The paper discusses the affective influences on students of problem solving instruction using computers, and the relationship of affective influences to student belief systems. It reviews affective issues and problem solving, and analyzes affect with particular reference to the work of G. Mandler. The paper considers types of congnitive processes,…

This 10-lesson unit blends social studies skills, concepts, and attitudes with language arts, art, and interpersonal relations in a 2-week study of cultures. Using a global perspective, students learn about four geographic regions of the earth (polar, temperate, tropical, desert), adaptation and change in the environment, different aspects of…

A University of New Mexico program in Spanish for professionals began in 1981 as a Spanish and Portuguese program to provide language training for personnel in health care, business, law, and education. The program encountered early problems of uneven enrollments, funding difficulties, and some lack of interest from the campus professional schools…

Designed to address the major conceptual problems associated with evolution and variation and survival in populations, this module can be used with high school students or college nonscience majors including those in elementary education. It is one in a series developed by the project "Overcoming Critical Barriers to Learning in Nonmajors'…

In this middle school mathematics unit two imaginary characters, Horatio and Portia, decide to make their fortune in Quincy Market (Boston, Massachusetts) running a Bull Market cart. In order to solve the problems that they encounter, they need to learn ratio and proportion, map reading, estimation, area and perimeter, population sampling, problem…

This manual was designed for use in conducting staff development sessions for elementary teachers of mathematics in Mississippi in grades K-6. The four topical areas treated in the document are: (1) measurement and geometry; (2) fractions; (3) procedural errors in arithmetic; and (4) problem solving. The number of instructional hours necessary for…

This book attempts to survey some of the current issues of mathematics teaching in elementary schools in Great Britain. Chapter one is an introduction to the material while chapters two and three examine recent reports and suggestions for change and discuss the place of mathematics in the elementary curriculum. Chapter four is devoted to an…

This document is designed to assist administrators and teachers in planning, developing, and implementing grades K-9 mathematics programs and to provide some guidelines for grades 10-12 instruction. It is intended to provide a philosophical foundation and curricular framework from which educators may construct a comprehensive local program to meet…

These materials were developed for use in workshops with teachers. The document suggests a four-stage framework which students can apply to problems: (1) get to know the problem; (2) choose what to do; (3) do it; and (4) look back. Suggestions are included for each of the four stages of the probem solving process. Other specific techniques for…

This paper examines the effect of using a systems thinking approach in existing secondary school curricula to teach content-specific knowledge as well as general problem solving skills, and the effect of using STELLA (Structural Thinking Experimental Learning Laboratory with Animation), a simulation-modeling software program, as a tool by which to…

Numerous research studies indicate that vocational classrooms are subject to "negotiations" between students and teachers that have negative implications for instruction and learning. These negotiations can range from students offering nondisruptive behavior in exchange for a relaxation of academic standards to students offering certain…

Actions that a college might pursue if they have difficulty meeting their financial obligations on dormitory construction loans are discussed by the president of Kansas Wesleyan University. It is noted that when the administration of the loan program was shifted to the new Department of Education (the Department), the agency pushed to collect all…

In response to theories of learning that attempt to get rid of contents, two arguments are provided which suggest that it is theoretically disputable that knowledge develops along the same kind of process for biology and history, physics and mathematics, or the geometry of the triangle, and the geometry of space. The first is that empirical…

While the lecture method of instruction is a good way to transmit facts and information, techniques that actively involve the ego of the learner are preferable for affecting attitudes and/or developing conceptual skills. One family of such techniques is known as simulation techniques. Two methods widely used in industry and colleges are role…

Teaching is rarely theory related or experimentally oriented. The same is true of most teacher preparation courses in training institutions. Basically, both types of teaching involve the transmission of received knowledge and the imitation of performers judged to be skilled. The paradox of the uncritical acceptance of existing teaching practice…