To improve problem-solving skills of learning-disabled students, five attributes of problem solution are outlined: the solution's permanence, starting time, length of time required, ease of implementation, and creation of additional problems. Based on these attributes, a structured method for rating and choosing solutions to personal or social…

Documents the different problem-solving styles and approaches of two first-grade children having strong mathematical abilities. One child demonstrated an extrinsic, algorithmic style of problem-solving, while the other used an intrinsic, individual-in-control style. (NH)

Reported the development and validation of an integrated model of performance on chemical concept-volumetric analysis. Model was tested on 265 chemistry students in eight schools.Results indicated that for subjects using algorithms without understanding, performance on volumetric analysis problems was not influenced by proportional reasoning…

What are often missing for children in classroom instruction are experiences with numbers that stretch beyond computation skills and word problems. This lesson models such an experience for third graders. Students use small boxes of raisins in several problem-solving activities. Children apply whole number operations, estimate, consider…

Mathematics is considered a performing art. Examples illustrating this view are presented. Activities discussed are from the Madison Project materials and the mathematics program at University High School in Urbana, Illinois. Activities stress inventing strategies for attacking problems for elementary and secondary school mathematics. (RH)

Data were collected in the problem representations and solution strategies of 30 first graders who were given a series of simple addition and subtraction word problems. The children were interviewed three times during the school year. The influence of problem structure on children's solution strategies appears more extensive and decisive than that…

Examples are given of transcripts made from tape recordings of a teacher working with groups of 10-year-old children using calculators. Attention is focussed on the teacher's role in the interactions which take place. Suggestions are offered for the possibility of a structure of strategies available to a teacher. (Author/RH)

Individuals who are capable of perceiving others in complex and divergent ways may be able to communicate more effectively. This proposition represents a link between several fields of inquiry that researchers rarely interrelate: higher level thinking skills, social cognition, social competency, and communications. (Author/MLW)

Summarizes the similarities between classification systems for catalog selection and information retrieval systems, and discusses system characteristics that allow the use of measures such as recall and precision in system evaluation. (27 references) (Author/CLB)

Examines the dynamics involved when preschoolers aged five years attempt to build replicas of Lego models, either by working alone or with another. Results show that collaboration was more conducive to learning than was independent work and that children were able to generalize their skills. (Author/RWB)

A healthy school climate occurs when school personnel work together to create an environment that is productive, nurturing, positive, and supportive. Such an environment promotes social networking, cooperative behavior, and creative and self-enhancing independence within a framework of personal responsibility and accountability. (MT)

The differences between school learning and other learning are discussed. To make these types of learning more similar, schools must develop students' skills slowly and must stress practical problem solving. Education then will be fulfilling its cultural function of promoting reason and analysis based on shared knowledge. (VM)

Field-tested public/private collaborative model geropsychiatric nursing home. Found planning and implementation to be difficult due to interdepartmental strain within public sector and changes in ownership and administrative policy within private sector. Considers ways to reduce barriers. (Author/NB)

Presents a study which examined elementary science textbooks (grades four and six), noting (1) text organization and structure; and (2) the degree of problem solving required in chapter activities (according to Bloom's taxonomy). Reports a need for a more varied use of text structures and the inclusion of activities that utilize higher-level…

Direct instruction of brainstorming, product-improvement techniques, and verbal problem solving to 19 third graders for 30 minutes per week significantly improved their performance on the flexibility and originality components of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. No significant change occurred on the fluency component, perhaps a result of…