Problem-solving skills are often identified as a key component of 21st century education. This study collected data from students enrolled in a university-level Liberal Education science course called "Problems and Puzzles," which introduced students to the theory and practice of problem solving via puzzles. Based on classroom…

Engineers commonly use rules, theories and models that lack scientific justification. Examples include rules of thumb based on experience, but also models based on obsolete science or folk theories. Centrifugal forces, heat and cold as substances, and sucking vacuum all belong to the latter group. These models contradict scientific knowledge, but…

This study examined relationships between important aspects of a university education and the assessment and development of generic skills. A sample of 323 students enrolled in single or double arts, engineering and/or science degrees from a research-intensive university in Australia were administered the Graduate Skills Assessment to measure four…

Analyzed a corpus of videotapes in which university students solved physics problems to determine how students learn to understand a physics equation. Found that students learn to understand physics equations in terms of a vocabulary of elements called symbolic forms, each associating a simple conceptual schema with a pattern of symbols. Findings…

Interviews with 20 engineers revealed that their approach to technological problem-solving bore little resemblance to the model of "problem-solving through technology" in the Alberta elementary science curriculum. Engineers emphasized the importance of context and previous experience in making decisions about each unique situation,…

The central research question in this study was whether structured active learning affects the abilities of science and engineering undergraduates to relate abstract concepts and realistic applications more than a relatively traditional instructional method. More specifically, the research was designed to determine whether differences in the…

This paper presents four philosophies of science teaching for teachers to use that encourage optimal learner achievement. Information is provided on an experimentalist or problem solving approach, an idealistic or subject-centered science curricula, a decision-making approach, and criterion-referenced procedures for learning. Two psychologies of…

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.…

Games and Simulations in Online Learning: Research and Development Frameworks examines the potential of games and simulations in online learning, and how the future could look as developers learn to use the emerging capabilities of the Semantic Web. It presents a general understanding of how the Semantic Web will impact education and how games and…

When one encounters a problem that one has no adequate way of representing, a new mental model for the problem may have to be found. When a possible model is found, an important next step is to evaluate the validity of the model. In this document, examples of subjects finding and evaluating mental models used as problem representations are…

Knowledge of theory, of research, and of potential strategies is an important component in any educational equity effort. Unless these kinds of knowledge can be applied to specific situations, they are of little "real life" value. The use of vignettes may help. A vignette is a short story without an ending that presents an issue. The…

This guide is designed to provide a rationale and structure which can enable educational planners and decision makers in Kansas to develop and select science curricula. The content of the publication is intended to be used by administrators in charge of curriculum, departmental and district science chairpersons, and all teachers, citizens and…

This book of 16 chapters by various contributors is intended to assist teachers to translate theory into practical classroom strategies for mainstreaming children with disabilities. It includes guidelines for the detection of 101 special needs and more than 1000 corrective strategies. Chapters have the following titles and authors: "Teaching All…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2015-END 2015, taking place in Porto, Portugal, from 27 to 29 of June. Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks, feels and…