Two inquiry-based teaching activities that are structured to cause cognitive disequilibrium and enable the student to alleviate the disequilibrium with the resultant equilibration at a higher cognitive level are presented. The first activity uses a Cartesian diver and the second a short film in which students are asked to determine the main idea…

A model of critical thinking is developed, encompassing problem solving and creative thinking. The central role of critical thinking in adult education is explored, concluding that development of the concept and how to teach it need attention. (SK)

Order and entropy exist in all human and environmental processes. Technological innovation begins with entropy, and problem solving creates order. Humans learn by building order through conceptualizing but create entropy by not using a wider range of learning methods. (SK)

Recounts a teacher's experiences with a small group of elementary school students as they explore different forms of the combinatorics problem of choosing two out of five objects. Describes how students examine the connections between the problems and a proof of the relationship. (MDH)

Reports on a study that examined potential links between mental models constructed by students, the organizational quality of students' prior geometric knowledge, and the use of that knowledge during problem solving. Suggests that the quality of geometric knowledge that students develop could have a powerful effect on their mental models and…

In order to help students more effectively, it is necessary to know how students use and perceive mathematics in out-of-school settings. Discusses some mathematical concepts and processes--such as the concept of function and the process of estimating--which provide evidence of students' mathematical ideas. (ASK)

Describes the implementation of a modular approach and some of the active learning strategies it employs, plans for evaluating the effectiveness of this approach, and plans for disseminating it broadly within the undergraduate chemistry community. (DDR)

Introduces conceptual physics, which does not have the computational roadblock typical to most physics courses and appeals to both science and non-science students. First published in 1990. (YDS)

Investigates 55 6th grade students' conceptions of "invention and patent processes". Suggests that students have few or simplistic conceptions of invention and patent processes and prior exposure to invention instruction, or previous experiences with inventing did not appear to have an impact on students' conceptions of invention. (Contains 70…

This article discusses the algorithm for multiplication that is referred to as lattice multiplication. Evidence of how the author's preservice students' conceptual understanding of the algorithm grew through the semester is given. In addition, the author extends the conceptualization of the algorithm from the multiplication of whole numbers to the…

This case study describes a teacher's development of and creativity in manipulating physical models in an astronomy course for in-service science teachers of K-8. Specifically, she organized a data table from several charts of numbers, constructed a moon-ball model in addition to a 2-D model, and created a hula hoop model as a concrete realization…

This study had two major purposes: to examine the effects of dimensional salience upon the learning of conjunction and disjunction rules, and to investigate an alternative to the prevailing cognitive-change accounts of developmental differences in multidimensional problem solving. The relative salience of each of four stimulus dimensions (form,…

Jerome Kagen, who developed instruments to measure and classify the aspect of man's psychological make-up known as conceptual tempo, generated 3 conceptual tempos: reflective, impulsive, and neutral. These tempos are determined by measuring latency time (time lapse) from stimulus to first response and recording the number of errors made. In this…

The paper identifies some major issues in assessing creative problem solving. Four main problems are discussed: (1) no single widely accepted theory of creativity exists; (2) there is a lack of understanding of the implications of the differences in assessment procedures; (3) researchers, on the one hand, view creativity as entirely a cognitive…

In positively assessing Johnson (1978) (AA 529 124), this research proposes that the basic purpose of normative models of selection strategies is the development of continuous quantitative measures of problem-solving efficiency, while descriptive models determine degree of correspondence between formal normative models and actual behavior.…