A unified theory of planning and debugging is explored by designing a problem solving program called PATN. PATN uses an augmented transition network (ATN) to represent a broad range of planning techniques, including identification, decomposition, and reformulation. (The ATN is a simple yet powerful formalism which has been effectively utilized in…

In this narrative portion of a slide presentation, the Rural Network of the Teachers' Centers Exchange is introduced and described. The Network was begun in 1977 and serves to encourage and facilitate interaction among member teacher centers through conferences and workparties, and by correspondence and visits. Through the Network, the centers…

The study reported here extends the investigation begun by Piaget of content effects to laboratory and naturalistic tasks. If the accuracy and completeness of the subjects' expected variables is related to content, then performance on laboratory and naturalistic tasks should differ systematically. The subjects' expected variables were measured by…

Using simulated reference questions and a search exercise in a standardized list of subject headings, this test assesses several major skills of reference librarians: question analysis, selection of appropriate source, actual use of the source, and selection of appropriate subject terms. It also provides a means of determining the attitudes of…

Neither the scientific nor the humanistic research paradigm is completely appropriate for the education field. Human service situations yield research results that are tentative descriptions or generalizations due to continuous change. An action research paradigm should reflect the ongoing need of the subjects to act without waiting for research…

The purposes of this study were: (1) to test several social decision schemes to obtain plausible explanations of different group processes in solving different disjunctive tasks; and (2) to study both dyads and tetrads solving a eureka and a non-eureka disjunctive task. Social decision schemes theory assumes that a group decision is a joint…

Since too many technical students do not get enough experience in problem definition, technical writing teachers can improve the training they provide by introducing their students to principles of tagmemic rhetoric, a problem-solving rhetoric that emphasizes the early stages of the inquiry process. According to tagmemic rhetoric, an adequate…

Detailed is a strategy for teaching the transformation of word problems into equations, equation systems, or inequalities. Classroom experiments using the method are described and are favorable. The underlying philosophy of the method is that the transformation will be accomplished by means of comprehension at first, but in the second stage the…

The focus of this study was on the processes students used in making mathematical conjectures for five divergent problem situations. The relationship of the processes to creativity factors across the problems was also examined. The results of various cluster analyses and correlational measures indicated that students use different sequences of…

Each interpretation of staff development is derived from a particular theory of organizations and a particular understanding of educational and personal psychology. This paper outlines several organizational theories on which staff development might be based. Staff development is considered as being concerned with all those needs of the individual…

This experiment investigates the relation of a free play experience to subsequent performance on problem solving tasks among children aged 4 to 10. Ninety children were divided into 3 age groups and were assigned in pairs of free play and non-play treatment conditions. Children were paired by block design test scores to control for perceptual…

This is one of a series that is a collection of translations from the extensive Soviet literature of the past 25 years on research in the psychology of mathematics instruction. It also includes works on methods of teaching mathematics directly influenced by the psychological research. Selected papers and books considered to be of value to the…

This study investigated the effect of initial instruction on the processes children use to solve basic addition and subtraction verbal problems. Prior to instruction and following a 2-month introductory unit on addition and subtraction, 43 first-grade children were individually tested on verbal problems representing different models of addition…

Human information processing is analyzed in terms of eight fundamental concepts: procedures, operations on procedures, frames, planning language or meta-language, heuristics, knowledge in other forms, critics, and pointers. Examples of this processing are given. (MK)

The relationship between the content and the context of curriculum was explored by applying basic concepts and approaches from the fields of policy analysis and organization theory. A chronology of the policy formation stage in which the University of Iowa developed its recommendations for curriculum revision is presented. The format indicates…