Emerging research on instructional leadership is examined in this paper, with a focus on the new perspective on strategic thinking. The main theme is that research must address the reasoning that underlies the exercise of leadership rather than describe discrete behaviors of effective leaders. A computer simulation designed to facilitate the…

Paradigm Case Analysis (PCA) is a method of increasing instructor effectiveness through the gathering of narratives of critical teaching incidents and experiences from proficient instructors and their analysis in group discussions. Critical Incidents (CI's) may include those in which the instructor's intervention made a significant difference in…

Second in the series "Reading-to-Write: Exploring a Cognitive and Social Process," this report looks at the different ways students represent reading-to-write tasks to themselves, analyzes the resulting divergence in their writing goals and strategies, and recommends teaching task representation as an interpretive process that continues…

Ongoing work toward developing a learning environment that will perform real-time diagnoses of students' difficulties in solving mathematical word problems is described. The learning environment designed consists of a microworld and expert modules. The microworld (or toolbox) is a collection of mouse-driven interfaces that facilitate a transition…

To increase understanding of workplace literacy, a study investigated whether data from structured interviews conducted in two previous studies of job literacy and job performance relationships support the process model of literacy proposed by Linda Flower and John Hayes, "A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing." In both studies, this…

The cognitivist view of composition suggests that if students are supplied with a set of writing strategies, they will learn to think in more complex and powerful ways, observing their own ideas and writing from another person's viewpoint. On the other hand, some social critics argue that composition teachers need to help their students enter into…

During the summer of 1986 a conference funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) was organized to assess the current state of cognitive research on the psychology of physics problem solving, and to examine the needs of physics instructors and instructional designers that must be addressed by a psychological theory of physics problem solving.…

These materials on geometric probability are the first unit in a course being developed by the Mathematics Department at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. This course is designed to prepare high school students who have completed Algebra 2 for the variety of math courses they will encounter in college. Assuming only a knowledge…

This paper examines the cognitive processes associated with higher-order thinking strategies--i.e., cognitive processes directly associated with the employment of knowledge in the service of problem solving and creativity--in order to more clearly define a prescribed instructional method to improve problem-solving skills. The first section of the…

This paper presents a critical review of computer assisted instruction (CAI); an overview of recent intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), including current perceived shortcomings; major activities of the field, i.e., analysis of teaching/learning processes, and extending and developing artificial intelligence techniques for use in intelligent…

This document looks at specific applications of calculus to engineering. It is noted that for an automobile traveling at constant speed, the mathematical relationship between the directional heading and the angular deflection of the steering wheel can be calculated with respect to time. An analysis is presented which derives the relationship from…

Problem-solving skills are becoming increasingly important in the workplace, and more schools are including them in the curriculum. Knowledge of problem solving will be critical to a work force that is dealing with advanced technology, yet many students have yet to master these skills. Based on this premise, this guide attempts to show how…

Well-designed problems are crucial for the success of problem-based learning (PBL). Previous discussions about designing problems for PBL have been rather general and inadequate in guiding educators and practitioners to design effective PBL problems. This paper introduces the 3C3R PBL problem design model as a conceptual framework for…

A study was conducted to develop a model that would promote sex equity by increasing the enrollment of nontraditional sex membership in occupational education programs at North Carolina community colleges. In order to gather input from the colleges involved as well as educational and community leaders, a series of three conferences was planned to…

The development of an operational model that would enable a college institutional research unit to improve administrative decision-making by expanding its data base to include new activities not widely recognized throughout the institution is considered. Attention is directed to institutional research as a function within an institution,…