Contains activities for grades 1 through 8 to develop skills in estimation. Designed to help students deal with numbers sensibly and acquire problem solving competency, the estimation activities involve measurement, telling time, computation, and problem solving. (PK)

Outlines some classroom techniques and learning modes for helping children manage change. Activities should emphasize the exercise of choice and the possibility of alternative "right" answers. Creative lessons, class discussions, and writing activities help students make decisions and gain some control over their life directions. (MLH)

A review of literature on selected relationships among metacognition, quantitative problem-solving, and learning disabilities focuses on three types of problem-solving activities: word problems; knowledge-based problems; and decision and argument problems. Techniques for teaching problem-solving and integrating metacognition principles into…

Explains how computer and game port interfacing reduces the time required for data collection and organization and also stimulates student interest in science laboratory exercises. Illustrates this approach through a description of a population-variation lab. Includes diagrams for the construction of the interface box. (ML)

Institutions can take steps, learned from industry, to enhance self-reliant employees who will provide productivity instead of problems and create organizational excellence. These include a climate nurturing creativity, responsible choices and actions, and personal growth, as well as fringe benefits for employee protection and security such as…

This study investigated the performance of 14 Hispanic and Anglo ninth graders on several problem-solving tasks, with the focus on the interplay of language-related factors in translating several mathematical statements expressing relationships among variables into mathematical equations. (MNS)

Addressing many students' ignorance of library usage, describes an assignment requiring a critical bibliography to be submitted followed by a critical essay. Emphasizes the need, even in introductory large lecture classes, for a working partnership between instructional staff and professional librarians and for students to become familiar with…

Discusses the importance of thinking, communication, and laughter to a successful and useful student publications program. (SRT)

The key to an employee-supported evaluation system is involving a significant majority of those affected in the planning process. This article describes the development of a new evaluation system for 200 administrators and supervisiors based on attitude surveys and a large administrator-dominated steering committee. (MLH)

Dartmouth Medical School offers a problem-based internal medicine clerkship structured to give students an opportunity to think critically through real patient cases with unknown diagnoses and allow faculty to evaluate students' problem-solving skills, clinical judgments, and reasoning without the influence of residents. (MSE)

What students need to know in a world where most computations are done by machine is discussed. Needed changes in the mathematics curriculum are then detailed in relation to mental arithmetic, numeration, decimals and fractions, paper-and-pencil computation, order of operations, problem solving, and instruction on calculator use. (MNS)

Provided are follow-up activities for having students explore the concept of line symmetry. Using a mirror to move a pattern; finding patterns with one, two, or four lines of symmetry; finding asymmetrical patterns; deciding if patterns are different; and solving the problem of finding all patterns possible are discussed. (MNS)

Discusses the features and advantages of the computer language PROLOG, and explains the approach taken in teaching it as a first computer language. Includes an example of the use of PROLOG in programming a science lesson on elements for junior high students. (ML)

Ten- to thirteen-year-old children selected either the objectively more effective keyword method or the naturalistic context method for learning vocabulary meanings. Concludes that, even in the absence of explicit performance feedback, children can be induced to reflect on their use of strategies and their outcomes on subsequent cognitive actions.…

Presents Checkland's soft systems methodology, discusses it in terms of the systems approach, and illustrates how it was used to relate evidence of user survey to practical problems of library management. Difficulties in using methodology are described and implications for library management and information science research are presented. (8…