Based on data from eleven thousand faculty members, this study shows that general education courses place greater emphasis on developing intellectual skills, personal and social responsibility, deep approaches to learning, and diverse interactions. In contrast, other courses emphasize practical skills and are linked with greater levels of…

TWO SWITCH-LIGHT PROBLEMS WERE USED TO INVESTIGATE THREE VARIABLES THAT INFLUENCE PROBLEM-SOLVING PERFORMANCE--(1) THE NUMBER OF DISTRACTING RESPONSE ALTERNATIVES, (2) THE NUMBER OF AVAILABLE RESPONSE ALTERNATIVES, AND (3) THE NUMBER OF MINIMALLY REQUIRED RESPONSES. IN THE PROBLEMS USED, THE SUBJECT ATTEMPTED TO ACHIEVE A PARTICULAR PATTERN OF…

Addressing three related objectives, this paper: identifies characteristics and trends in rural areas which are problematic for the traditional approaches of education and social work; indicates some of the implications of traditional education and social work practice; and specifies how the Guided Design model can address these problematic…

The central purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of distractions in nonverbal problems on the problem solving behavior and performance of young children (grades 1-3) in 6 schools (N=360). Results indicated 66 percent of the subjects were distracted by irrelevant spatial-numerical or color attribute uses. (JC)

An overview is presented of the current psychological and educational research on inductive reasoning. It focuses on the processes and skills underlying the solutions to inductive reasoning tasks. A short review is also presented on the research paradigms. The existence and nature of learning skills and relevant educational implications are…

Based on research results on learning disabled children's spelling, it is argued that spelling errors produced by carefully selected LD elementary-school students cannot be interpreted as deviating from errors expected from younger, normally achieving children. Data are interpreted to support a cognitive-developmental model of spelling…

This article presents the argument that being explicit about a previously implicit process has a profound sociological effect---it changes that process from an elitist to an egalitarian activity. (Author)

Research supported by National Research Council of Canada Grant No. APA-250.

Learning is analyzed into two components, monitoring and strategy learning, using a technique that avoids the confounding of the Durling and Schick method. A strategy analysis showed that most subjects employed the same strategy across problems. Strategy shifters displayed a small tendency toward more efficient strategies. (Author/GK)

A comparison of 11 reading disabled and 11 normal children's (mean age 9 years) responses to a conditional discrimination learning set (LS) task was undertaken. The results indicated that normal children are more adept at solving the LS task than the reading disabled children. (Author/CL)

Presents a preliminary analysis from a study designed to investigate the participation of students learning English as an additional language in primary school mathematics. Concerns how students make sense of mathematics classroom interaction. Describes and uses the findings of three patterns of attention in the process of two students'…

Considers well-structured problems versus ill-structured problems and presents models for how learners solve them, as well as models for designing instruction to support problem-solving skill development. Information processing theories of learning, an emerging theory of ill-structured problem solving, constructivist learning, and situated…

Discussion of learning how to solve problems focuses on instructional design models and how students construct their knowledge and learn skills. Topics discussed include conceptual knowledge; procedural knowledge and skills; knowledge representation; causal knowledge; types of knowledge and relevant skills; knowledge acquisition; prediction and…