Describes an online self-organizing social system (OSOSS) which allows large numbers of individuals to self-organize in a highly decentralized manner to solve problems and accomplish other goals. Topics include scalability and bandwidth in online learning; self-organization; learning objects; instructional design underlying OSOSS, including…

Argues that students should continuously question the purpose of their daily classroom activities and assignments. Explains that when students are required to consider purpose, they begin to develop important intellectual skills, and to bring relevance to their critical thinking and daily life. (NB)

Explores high school students' collaborative efforts in solving qualitative physics problems and investigates how and whether confronting students with varying views improves problem solving skills. (Contains 22 references.) (DDR)

Explores the effects of using online notepads to take notes on problem solving and learning in a scientific domain. Describes experiments conducted at George Mason University with undergraduate students that showed positive benefits for problems solving and self-explanation when using online notepads. (Contains 50 references.) (Author/LRW)

This article describes the pitfalls of using key words to support students when problem solving, and provides an alternative way (quantitative analysis) to support students' sense-making. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

Strategy games can provide an interesting context for students to solve problems in an elementary mathematics classroom. The games are easy to learn, but finding a winning strategy exercises students to develop different methods to win the game.

Students in a fifth-grade general education class and a second-grade gifted class participated in the Triangular Bicycle Flags problem. The results indicated that providing students with geometric experiences at the correct van Hiele level is necessary for helping students move from one level of understanding to the next.

Groups of first-grade (mean age = 82 months), third-grade (mean age = 107 months), and fifth-grade (mean age = 131 months) children with a learning disability in mathematics (MD, n=58) and their normally achieving peers (n = 91) were administered tasks that assessed their knowledge of counting principles, working memory, and the strategies used to…

College students' strategies to discriminate relevant from irrelevant information in algebra story problems were identified and compared to strategies used by younger students in previous studies. College students identified numbers relevant for solution (Experiment 1) or provided verbal reports as they computed answers (Experiment 2). Type of…

In this paper, the author aims to offer an elaboration of simple, yet powerful, mathematical patterns through mathematical games. Mathematical games may serve as colorful instructional tools for teachers and textbooks, and may raise students' motivation and intuition. Patterns are fundamental in mathematics and computer science. In the case of…

Curriculum modification strategies, particularly curriculum adaptations and augmentations, have been identified as important to enable learners with disabilities to achieve access to and progress in the general curriculum. There is, however, relatively little research on the effect of these strategies with students with intellectual and…

A research project explored the idea that reasoning develops in distinct phases of thinking as individuals journey from simplistic learning of facts to highly proficient consequence predicting of integrated relationships. These results were derived from a study that examined the thinking processes and problem-solving actions of 13 students and…

Applying and adapting a variety of appropriate heuristic strategies is one of the accepted standards of problem solving (NCTM, 2000). Thinking through a solution to a non-routine mathematical task, experts in problem solving call into play many sophisticated strategies (almost) without conscious efforts, while novices need to be taught how to do…

A technique to teach cognitive skills to directly facilitate abstract and rational thinking is described. Based on George Kelly's theory of personal constructs, his Role Construct Repertory Test has students construe similarities and differences among important course concepts rather than provide individual definitions or examples of those…

This study investigated the effects of solution-oriented and strategy-oriented feedback when using interactive computer-assisted instruction. The feedback confirmed problem solving strategies that were either similar to the learner's cognitive strategies (i.e., spatial strategies) or different from the learner's cognitive strategies (i.e.,…