In interviews with several hundred business, nonprofit, philanthropic, and education leaders, the author identified seven "survival skills" that 21st century students need to succeed as workers and citizens: (1) critical thinking and problem-solving; (2) collaboration and leadership; (3) ability and adaptability; (4) initiative and…

Among secondary school students, (1) although the content of their stated school problems included peer relations and institutional restrictions, the salient content involved teacher affectivity; (2) the quality with which problems were formulated was primarily "egocentric" rather than "socially sensitive"; and (3) content and…

Discusses the human brain's specialized perception/expression and information processing systems as they relate to student learning. For high school students in the formal reasoning stage, it is suggested that teachers provide instruction based on mental exercises to develop problem-solving insight. (DH)

Investigates reasoning strategies students use in solving stoichiometric problems and explores the relation between these strategies and alternative conceptions, prior knowledge, and cognitive variables. Results show how stoichiometric relations produce conflicting situations for students leading to conceptual misunderstanding of certain concepts.…

Constructivist theory recognizes the student's value as thinker. Thinking ability hinges on the capacity to ask and consider important questions. Teachers need question-driven problem-solving strategies that are comprehensive, adaptable, discriminating, productive, and transferable. This article explains four types of situations and accompanying…

Examines the role of individual preference in the measurement of a student's cognitive level of development utilizing 324 science students from grade eight to college seniors. Results indicate that although students may possess formal thought ability, they may prefer to solve certain problem types via concrete methods. (SL)

Investigates the influence of five cognitive variables on high school students' performance on balancing chemical equations by inspection. Reports that reasoning, restructuring, and disembedding variables could be a single variable, and that working memory capacity does not influence overall performance. Results of hierarchical regression analysis…

The problem-solving difficulties of Nigerian preservice chemistry teachers (n=300) were investigated. The results from written tests and an interview show students were capable of constructing mental representations but not solution plans; had inappropriate approaches and strategies; exhibited structural errors relating to a disregard of given…

Examines some correlates of programing ability that can predict the computer programing performance of students. Finds that students who score high on mathematics and spatial tests will score high on programing ability tests. Finds that boys perform significantly better than girls in programing ability, as do those who possess home computers. (KO)

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students from different academic settings differ in their usage of metacognitive strategies in mathematical problem solving, and if they do, what the differences are. A questionnaire was administered to students at various levels from academic tracks and academic streams requiring them to…

Activities to supplement secondary school global or future studies courses in the 10 state Mountain West region are presented in this teacher handbook. Material is divided into 3 sections. Section 1, an introduction to international connectedness, contains 7 activities focusing on the Mountain West's interdependence with the rest of the world. A…

Examines various types of problems that researchers have used to demonstrate problem solving. Focuses on genetics problems. Discusses classes of learning outcomes, conceptual knowledge gains, content-independent heuristics, content-specific procedures, understanding the nature of science and a typology of genetics problems. (CW)

Offers a list of effective practice techniques for string teachers who want either to renew their own teaching techniques or refresh the techniques they have been implementing with new ideas. Believes teachers should remember that practice is unique for each student and should cater their techniques to this notion. (CMK)

Describes an investigation of the strategies used by 47 high school students in solving volumetric analysis problems in chemistry. Reports that students in the high ability group mainly used the "formula" approach, while those in the low ability group tended to use the "proportional" approach to problem solving. (TW)

Research in this project studied cognitive processes involved in understanding and solving problems used in instruction in the domain of mathematics, and explored implications of these cognitive analyses for the design of instruction. Three general issues were addressed: knowledge required for understanding problems, knowledge of the conditions…