) and mathematical problem-solution accuracy in elementary school children at risk and not at risk for serious math difficulties (SMD). A battery of tests was administered that assessed problem solving, achievement, and cognitive processing in…

The likelihood that students will make a successful transition to the college environment is often a function of their readiness--the degree to which previous educational and personal experiences have equipped them for the expectations and demands they will encounter in college. A key problem is that the current measures of college preparation are…

For the thirty-fifth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the national AECT Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

Researches indicate that worked examples could effectively facilitate problem solving by reducing cognitive load during learning. However, there is no study using worked examples in a game-based environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of worked examples on problem solving in a game-based environment. In this study,…

This article reviews didactical and psychologically based research on teachers' work and teacher thinking, narrative educational inquiry and studies of change in teachers' work and places them in the context of sociological theory about expert work and symbolic capital. The work of Abbott on the structure of expert work and knowledge, and Bourdieu…

A socio-constructivist account of learning and emotions stresses the situatedness of every learning activity and points to the close interactions between cognitive, conative and affective factors in students' learning and problem solving. Emotions are perceived as being constituted by the dynamic interplay of cognitive, physiological, and…

This book, designed for grades 2-8, teaches students the creative problem-solving (CPS) method. Each step in the process is outlined in detail and is illustrated with 30 reproducible classroom activities. The levels of the problem-solving approach addressed in the book include: (1) "Sensing Problems and Challenges"; (2) "Fact Finding"; (3)…