Finnish curriculum guidelines for early education emphasise play and creative activities as significant factors in healthy child development. Constructivist theory loosely frames the guidelines, but the recommended approach lacks precise developmental goals. Since 1996, we have carried out a narrative learning project with vertically integrated…

The focus of the article is on the complex cognitive process involved in learning the concept of "straightness" in Non-Euclidean geometry. Learning new material is viewed through a conflict resolution framework, as a student questions familiar assumptions understood in Euclidean geometry. A case study reveals how mathematization of the straight…

"Focus in Grade 1: Teaching with Curriculum Focal Points" describes and illustrates learning paths for the mathematical concepts and skills of each grade 1 Focal Point as presented in Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics. It includes representational supports for teaching and learning that can facilitate…

This book describes and illustrates learning paths for the mathematical concepts and skills of each grade 8 Focal Point as presented in Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics. It includes representational supports for teaching and learning that can facilitate understanding, stimulate productive discussions about…

Most theories of instruction rely on a model of the learner's internal processing system. In this article, three general models of the internal processing system involved in learning to solve problems will be outlined, and will be related to both external instructional procedures and learning outcome variables. (Author/DEP)

This study focussed on how secondary school students construct and use mathematical models as conceptual tools when solving word problems. The participants were 511 secondary-school students who were in the final year of compulsory education (15-16 years old). Four levels of the development of constructing and using mathematical models were…

This article investigates the effect of the vitality of historical issues in collective memory on students' history learning processes and products. Forty 12th grade students of different ethnic background participated in two historical problem-solving learning tasks. The historical issues were found to differ in their vitality in collective…

In this study, the authors compared four multimedia learning arrangements differing in instructional approach on effectiveness and efficiency for learning: (a) hypermedia learning, (b) observational learning, (c) self-explanation-based learning, and (d) inquiry learning. The approaches all advocate learners' active attitude toward the learning…

The article addresses obstructions to problem solving (such as an overemphasis on learning facts) and suggests six steps to overcome those obstacles: (1) recognizing that the problem exists, (2) understanding the problem, (3) analyzing the problem, (4) considering alternative solutions, (5) choosing the best solution, and (6) evaluating the…

Results indicate that training in semantic awareness increased problem-solving ability for both analytic and synthetic problems. (Author)

Although there is still routine in most jobs, knowledge work, in which workers combine and interpret information to find solutions for new problems, is becoming more prevalent. This implies a fundamental change in the relationship between working and learning. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/JOW)

This study discusses findings that replicate and extend the original work of Burns and Vollmeyer (2002), which showed that performance in problem-solving tasks was more accurate when people were engaged in a non-specific goal than in a specific goal. The main innovation here was to examine the goal specificity effect under both observation-based…

With regard to transfer, is it better to provide pupils with ready-made representations or is it more effective to scaffold pupils' thinking in the process of generating their own representations with the help of peers and under the guidance of a teacher in a process of guided co-construction? The sample comprises 10 classes and 239 Grade 5…

The professional expertise of educational leaders has been defined through the lens of problem-solving processes. Problem-based learning has therefore become an increasingly popular instructional approach in principal preparatory programs. As such, this study represents an initial attempt to explore learning from success (i.e., success-based…

This literature review concerns the relationships between imitation-modeling as a learning process and creative behaviors. If it can be demonstrated that creative (unusual, flexible) behaviors are increased upon seeing other creative behaviors modeled, this finding would contradict the simple matching to template interpretation for modeling…