A frequent task in educational settings is to assign students to groups based on stated preferences for some projects or topics. This paper introduces a web-based tool supporting both the work flow of collecting student data and the group formation. The latter is based on finding optimal solutions to suitable mathematical assignment problems,…

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of the meta-cognitive strategies on the academic and gaming achievements. Exploring the effects of those achievements on the social problem solving of students is also of interest. For this purpose, the MMORPG [Massively Multiple Online Role Playing Game] "Gersang" was used. The…

With student numbers decreasing and traditional teaching methods having been found inefficient, it is widely accepted that alternative teaching methods need to be explored in tertiary physics education. In 2006 a different teaching environment was offered to 244 first year students with little or no prior formal instruction in physics. Students…

The relationship between social identity, family and school context, problem-solving style, self-esteem, health behaviour, psychological distress, and victimisation, was explored in a quasi-experimental survey of 461 children aged between 11 and 15 years old. There was a high prevalence of victimisation (29%) in the group and 44% of those…

The goal of this first major report from the Western Reserve Reading Project Math component is to explore the etiology of the relationship among tester-administered measures of mathematics ability, reading ability, and general cognitive ability. Data are available on 314 pairs of monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins analyzed across 5 waves of…

Marriage and family therapy (MFT) faculty and graduate students rated the "typical" or predictable behaviors of husbands or wives coming for therapy using the Georgia Marriage Q-sort. Scores were compared with previously published scores for both "ideal" couples (i.e., showing positive behaviors, attitudes, and problem-solving skills) and a sample…

A major objective of this chapter is to present a novel, ecologically sensitive social problem-solving task for school-aged children that captures the complexity of social and cognitive demands placed on children in naturalistic situations. Competence on this task correlates with a range of skills including executive functions, verbal reasoning,…

We examine whether the array representation can support children's understanding and reasoning in multiplication. To begin, we define what we mean by understanding and reasoning. We adopt a "representational-reasoning" model of understanding, where understanding is seen as connections being made between mental representations of concepts, with…

Small towns are often depicted as places with many interpersonal relationships and generalized trust, or high social capital. Social capital is a resource which towns can use to solve problems and improve the local quality of life. In this paper, I determined if social capital and civic engagements have declined in small towns in the U.S. Midwest…

Science educators define a learning environment in which the problem drives the learning as problem based learning (PBL). Problem based learning can be a learning methodology/process or a curriculum based on its application by the teacher. This paper discusses the basic premise of Problem base learning and successful applications of such learning.…

The concepts of self-determination and self-advocacy have been a focus in the education of students with disabilities and many new curricula, guidelines, and materials have recently become available for educators. This article describes a project that involved individuals with intellectual disabilities in making a movie as a strategy for exploring…

Purpose: The Rapid Assessment of Problem Solving test (RAPS) is a clinical measure of problem solving based on the 20 Questions Test. This article updates clinicians on the RAPS, addresses questions raised about the test in an earlier article (R. C. Marshall, C. M. Karow, C. Morelli, K. Iden, & J. Dixon, 2003a), and discusses the clinical…

This study investigates the effects of prior experience, task instruction, and choice on creative performance. Although extant research suggests that giving people choice in how they approach a task could enhance creative performance, we propose that this view needs to be circumscribed. Specifically, we argue that when choice is administered…

College art students were videotaped creating original drawings from an array of objects. Judges reliably assessed the creativity of the drawings. Videos of the creation of ten high- and ten low-rated drawings were coded frame-by-frame to quantify the extent to which artists engaged in several categories of activities (selecting objects, selecting…

Energy is a critical concept in physics problem-solving, but is often a major source of confusion for students if the presentation is not carefully crafted by the instructor or the textbook. Confusion can be caused by the careless use of language in energy discussions. Students consciously or unconsciously imitate a teacher in their use of…